Based on a true story that shocked a nation, this powerful four-part factual drama, from BAFTA winning writer and executive producer Jeff Pope (Appropriate Adult, The Widower), centres on the devastating impact on a city of an innocent child’s murder amid a wave of gang violence. 

Little Boy Blue focuses on the murder of 11-year-old Rhys Jones in Croxteth, Liverpool, in 2007. It explores Melanie’s and Steve’s ordeal, and tells the story of how Rhys’s murderer and associates were eventually brought to justice. Melanie and Steve Jones support the making of this drama, which is based on careful research. 

Stephen Graham (Taboo, This is England) takes the role of Detective Superintendent Dave Kelly who led the investigation into Rhys’s murder on behalf of Merseyside Police, while Sinead Keenan (Being Human) and Brian F. O’Byrne (Million Dollar Baby, Prime Suspect) play Melanie and Steve Jones. 

Filmed on location in Liverpool and the North West, Little Boy Blue is produced by Kwadjo Dajan (Cilla, Mrs Biggs, Appropriate Adult) and directed by Paul Whittington (The Moorside, Cilla, The Widower, Mrs Biggs).   

Press contact: natasha.bayford@itv.com