COMMON

A drama feature from multi-award winning writer Jimmy McGovern (Accused, The Street, Cracker). Common is the dramatic story of two mothers whose lives become intertwined through the loss of their sons. When seventeen-year-old Johnjo O’Shea gives his friends a lift to the local pizza parlour, the last thing he expects is to find himself charged with murder.

Seventeen-year-old Johnjo O’Shea gives his cousin and two mates a lift to the pizza parlour in his brother Patrick’s car. What Johnjo doesn’t realise is that his friends intend to ‘have a word’ with a local loudmouth who needs to be put in his place. As Johnjo waits in the car, one of the boys, Kieran, takes offence at Thomas, an innocent bystander, and fatally stabs him.

Thomas, the eldest child of Margaret and Tommy, had become estranged from his father after the bitter divorce of his parents. Devastated and struggling to make ends meet on her own, Margaret determines to give her son the burial he deserves.

When Johnjo’s parents Coleen and Pete find out about the incident, they’re horrified and concerned for their naive son. While they argue about what to tell the police, Johnjo makes his own way to the police station. However, when Johnjo lays the blame squarely with Kieran, career copper DI Hastings decides that under the UK joint enterprise law, everyone involved can and should be tried for murder, which includes Johnjo.

When Margaret and Coleen come face to face in the courtroom, they find it difficult to feel empathy for each other’s plight. And in the battle for justice, Johnjo and his family find that not being present at the murder scene is no defence, and Johnjo is faced with a stark choice.