The Prosecutors: Real Crime and Punishment, TV review: Heavy caseloads and complex decisions

The BBC4 show gave an unprecedented glimpse inside the workings of the justice system

Claire Lindley, chief crown prosecutor of Mersey-Cheshire (BBC)

The staff at the Crown Prosecution Service were the subject of the new BBC4 documentary The Prosecutors: Real Crime and Punishment.

This was an unprecedented glimpse inside the workings of the justice system and offered real insight into the heavy caseloads, the complex decisions behind charges, and the frustrations at getting all the required evidence together – never mind securing a conviction. This was really laid bare when Claire Lindley, chief crown prosecutor of Mersey-Cheshire, heard the outcome of a trial involving a gang of ATM robbers: two guilty verdicts, three guilty pleas and one acquittal. "We've got an acquittal," she murmured. For a brief moment you saw a flash of something real – anger, disappointment maybe – before she smiled, clasped her perfectly manicured fingernails together and laughed. "So be it, move on."

The true star of this show though was grieving mother Nicky Clifford whose 11-year-old son Flynn Morrissey had been killed in a car crash.

Despite waiting 16 months to have her day in court and having to give evidence as a witness while the driver denied a charge of causing death by careless driving, Nicky was able to forgive the man found to be responsible for her son's death.

"I don't want this to ruin his life," she said. "Flynn's presence in this world should not ruin anybody's life."

A fitting, and dignified, tribute indeed.