‘Fantastic’ end of era

IT’S the end of an era – Waking the Dead is about to be consigned to the great TV archive in the sky. The final part of the final two-parter screens tonight.

“The final scene under Waterloo Bridge was fantastic,” says Sue Johnston, who’s played psychologist Grace Foley since day one. “It is such a great episode, and I love the shots of Boyd walking through London, walking to meet us. A great performance from Trevor (Eve); from everyone in fact.

“I shall miss working with them all, I shall miss Tara (FitzGerald). I think Tara is fantastic and I loved doing scenes in the lab with her.

“The crew were fantastic as well, and they have been more of less the same crew since we started.”

The show has been going since 2000, with the dynamic between the characters proving one of its strong points.

“That’s what we worked hard to develop, because actually all you can give the audience is what they’re seeing – because the characters don’t go home. You never see a life that people could relate to, they had to relate to us relating to the people we work with,” says Johnston.

“If the team cares about the victims, then the audience does, because we have very clever actors who bring the audience in. It can be difficult, sometimes, when the people that you need to care about are dead in the present day, and so you need the squad to bring the audience in and make the audience care, and that’s something that happens very successfully on the show.”

Expect more of the same in this lastever episode.

Boyd learned in the opening part that his days as part of the team were numbered.

As a result, he chose to re-investigate his first case – the disappearance of 16 homeless teenage boys between 1979 and 1982.

So far, Boyd and his posse have uncovered an underground lair where the boys were kept, and a chilling link to Tony Nicholson, who is now assistant chief commissioner.

But there’s worse to come, when the long-dormant killer strikes again, leaving a body in Boyd’s house. Is somebody attempting to frame him?

WHEN some people think about adoption, they imagine bringing home a newborn baby whom they can lavish with love and raise as their own. But the reality is that many of the children in most desperate need of a home are older, with a history of neglect that can make settling into a new family a real challenge.

A Home for Maisie examines the case of Maisie, a seven-year-old who, like many youngsters who have been taken into care, has experienced abuse. The outcome, understandably, is she is feeling confused and angry.

However, now it looks like Maisie’s luck may have finally changed as she meets Jim and Sue, a couple who have already adopted eight troubled children.

With the help of Family Futures, a unique adoption support agency that specialises in treating the most damaged youngsters, they’re hopeful some of the little girl’s most traumatic early memories can be confronted, encouraging her to accept them as her parents.

ONCE upon a time – we’re talking mid-20th Century – council housing was a haven for primarily working class people. And now? Well it’s not clear to tell if there will be a happy ever after.

In The Great Estate: The Rise And Fall Of The Council House, journalist and author Michael Collins examines the history of council housing, one of Britain’s greatest social revolutions, and compares it to where we are today.

During its peak in the Seventies, the initiative provided homes for more than a third of the British population, but it’s virtually ended for now, 80 years after first being introduced.

Collins visits Britain’s first council estate in London, the high-rise estate in Sheffield that’s now billed as the largest listed building in the world, as well as an estate on the banks of the Thames known as the “town of the 21st Century”.