How this detective brought racist murderers to justice with ‘Conviction’
nypost.comThe racially motivated 1993 murder of 19-year-old Stephen Lawrence in southeast London made headlines — but for all the wrong reasons.It took nearly 20 years for two of his killers to be brought to justice against the backdrop of a massive coverup by the Metropolitan Police.
That long narrative road is the crux of “Conviction: The Case of Stephen Lawrence,” a three-part series on Acorn TV starring Steve Coogan as dogged DCI Clive Driscoll, who reopened the case and spent six years getting to the truth of what really happened that night.“Conviction” aired last August on ITV in the UK under the title “Stephen.” It’s not the first time that ITV dramatized the case; a 1997 movie, “The Murder of Stephen Lawrence,” starred Marianne Jeanne-Baptiste and Hugh Quarshie as Steven’s parents, Doreen and Neville Lawrence.Quarshie reprises his role in “Conviction,” with Sharlene Whyte as Doreen.
It’s based on Driscoll’s 2015 book, “In Pursuit of the Truth,” so he and his investigative team take front-and-center — but Doreen and Neville are by no means ignored and form the narrative’s true moral center.
The series begins in 2006. Driscoll is walking through a Metropolitan Police building that’s been shut down when he stumbles across a room filled wall-to-wall with boxes marked “Operation Fishpool” — the code name for the Stephen Lawrence murder 13 years before.
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