Liar, Liar...

The new ITV drama serial 'Liar' recently reached its conclusion. It was billed as a 'did he or didn't he?' story of a hospital surgeon, Andrew, (played by Ioan Grifford), who is accused of drugging and raping Laura, (played by Joanne Froggatt), after an ostensibly romantic meal in a seaside restaurant. To add to the drama, Laura happens to be Andrew's son's English teacher, which makes it even more reckless of him to choose her on whom to carry out such a vicious crime.

Did it happen? Will she be believed?

From the outset I knew how this drama would unfold: to keep the tension, the writer thought he'd initially throw into the mix the possibility she could be making up her accusations. Sure enough, early on in the investigation, Andrew receives communication from a person whom Laura had accused of a similar offence many years earlier. That charge was dropped. But, inevitably, it wasn't long before the pendulum swung back Laura's way and it came as absolutely no surprise to me that she was revealed to be telling the truth after all. He was predictably declared to be a conniving, mendacious serial rapist.

Let's be clear about this - there's not a cat-in-hell's chance of a TV drama being commissioned here in the UK in the modern age, in which the accuser is revealed to be a lying fantasist. Because, as we are repeatedly reminded, it is such a rarity that people make a false allegation of having been sexually abused. We are pointed to the statistics which support this - I wrote in a previous blog about BBC correspondent Daniel Sandford recently claiming on the 6 o'clock News that there are 160 times more prosecutions for rape than for making false claims. He and the statisticians simply ignore the fact the CPS and police are not the slightest bit interested in pursuing malicious lies, even when those lies are obvious.

As for 'Liar', can you imagine the reaction of the militant lobbyists/sexual assault activists/lynch-mob Twitterati zealots/the self-appointed injustice campaigners if Andrew had been innocent all along and Laura a representation of the myriad opportunists, fantasists, greedy inadequates and downright liars who inhabit the UK?

The truth is malicious, unfounded allegations of sexual assault are an ever-increasing problem in our society and I think our TV programme commissioners have a duty to reflect this on our screens. However, I'm not holding my breath.