# Three Girls (2017)

> Three girls groomed and trafficked in Rochdale struggle to be believed by the authorities who were meant to protect them.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/62622

## Facts

- Seasons: 1
- Episodes: 3
- Episode runtime: 60 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: drama, crime
- Created by: Philippa Lowthorpe
- Network: BBC One
- Cast: Maxine Peake, Lesley Sharp, Lisa Riley, Ace Bhatti, Paul Kaye, Jill Halfpenny, Ria Zmitrowicz, Molly Windsor
- TMDB rating: 8.1/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6835252/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: measured
- Intensity: strong
- Complexity: accessible
- Violence: moderate
- Tone: harrowing, sober, angry, determined, restrained

## What critics say

Audiences broadly regard the drama as a powerful, harrowing true-story account that gives voice to the victims and exposes institutional failure.

## Synopsis

Three Girls (2017) is a British BBC One limited series created by Philippa Lowthorpe, a three-episode dramatization of real events. Maxine Peake plays Sara Rowbotham, a social worker who keeps pushing against indifference, alongside Lesley Sharp as DC Margaret Oliver, a police officer caught between procedure and the girls' pleas, and Lisa Riley as Lorna Bowen, a mother whose daughter is among the victims. Ace Bhatti appears as Nazir Afzal, the prosecutor who later takes up the case. The engine of the drama is the slow, frustrating struggle to get frightened teenagers heard by agencies more concerned with paperwork and reputation than with the abuse unfolding in front of them. Each episode moves through interviews, case files, courtroom preparation and the girls' fragile trust, building a picture of a system that failed them for years. Told with restraint and a documentary-like sobriety, the series is harrowing and angry but also quietly determined, a true crime drama that refuses sensationalism. Fans of Unbelievable and Happy Valley will find resonance in its grounded, socially charged portrait of institutional failure and survival.

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