The Hack is penned by Adolescence writer Jack Thorne and follows ITV’s success with Mr Bates vs The Post Office. Both series propelled their subject matter to national conversation, prompting words and actions from politicians.
Believing the drama could not capture the complexity of Daniel’s case, Alastair declined the offer to be involved in the show’s production.
“As Daniel’s story, it falls short a long way, because there is just so much more to it than is shown in that series. But if it raises public awareness of the way oligarchs behave and are behaving, then that is a good thing,” Alastair said, describing it as good television which underplayed the family’s role in driving the case.
“We were portrayed, as a family, as being bog-standard victims. The fact that we had driven that case right from the beginning was not at all obvious or apparent to a viewer. There was a panel of inquiry afterwards, none of that was mentioned, it wasn’t even touched on.”
Alongside the work of journalist Nick Davies exposing newspaper phone hacking, the series follows Dave Cook, the Metropolitan Police detective superintendent who investigated Morgan’s murder after four previous failed attempts.
He added: “It’s not the Daniel Morgan story. If you want to put it more accurately, it’s the Dave Cook story that’s told.”
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Propelled by a belief he was about to expose police corruption at the time of his murder, Morgan’s family led the push for justice. The eventual investigations cost upwards of a reported £30 million. But hampered by institutional police corruption, the murder was never solved.
Five police inquiries into the death were carried out and a murder trial in 2009 collapsed. The decision to abandon the case ultimately fell to the director of public prosecutions in 2011: Keir Starmer.
“It’s not on him,” Alastair said. “It was dropped because of corruption and incompetence, basically. It wasn’t a decision that Keir Starmer made.”
After the collapse of the trial, it emerged that Jonathan Rees – Morgan’s business partner who was acquitted of his murder in 2011 – ran an “empire of tabloid corruption”, and was paid more than £150,000 a year by the News of the World for illegally obtaining information.
Alastair said he hoped to move forward after a reported £2.25m settlement between the Met and the Morgan family in 2023. That settlement came with an admission from Met commissioner Mark Rowley that the force had prioritised protecting its reputation and that the family had been fobbed off with “empty promises”.
“I had 34 years of it. I’m just happy that I survived it, really. I’m just rebuilding a life afterwards,” he said. “I’m 76 years old. I like to paint, I like to play the guitar, I like to swim, I like to read. I do as much of the things that I enjoy and find rewarding as possible.”
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