Human trafficking is the subject of Stolen, a one-off drama due to be shown on BBC One on Sunday 3 July 2011. The 90 minute film follows the story of Detective Inspector Anthony Carter (played by Damian Lewis) and three children. He works in the Human Trafficking Unit, dealing with exploited children being smuggled into the UK. These children are brought to the UK for a better life but end up working illegally outside the system
Carter has a wall of snapshots in his office of unknown children who have been smuggled into the UK to be enslaved and exploited: Rosemary (played by Gloria Oyewumi) 11, is a terrorised young girl from West Africa, who thought she was coming to England to be educated. She is sold as a house servant. Kim Pak (played by Huy Pham), 15, is a gardener in a Vietnamese cannabis house, imprisoned in a semi in suburbia. Georgie (played by Innokentijs Vitkevies), 14, from the Ukraine, is put to work making sandwiches.
Stolen also features Vicky McClure as DC Manda Healy and Wunmi Mosaku as Sonia Carey.
The Actors in Stolen
English actor Damian Lewis starred as Charlie Crew in the American TV show Life from 2007 to 2009 but his career dates back to the 1990s with a number of one-off roles before he got his first recurring role as Major Richard Winters in the mini-series Band of Brothers in 2001. He played Jeffrey Archer in the TV movie Jeffrey Archer: The Truth and Soames Forsyte in The Forsyte Saga.
Nottingham born Vicky McClure is best known for playing Lol in This is England and This is England ’86. She was also Stacy Nicholls in Five Daughters.
Wunmi Mosaku’s first role was as Helen in the 1986 production The Women of Troy but is better known for playing Joy on the TV show Moses Jones and Stacey Cox in Father & Son. More recently, she was Charlie Gibbs in Silent Witness, Malia in I am Slave, Joy in 32 Brinkburn Street and DC Holly Lawson in Vera.
The Team Behind Stolen
Stolen was written by Stephen Butchard, directed by Justin Chadwick and produced by Open Door Productions. Filmed in Manchester, it was commissioned by Ben Stephenson, controller of BBC Drama. The executive producer for the BBC was Polly Hill and the executive producers for Open Door Productions were Roxy Spencer and Sita Williams. The producer was Rebecca Hodgson.
"We have wanted to make this film for a very long time, and I'm delighted that the BBC has commissioned it – to bring this subject to a wider audience," said Williams in a BBC press release.
Hill added: It's a thriller with an important story to tell and this combination makes for a very exciting drama, and one which we are thrilled has attracted Justin Chadwick back to television."
Steve Rogerson - Steve Rogerson is a UK-based writer specialising in television, technology, sports and beer.
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