A Confession dramatised the heartbreaking true story of what happened to Sian O’Callaghan and Becky Godden-Edwards. Both women were victims of killer, Christopher Halliwell (played by Joe Absolom) who is currently serving a full life sentence in prison for his crimes. Unknown to Becky and Sian’s parents, the families lived just a few feet away from each other but their trials played out very differently. Karen Edwards (Imelda Staunton) and Sian’s mother Elaine (Siobhan Finneran) did not share their grief together as the audience and show creators assumed.
Karen Edwards and Elaine O’Callaghan lived very close to each other in Swindon, Wiltshire and were practically neighbours.
Throughout the series, viewers learned how their lives intertwined in simple ways such as shopping at the same places and their children attending the same primary school, however, they never knew each other.
The women were drawn towards each other after their daughters were murdered by Christopher Halliwell.
Karen was the mother of Becky Godden-Edwards, who had been missing since 2003.
READ MORE A Confession: Did Karen Edwards and Elaine O’Callaghan know each other
Karen and Becky’s father believed that she had run away from home or started a new life, but they always hoped she would return.
Elaine is the mother of 22-year-old Sian O’Callaghan, who disappeared from Swindon, Wiltshire after a night out on March 19, 2011.
Halliwell confessed to Detective Steve Fulcher (Martin Freeman) that he had murdered both Sian and Becky, and even led the detective and his team to their remains.
As Halliwell had pleaded guilty to the murder Sian on October 19, 2012, and there was enough evidence to link him to the crime without a confession, he was sentenced to life imprisonment for her death.
However, the confession evidence in regards to Becky was ruled as ‘inadmissible’ as Fulcher had failed to caution Halliwell and denied him access to a solicitor at the time he had confessed, breaking code C of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (PACE).
For four years, Karen campaigned for justice for Becky and Fulcher, who lost his job and reputation as a result.
In March 2016, Halliwell was charged and re-tried for the murder of Godden-Edwards, using the confession evidence obtained by Detective Fulcher and in September of the same year, he was found guilty and sentenced to full life imprisonment.
READ MORE A Confession on ITV: What is PACE? What did Steve Fulcher do wrong?
As seen in A Confession, Karen attempted to reach out several times to Elaine but she chose not to meet with her.
In the series final scene, Kevin (Charlie Cooper) tried to convince Elaine to go and speak to Karen after Halliwell was found guilty of her daughter’s murder.
However, Elaine refused, saying: “I just can’t. It’s too close.”
For the show creators, the fact the two women never came close to each other came as a bit of a surprise, so much so, they thought the final scene would see the two women embracing for the first time.
Writer and creator Jeff Pope said: “They had both gone through the same but slightly different, in that it was very current and present for Elaine and Karens was long and drawn out but they had both lost their daughters to the same killer and they lived very close to each other but they grieved so differently that they could never quite come together.
“I thought that would be the story, I thought there is these two women who live a couple of yards from each other, you can see each other’s houses from their houses and they would come together and support each other but they didn’t because of how different they were as characters so dramatically, I always found it fascinating.”
READ MORE A Confession on ITV: Is A Confession based on a true story?
Director Paul Williams added: “It looks like the sort of thing that you would imagine we would make up for dramatic effect and your like ‘well actually no, it is real and it’s genuine and it is quite odd’.
“There was a point where we thought that they actually did come together at the end and have a hug and talking about it with one of the mum’s and they were like ‘no that didn’t happen.’
“So you take that away and there was no culmination of the two. But in a way for me, that is equally as interesting to see, it just wasn’t meant to be. You don’t have to be friends with anyone. Grief is quite personal in terms with how you deal with that.”
Instead, A Confession came to an end with Karen and Elaine walking in separate directions, with some closure to their ordeal, with Halliwell behind bars for life.
A Confession is streaming on the ITV Hub now