Jeff Pope

The factual drama focuses on the families of the victims of serial killer and rapist Stephen Port (Stephen Merchant), and their fight to find the truth about what happened to Anthony Walgate, Gabriel Kovari, Daniel Whitworth and Jack Taylor.

Now a widely criticised police investigation, the series will shed new light on the case and tell the story from the perspective of the victims’ families including Anthony Walgate’s mother Sarah Sak (Sheridan Smith) and Jack Taylor’s sister Donna Taylor (Jaime Winstone).

The drama about the murder of 11 year-old Rhys Jones in Liverpool in 2007 was named the region’s Best Drama, Jeff Pope was awarded the Best Script Writer award and Sinead Keenan won the prize for Best Performance in a drama.

More than 450 industry professionals and guests attended the awards ceremony, which was held at the Hilton Deansgate in Manchester and hosted by Robert Rinder from ITV court show, Judge Rinder.

Hatton Garden will depict the jewellery and cash burglary which took place in the heart of London’s diamond district, which was carried out by an elderly gang of career criminals across the Easter Bank Holiday weekend in April 2015.

The drama tells the inside story of how the men pulled off the heist which was considered in a league of its own in terms of scale and ambition.

The level of planning, preparation and organisation that was required to pull off the crime to get into the vault of the Hatton Garden Safety Deposit Company was one like no other. 

Interviewed by journalist Mark Lawson, Pope discussed his career, which, as a writer and producer, has seen him win BAFTAs for See No Evil: The Moors Murderers and the film, Philomena. His credits also include Appropriate Adult about serial killers Fred and Rose West. 

Pope’s latest project is the heart-rending Little Boy Blue, which tells the story of the murder of 11-year-old Rhys Jones, an innocent victim of gang conflict in Liverpool.

Monday: Little Boy Blue

ITV, 9pm