Stratford production company FirstLookTV tell true crime stories that rival Shakespeare for tragic outcomes, including Netflix hit My Lover My Killer
THE story of the murder of Tai O’Donnell is a heartbreaking tragedy.
The teenager with the beautiful green eyes is on a large screen in the offices of FirstLookTV at the production company’s base in Stratford town centre when Herald Arts visits.
There’s footage of Tai joking with friends, a keen beatboxer he’d auditioned for Britain’s Got Talent… but no-one knows where his talent would have taken him, because his life was brutally ended by his ex-girlfriend Kamila Ahmad, 24, who fatally stabbed him on 3rd March 2021 at his Croydon flat and left him to bleed to death.
Tai’s story is included as part of the Netflix series My Lover My Killer; in its third series it is currently trending on the streaming platform.
“Whenever I see home videos taken by the victims, it breaks my heart,” says Will Hanrahan, co-founder and CEO of FirstLookTV as he looks at Tai on screen.
“We try and look at the person,” explains Will as an interview with Tai’s heartbroken mum Stacey comes into view. “His story struck a chord – this lovely young lad. Not a typical victim of domestic abuse – only one in eight are attacks on men.
”He continues: “My Lover My Killer is a response to the fact that 50 per cent of women who are killed are killed by the person they sleep with. Which is a shocking statistic.
“At FirstLookTV, we firmly believe there should be social purpose in what we do. So when I heard that statistic – that every other woman killed is killed by the man she sleeps with – we tried to sell a series to Channel 4, which was called Meet, Marry, Murder. They wouldn’t touch it because they didn’t like domestic violence.
“I countered that of all the channels, you should be doing this. We made it anyway and it was a huge global success, and still is.
”Will and the team went on to devise follow-up My Lover My Killer.
“It’s the same thing, but this time they don’t have to be married,” observes Will.
Initially it was snapped up by Channel 5, before Netflix picked it up – again becoming a mega hit, and briefly reached the top of the most-watched charts in Europe during Christmas 2023.
Incredibly FirstLookTV crime dramas are watched in just about every country in the world – except China and Russia.
So how did Shakespeare’s town become home to global pioneers of true crime documentaries?
“We like the incongruity of it, the fact that we’re in Stratford, near the Almshouses and around the corner from the RSC, and here we are telling stories that are seen in 80 territories around the world,” says Will.
“Our engine room is all here in the heart of Stratford.”
Observant readers of a certain generation will probably recognise Will – and not just because he’s very kindly hosted the Herald Hustings ahead of the General Election at KES – but from his time as a well-known face on the telly.
Explaining FirstLook’s origin story, the one-time print journalist from Liverpool explains: “I presented for years on the BBC. My 40th birthday present to myself was to stop presenting, and oddly enough it was because of something that happened in Woolworths in Stratford.
“I am a journalist, and so consequently I presented to get my story told, rather than to be famous. I wasn’t really comfortable in that kind of front-of-camera role.”
The dad-of-four continues: “Presenting Watchdog and Pebble Mill, I was becoming quite well-known. “Anyway I went to Woolies with the kids this one time so they could spend their Christmas vouchers from my mum.
“Basically my son and daughter were concerned to see lots of women gawping at me. I wanted the ground beneath me to open up… I’m sure the women were lovely and just wanted to say hello, but I didn’t want to not be able to go out with the kids without being gawped at.”
With that Will went and shared the news with his wife Gill Carter that he was quitting presenting “as a gift to myself on my 40th”.
That was in 1999, and luckily the couple’s connections saw them get their own production company up and running.
“We started making programmes for the BBC in Pebble Mill, but also for Television Centre in London, and ITV.
“And we made a big entertainment series, presented by Carol Vorderman, called Stars in Their Lives, which featured Paul McCartney, Barry White, Cilla Black, Bob Monkhouse, and quite a few other household names – that kept us alive for four years.”
Although Will says in terms of finance and location, Stratford might not be the best base for a TV production company, one of the reason they stayed was because the couple’s four children were at schools locally, including KES, Shottery and Warwick.
“It’s actually detrimental to us being here – we can’t get any grants like we would if we were West Midlands based or rates concession if we were in Coventry, but we loved it – even though the wifi is rubbish!
“So we carried on making the programmes all from here and became true crime specialists in 2015.
“That came from me doing the odd Panorama documentary, so I was trusted as a journalist. True crime kind of sat nicely in what we did.
“Gill ran the money, and I ran the creative. Now there’s about 70-odd people in the team, with some in Birmingham, America and London.
“Gill’s stepped back from the business, and we’ve now got a new management team made up of Rachel Bowering, who was 30 years in charge of BBC Birmingham. She now runs our content. Lucy Middelboe took over finance, and Andie Clare runs the production – it’s an all-female management team.”
Funnily enough, it’s also women that make up the biggest audiences for My Lover My Killer and similar programmes – around 75 per cent.
Will thinks there are a number of reasons for this.
“It exposes the dangers of not recognising how domestic abuse can escalate,” he says. “There is resolution and the killer is always caught. Which we need to know, because we need to see the justice system does actually work.
“Women can see themselves in the stories – they are about somebody like you. This could be you, a neighbour, your child, work colleague, etc. These are stories that resonate, that end in the bad guy being caught.”
FirstLook do make similar programmes that might attract more male viewers, including an upcoming one on historical royal murders, and another called A Killer’s Mistake.
“A Killer’s Mistake definitely appeals to over 50-year-old blokes, who are fascinated by the science. How has that detection been arrived at? I’m not saying women aren’t interested in it, but they’d be much more interested in relationships. That’s a big ingredient for us.”
The team also has a typical female viewer in mind when they make the shows.
“Generally we call her Sarah – will she watch it? Will Sarah approve of that shot? Is that not too gratuitous for her?
“Sarah is 38 and has three kids. And all of my criteria is anxiously trying to figure out will Sarah watch it.”
Fascinatingly, Will explains that there are eight recognised steps to domestic murder, based on research from 2018 by Dr Monckton Smith.
“It starts with criticism, coercive control then a shove and by step five it’s got violent. If a partner threatens to leave, that’s often a catalyst to murder.
“Basically every single domestic murder hits these eight steps,” adds Will grimly.
He continues: “So what we do is with our series we bang people on the head with those eight steps.
“If you’ve seen that escalation of coercive control, and it ends with you saying I’m going to leave, you’re in grave danger. And so we point that out.
“All of that said, it’s still got to be watchable, dramatic in its poise, it’s got to have those same beats that fictional drama has.”
Will adds: “We are storytellers, and it’s a coincidence that our set of talents happen to fit into true crime.”
