BBC TO SHOW HEROIN GIRL INJECTING IN NECK

A teenage girl will be shown injecting heroin into veins in her neck and arm
in a controversial BBC film about the lives of drug addicts.

The sequence is part of Little Angels, a 90-minute programme combining drama
and documentary on BBC2 on Aug 13.

It shows Michelle Pickthall, an 18-year-old heroin addict from
Middlesbrough, preparing a syringe before tilting her head back and wincing
as she presses the needle into her flesh.

Although the programme - to be shown just after the 9pm watershed - will not
represent the first time that heroin injection has been shown on British
television, it is expected to be the most graphic and harrowing portrayal of
the act ever screened.

The BBC claims that the film, a combination of fly-on-the-wall documentary
techniques and drama, is a shocking portrayal of the reality of addiction
that does not glamorise heroin.

Paul McGuigan, the director, said the film showed the grim reality of
addiction. The decision to include the drug-taking scene had not been taken
lightly. "It was something that shocked me when it happened but the cameras
were rolling so we decided to include it. I am not a policeman, I am a
documentary maker.

"We discussed it extensively with Michelle and her grandparents and among
ourselves at the BBC. Michelle was positive that she wanted it shown.

"We decided to include it because it was the reality. It made clear the
impact of heroin addiction on someone who started out with such high hopes
and who demonstrates great qualities."

Rather than using actors, the film features genuine addicts - Miss Pickthall
and 21-year-old Shaun Mann - re-enacting episodes of their lives for the
cameras. Neither was paid for taking part in the programme.

The producers' original aim had been to show recovering addicts rebuilding
their lives after being released from prison. However, when Miss Pickthall
had reverted to drug taking, Mr McGuigan decided to continue documenting her
decline.

At one point in the film, Miss Pickthall says: "Heroin made me feel warm,
relaxed, snuggled up in 100 comfort blankets. It made me forget everything.

"Heroin never knows when to stop. It will take you to the depths and then go
deeper until even death is a risk worth taking.

"And all for those moments, those rare beautiful moments, when all the pain
and the ghosts disappear. It will strip away your emotions, including fear."

The way that the film merges fiction and reality, using improvised
reconstructions alongside genuine episodes of drug taking, is bound to raise
ethical questions about the role of the documentary makers.

Drug campaigners have given the film a mixed reception. Rosie Brocklehurst,
of the treatment charity Addaction, said: "One of the most important things
that we do is to try to show addicts that it is possible to give up.

"It is not our view that shock tactics have no effect but we do believe it
is only part of the picture."

A spokesman for Turning Point, a charity that works with drug and alcohol
addicts, welcomed the film. He said: "We prefer this approach to the 'Just
say no' one because it shows drug users as people."