I remember in 1982 watching the BBC documentary series simply entitled Police. Produced by the respected film-maker Roger Graef, it followed the work of Thames Valley Police (TVP) over a nine-month period and included an infamous episode called A Complaint of Rape.

In this we saw a woman reporting a rape and being interviewed by three male detectives who, like extras in the ITV cop drama The Sweeney were disbelieving, hostile, insensitive and intrusive in their questioning and remarks. It remains painful to watch. Even so, the detectives involved, and TVP as an organisation happily gave their permission for the episode to be screened.

As Graef would later comment, “the police simply didn’t get it”. There was uproar and outrage almost as soon as the audience viewed the programme. Questions were even asked about what had happened in the station in the House of Commons. One commentator later described it as “the most savage encounter between police and public ever recorded on television”.

I couldn’t help but reflect on that series – a “fly-on-the-wall”, observational-documentary, or “obs-doc” about the work of the police, when watching ITV’s four-part drama documentary called Believe Me. This gripping and important drama follows the story of the women who were drugged, sexually assaulted, or raped by John Warboys, now known as John Radford, but perhaps better known as “the Black Cab........

© Herald Scotland