TEENAGE GIRL TO INJECT HEROIN IN BBC FILM

A teenage girl will be shown injecting heroin into her neck and arm in one
of the most harrowing and contentious broadcasts ever shown on British
television.

Seated on a bed in a dingy room, Michelle Pickthall, 18, is seen breaking
the end off a cigarette, dropping it into a bubbling spoon and watching as
brown liquid surges into a syringe. Tilting back her head, she winces as
the needle enters her neck, before slowly relaxing with a bittersweet sigh.

Her actions form the climax of a groundbreaking docu-drama about heroin
abuse that combines conventional fly-on-the-wall footage with improvised
reconstructions played out by Michelle, fellow addict Shaun Mann, 21, and
other residents of their Middlesbrough neighbourhood.

The powerful 90-minute film, Little Angels, will be broadcast on BBC2 on 13
August, on the cusp of the 9pm television watershed.

Drug campaigners have given it a tentative welcome, expressing hopes that
it may explode some of the myths surrounding addiction. However, it is
bound to alarm many viewers and provoke debate about whether it is ethical
for film-makers to record potentially life-threatening behaviour without
intervening to try to prevent it.

Director Paul McGuigan admits to having wrestled with this question before
deciding to let events take their course in the knowledge that they would
still have happened "in another room" had he turned away his cameras.

He had hoped to complete the film, which opens with Michelle and Shaun
struggling to stay "off the gear" after being released from prison, without
having to witness anyone "shooting-up".

"I knew from day one what would happen, but I really hoped it wouldn't," he
said, adding that he came to feel like a "protective parent" towards
Michelle and Shaun, particularly when they began to lie to him about their
slide back into addiction. This impulse led to his one intervention,
preventing Michelle injecting herself in the neck again, moments after her
first hit.

Mr McGuigan said, while he did not want to "preach" at his subjects, he
felt like stepping in to stop them harming themselves "all the time".

While the real-life injection scene is certain to be its major
talking-point, the film makes disturbing, if frequently moving, viewing
throughout. Though their senses often seem dulled, both Shaun and Michelle
are prone to moments of startling clarity and self-awareness.

At one point, in a moment reminiscent of a monologue from Trainspotting,
Michelle 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 all your emotions, including
fear."

The film also explores the anguish suffered by the parents of drug users.
In one scene, Shaun's mother, Angela, who has stood by him through his
numerous failed attempts to kick his habit, re-enacts the minutes running
up to her earlier suicide attempt.

Mr McGuigan, until now best known for the crime movie Gangster No 1 and an
adaptation of Irvine Welsh's hallucinogenic novel The Acid House, said:
"That, to me, was the essence of the film: what the drugs have done to her,
not Shaun or Michelle."

The charity Turning Point, which deals with the social consequences of
addiction, welcomed the film. "It sounds as if it highlights the sorts of
problems many people face when they come out of prison and try to stay off
drugs, and explores why drugs are attractive to them," said a spokesman.
"We prefer this approach to the 'Just Say No' one, because it shows drug
users as people."

TV FIRSTS

First 'Real' Orgasm

When: 1994

The programme: Desmond Morris's documentary series The Human Animal
featured explicit lovemaking and a real-life orgasm, filmed from inside the
woman's body. A London couplemade love three times a day for three weeks
before the cameras.

The reaction: the programme attracted 12 million viewers, prompting the
Evening Standard to comment that it was little more than a TV stunt.

First Euthanasia

When: 1995

The programme: filmed in Holland, BBC2's Death on Request showed a
63-year-old man semi-paralysed by Lou Gehrig's disease, being administered
a lethal injection.

The reaction: The programme won several awards.

First Penis Enlargement

When: 1995

The programme: Channel 4 youth programme The Word broadcast the operation,
carried out on a policeman.

The reaction: The Word had, according to The Times, become " a by-word for
bad taste", yet it regularly attracted two million viewers.

First Nipple In Prime-Time Ad

When: 1996

The programme: a French-made commercial for Neutralia shower gel.

The reaction: 199 complaints were received. A nipple-free version was then
screened before the 9pm watershed.