Four Lives


Four Lives, originally and internationally titled The Barking Murders, is a British three-part television drama, first aired from 3 to 5 January 2022 on BBC One. It follows the true story of the families of four young gay men who in 2014 and 2015 were murdered by Stephen Port. Facing failings by the Metropolitan Police, they fought for justice for their loved ones. Stephen Merchant plays serial killer Port with Sheridan Smith as Sarah Sak, the mother of Anthony Walgate, Port's first victim.

Production

First announced in early 2020, production on the show was halted due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The series was delayed twice after its announcement. On 13 December 2021 the official trailer was released with stills from the show being released on social media. During promotion for the series, Sheridan Smith said: "Every night I was going home in bits, crying – you can't help but take it home I really beat myself up with it because I want to do a good job for them."

Cast

Release

Four Lives first aired from 3 to 5 January 2022 on BBC One.
It aired on SBS Television in Australia over three weeks from 14 April 2022.
Four Lives is distributed internationally by BritBox as The Barking Murders.

Reception

Ed Cumming of The Independent rated the series with four stars out of five, writing "In less sensitive hands, a case like this could lend itself to prurience or melodrama, but Neil Mackay's script and David Blair's direction deftly avoid these traps". In The Guardian, Lucy Mangan gave a three-star rating, saying "The drama does a good job of making the victims... live again" but also noted "Beyond that and despite the usual great work of Sheridan Smith and others, the drama never catches fire". Hugo Rifkind of The Times wrote, "Superficially, the most interesting thing about Four Lives was the casting of the great Stephen Merchant as Port. There's something intrinsically chilling about a comedian as a killer, but Merchant was more blank than sinister. This didn't particularly matter because although Port inevitably sat at the heart of Four Lives, this was more a story about police incompetence".