TRAUMATIC TALE
Keeley Hawes’ tears as she plays real-life murder cop to save women from horror of honour killing
IN a long list of tough roles spanning a 30-year career, nothing has challenged Keeley Hawes more than her latest part.
The Bodyguard and Line Of Duty actress told how she became physically and emotionally drained playing real-life hero cop Caroline Goode in the ITV drama Honour.
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Thanks to Det Chief Insp Goode, five men were jailed for the 2006 honour killing of Banaz Mahmod, a 20-year-old Iraqi Kurdish woman.
As lead actor and executive producer on the two-part show, Keeley, 44, was invested in the traumatic story more than any TV project she has been involved in.
And she broke down in tears as she spoke of her huge respect for Goode and Banaz.
Speaking at a press conference, she said: “More so than with anything I’ve ever worked on, the responsibility is huge. I felt it every day, and every day since.
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“You want to do the right thing by everyone involved.
“It is about these two women. You want to give Banaz the utmost respect and also do the right thing by Caroline.
“One of my reasons for doing the drama was shining a light on so-called honour killings.
“I hate to use the word honour. It’s murder, it’s rape, it's abuse.
'IN A MORGUE ALL DAY'
“If we can open people’s eyes to see something strange or untoward then maybe we can help other women.
“And if one girl or woman doesn’t have to go through what Banaz went through then it’s a success as far as I’m concerned.”
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Honour tells the story of the investigation into the murder of Banaz, played by Buket Komur, who ended an arranged marriage after she was raped and beaten by her husband for two years.
She started a relationship with another man, Rahmat Sulemani, played in the drama by Moe Bar-El.
To restore the honour of Banaz’s shamed family, her father, uncle and three of her cousins joined forces to kill her.
On January 24, 2006, Banaz was raped, tortured and strangled at her home in Mitcham, south London before her body was taken in a suitcase to Handsworth, West Mids, where she was buried under a patio.
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When Rahmat reported her missing, an investigation began.
Detectives discovered Banaz had gone to police FIVE TIMES to report beatings, threats to her life and a murder attempt — but every time she was ignored.
Det Chief Insp Goode took up the case and tracked down all the men involved.
Keeley says: “She is such an extraordinary woman. Her love for Banaz and her determination to achieve justice for her was unlike any other story I’d come across. It was an un-turndownable role.”
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Goode faced a wall of silence from London’s Kurdish community when she first started investigating the disappearance of Banaz, who had moved to England when she was ten years old.
Her father Mahmod Babakir Mahmod and uncle Ari were furious when she left her husband and started a new relationship.
They enlisted the help of her cousins Dana Amin, Mohammed Saleh Ali and Omar Hussain, and another man, Mohamad Marid Hama, in her killing.
A breakthrough came when Hama was identified by Banaz’s boyfriend Rahmat as having threatened the couple previously.
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In telephone calls made while he was in custody and secretly recorded by police, he outlined the killing, the culprits and what they had done with the body.
DCI Goode and her team were given a crucial clue when Hama asked one of his accomplices on the phone: “Did you put the freezer back on top of the patio?”
In aerial shots of Handsworth, the cop noticed a freezer on a patio — which turned out to be the backyard where Banaz was buried.
Viewers of Honour will see Keeley wearing a hazmat suit while in a huge hole where police retrieve the remains of the girl, only to have much of the forensic evidence washed away by a burst water pipe.
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In June 2007, Banaz’s father and uncle were found guilty of murder and sentenced to life.
Hama pleaded guilty to murder shortly after the start of the trial and also received a life sentence.
But Goode still wasn’t satisfied because Mohammed Saleh Ali and Omar Hussain fled to Iraq’s Kurdistan region after the murder.
In a legal first, both men were extradited to the UK in 2009 and 2010. They were both found guilty of murder in November 2010 and sentenced to at least 21 years.
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And in December 2013, Amin was found guilty and jailed for eight years for helping to dispose of the body.
Mum-of-three Keeley, married to Quiz actor Matthew Macfadyen, told how playing Goode gave her an insight into what she went through to secure the convictions.
She said: “One day we were literally in a morgue all day. Even just being in an environment like that has an effect.
“But you have to get through the day. You have to go home, decompress and have dinner with your children.
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“You think, ‘Well that was a hard day on set’ but you also feel slightly ridiculous when you’re talking about something like this.
“It’s unimaginable compared to what Banaz and her family have been through, and Caroline dedicated her life to this case.”
Keeley met the detective during the making of Honour.
The actress said: “One of the things I really wanted to know was, ‘You do this day in, day out. So was it emotional?’ Because this is a drama — we need to find the emotion.
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“She said: ‘Yes, of course. You can’t be in that environment, hearing and seeing those things, and not be.
'IT'S CRUCIAL TO RAISE AWARENESS OF ABUSE'
“That gave me licence and gave me liberty to explore that a little bit without making it feel like it was for the purposes of the drama. That really was how she felt.”
But the project has not escaped criticism. Banaz’s sister, Payzee, hit out at Honour for focusing on Goode’s story at the expense of her sister’s ordeal.
She said: “It really doesn’t sit too well with me that that’s the angle they chose to go with.”
And when the drama was announced last year, TV scriptwriter Furquan Akhtar also complained that the Banaz’s story was being overshadowed.
He tweeted: “Banaz Mahmod, an Iraqi Kurdish woman who was the victim of a so-called honour killing.
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“It shifts the story from being about her to the white detective who ‘got her justice’.”
But Gwyneth Hughes, who wrote Honour, says she has since been in constant communication with Payzee, who has now seen the drama in full.
So has her other sister, Bekhal, who features in the drama and had to go into witness protection after bravely testifying against her father in the murder trial.
Gwyneth said: “Payzee is fully supportive now. She thinks the absolutely crucial thing is not to have these stupid, petty arguments about this type of thing, but to bring light into the arena of honour-based violence.
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“She thinks it’s absolutely crucial to raise awareness of honour-based abuse and talk openly about it and this drama will do that.
“Her sister, she says, was neither seen nor heard by any of the people who should have helped her.”
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“She doesn’t want this to happen to anybody else.”
- Honour will be shown on ITV later in the autumn.
The harrowing true story of Banaz Mahmod who was murdered by her own family in an 'honour killing'
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