Beaten (BBC1): A DRAMA about domestic violence sits uneasily on the daytime TV agenda among the more light-hearted items about property makeovers and holiday homes abroad.

Sandwiched between Aussie soap Neighbours and CBBC, Beaten was always going to stick out like a sore thumb. Unlike an injury to a digit, Alison Hume's one-off play was welcome - even if we have been seeing an awful lot of its star, Robson Green, in recent weeks.

Already, with the revival of one-off dramas in recent Afternoon Play seasons, the BBC has given viewers something slightly more substantial for the daylight hours.

Beaten was a brave commission and one that showed a powerful subject can be dealt with responsibly despite the restrictions of operating before the watershed. There's only so much sex and violence you can depict at two in the afternoon.

It was all the better for being restrained in how much was actually shown. We heard the shouting, the smashed glass and saw the result. The fallout was at the heart of this piece - the disintegration of a marriage and effect on a child.

Green starred as Michael, an ex-boxer and docker whose wife Stephanie (Saira Todd) was the main breadwinner in the family, which also included nine-year-old son Jamie (Corey J Smith).

She faced making an important presentation at work nursing a black eye, the result of a fight with Michael the night before. His response was to take Jamie and hide out at his mother's house.

What appeared on the surface as a straightforward case of wife-beating, an isolated one but an horrific attack all the same, turned out to be something much more complicated.

Through a series of flashbacks, we witnessed events leading up to the violent row, with a few scenes going even further back to Michael's childhood when he was scarred by seeing something he shouldn't.

The script explored his feelings of inadequacy at his wife earning all the money and making all the decisions, as well as Stephanie's edginess resulting from trying to do a high profile job with an unsympathetic boss and have a family life. And, of course, there was their son's confusion and uncertainty about what was happening between his parents.

There was no attempt to find easy answers to the very difficult questions posed by the situation and the ending was a powerful one.

With good performances from Green (whose production company Coastal made the drama for the BBC), Todd and Smith, Beaten was a welcome adult addition to the daytime schedules.

Published: 15/03/2005