Honour S1

Banaz Mahmod vanished in London in mid-January 2006. Her body and the secret behind her death were revealed at the end of the month – and her father, uncle and three cousins are all still in prison for murdering her.

This two-part drama isn’t easy watching. It follows the police investigation when the Iraqi-born Banaz was reported missing by her boyfriend, who wasn’t aware that she was being forced into an arranged marriage that she was against.

Keeley Hawes takes centre stage as hard-nosed DCI Caroline Goode and it’s her job to find Banaz and the tension onscreen is so thick you can cut it with your TV remote. It’s dark and gritty, but it’s realistic – the actual investigators on the case were consulted and helped the writers get the storylines accurate.

But it’s also a tragic tale of the real-life world we live in, says Chitra Ramaswamy:

“This is no white-saviour narrative. The central theme of this taut and nuanced two-parter is the police force’s abject failure to protect a terrified British citizen who sought their help on five separate occasions. Yes, five. Before she was raped, tortured and murdered by her family.”