91Èȱ¬

Jaime Winstone (Anneli Alderton); Eva Birthistle (Annette Nicholls); Aisling Loftus (Gemma Adams) and Nathalie Press (Paula Clennell)

The actresses cast to play the victims of the Ipswich killings had to bring to life the different characters. Yet they shared many of the same emotions and experiences during the making of the drama.

For each of them, the first powerful feelings were stirred as they began discovering the lives of the women.

Eva Birthistle, who plays Annette Nicholls, visited Ipswich and spoke to staff at the ICENI project, the drug charity in Ipswich which tried to help some of the victims kick their habits.

"I also met two of the girls who were out on the streets at the time and who knew Annette. One in particular was a close friend who had been having very similar times to her; they were both sex workers and had gone through drug addiction. They were now clean and hadn't worked since the murders," she explains.

"That was a real eye-opener, talking to them and hearing their stories. They saw Annette in a different environment. They knew what a lovely happy person she was. She was always smiling, she was chirpy, and she was upbeat. A bit of a joker, who always tried to look at the positive side. It was really helpful. It was a very moving couple of hours."

"I kept thinking 'that could be me'. You can see how one wrong turn in life dabbling in the wrong thing through innocence and your life could take a dreadful turn. It gave me an insight about how normal the girls were, they are not a million miles away from us. Which is what I hope this drama shows," said Birthistle.

It was a truth that made an impact on the other actresses too.

"At the time when the murders actually happened, like so many other people, I didn't think it had anything to do with me. It felt like it was a world away. I somehow imagined it was happening somewhere else, in some terrible, heroin-riddled corner of the country," says Jaime Winstone, who plays Anneli Alderton.

"But it wasn't, it was happening up the road. And it was happening to girls who weren't very different from me in homes that weren't that much different to mine."

The responsibility of portraying a real-life person weighed heavily on Winstone's shoulders, she admits.

"There was a really strong sense in me that everything I was doing was being done for Anneli and her family," she says.

"I instantly felt a connection with her because she's a young girl. A young girl who had this fire in her, who wanted to do something, wanted to strive for something but got caught in some kind of spider's web which is very easy for young women – and men – to do. I felt a great responsibility to do her justice but also to tell the truth."

It was a feeling shared by Aisling Loftus, who plays Gemma Adams.

"It felt really important and I feel very privileged to be part of it," she says. "Gemma was gentle, warm-hearted, fun, bright and clever. She was able to deal with the horrible places that she found herself in with grace.

"It's really cosy to think that it only happens to certain people but that's not the case. There's no type of person that falls into this life. I read an article that talked about it being the life these women had chosen. But it wasn't a lifestyle choice. It's nothing to do with that. I hope this drama will go some way to dispelling those kinds of ideas."

Filming was an emotional experience for all the actresses.

Jaime Winstone admits that one particular scene really brought the reality home to her.

"Shooting some of the scenes was physically and mentally demanding, but the scene that really got to me was the one where I was lying in the Chapel of Rest and my mother, played by Juliet Aubrey, had to come in and identify me," she explains.

"I was lying there, hearing the cries of my mother. And it just hit me, this is what actually happened. These mothers lost their daughters. These parents were longing for their child who had been taken away from them," she adds.

"That's when it massively hit home to me. I just lost control after that. It made me realise how lucky I am to have my family and the life I do. I got really upset by it," she says.

The actresses share similar ambitions for the drama – in particular that it helps present the victims in a new and more sympathetic light.

"People need to know about these girls. There was this feeling that the death of these girls wasn't a loss to society. And that wasn't true," said Nathalie Press who plays Paula Clennell.

"The thing that I discovered from doing this was how ignorant people really are. I can't pretend that I know a lot about the world but there's this bizarre preconception, almost medieval, that sex is somehow linked to promiscuity," said Aisling Loftus.

"I can't imagine how painful it must have been for a family to have that as the recorded legacy of their daughter or sister, of having that word put next to their daughter. That's not what they were. That's just where the drugs took them. It's so wrong and insulting to them as human beings."

It's a message that Jaime Winstone hopes comes through as well.

"One of the reasons I was so keen to portray Anneli was the fact that her mother, Maire, along with other members of other victims' families, had given the film their blessing. They were involved in approving the scripts and gave the director, Philippa, lots of help," she explains.

"It was important to me knowing that the families were involved. I know the parents have been involved in wanting to put the message out there. And the message is that this can happen to anyone. It's not hard for this to happen. It doesn't just happen on rough estates," she adds.

"They were ordinary girls. They were educated girls. They had dreams and aspirations like any other girls of their age. I wanted that to come across and I hope that when people sit down and watch Five Daughters it opens their eyes. I hope it changes their view of these girls in the same way it changed mine."