When is Three Girls on BBC One tonight, who’s in the cast with Maxine Peake and what was the Rochdale grooming scandal?
THE BBC real-life drama Three Girls is a three-part series telling the true story of the Rochdale grooming scandal.
It stars some of the UK's most esteemed acting talent and has been made with the cooperation of the victims themselves. Here's the lowdown...
When can I watch Three Girls?
The final episode in the three-part series airs TONIGHT (May 18) on BBC One at 9pm.
If you miss it when it airs, it will be available on streaming service BBC iPlayer shortly after.
The show will then remain on the site for 30 days and is free to use providing you have a TV licence.
Tonight's episode comes after the first episode of Redwater on BBC One and goes head-to-head with Morocco To Timbuktu on BBC Two, the Leaders' Debate on ITV, Sut-Ins: Britain's Fattest Woman on Channel 4 and Nightmare Tenants, Slum Landlords on Channel 5.
What is Three Girls about?
Three Girls is a three-part BBC drama focusing on the 2012 grooming and sex trafficking case in Rochdale where forty-seven girls were identified as victims of child sexual exploitation.
The organised sex ring worked to secure underage girls for sex who in some cases were given alcohol and small amounts of money in exchange for silence.
The series has been made with the full cooperation of the victims and their families and aims to tell the victims' stories and explain how the abuse has impacted their lives.
Who is in the Three Girls cast?
Maxine Peake
Maxine Peake is an English stage, film and TV actress who played Veronica Ball in Channel 4's Shameless, barrister Martha Costello in BBC legal drama Silk and she also starred opposite the late Victoria Wood in Dinnerladies.
Movie buffs might recognise Maxine from her role as Stephen Hawking's second wife Elaine Mason, in the award-winning biopic The Theory of Everything.
Maxine Peake will play the sexual health worker who fought to bring the perpertators to justice.
Lesley Sharp
Lesley Sharp rose to fame in the 1990's with several high profile acting roles including The Full Monty.
Lesley later went on to star opposite David Tennant in a 2008 episode of Doctor Who before taking on a full time position in ITV's police drama Scott & Bailey.
In Three Girls, Lesley Sharp plays detective Maggie Oliver who helps bring the case to court.
Jill Halfpenny
Jill Halfpenny starred as Kate Mitchell in BBC's EastEnders between 2002 and 2005. She went on to be take part in - and win - the 2004 series of Strictly Come Dancing.
Jill also took on the role of Izzie Redpath in BBC One's school drama, Waterloo Road.
Lisa Riley
Lisa Riley also stars as a parent of one of the victims. Having landed her breakthrough role as Mandy Dingle in Emmerdale, Lisa went on to host ITV's You've Been Framed and has since become a regular fixture on Loose Women.
Liv Hill, Molly Windsor, Ria Zmitrowicz
The titular Three Girls will be portrayed by newcomers Liv Hill, Molly Windsor and Ria Zmitrowicz.
What have the cast said about Three Girls?
Maxine Peake has described the series as "a story that needed to be told... It's a story about a swathe of society that has been ignored and bullied."
Speaking at a recent screening of the drama, Maxine Peake explained how telling the story through a drama rather than a documentary can have more impact.
She explained: "Sometimes people can be slightly cautious about documentaries, maybe, so it's getting into more homes."
