The BBC Press Office announced on 29 August 2009 that it had commissioned a three-part drama which would portray the events surrounding the 2006 Ipswich murders, and that it would be written by Stephen Butchard, whose credits included the 2008 mini-series House of Saddam.
"[5] A television review in The Guardian said of the drama; "The three-part serial about the 2006 Ipswich killings was uncomfortable, emotional – and free of cop-show cliche", and that "Five Daughters was a masterclass in how to dramatise a recent news event.
Typical of the comments comes from the Guardian, which said; "This haunting fact – that the women whose stories were now being told, for all the wrong reasons, would not be saved by a sudden police intervention – lay right at the heart of Five Daughters.
There's an interesting contrast to be made between Five Days, the recent BBC drama broadcast in a strip of hour-long episodes that focused on police, and Five Daughters, where the detectives plodded and obeyed procedure and got lucky with some DNA.
"[6] Andrea Mullaney, meanwhile, said "It's not just an interesting twist, of course" [...] "But it's also about redressing the wrong done to these victims, whose deaths meant that their lives were boiled down to the aspect they had in common, and which put them at risk: they worked as prostitutes and were, or had been, drug users.