Black Roses: The Killing of Sophie Lancaster (BBC Radio 4: Afternoon Play)

A BBC Radio 4 drama documentary in which Sophie (Rachel Austin) tells her own story through a series of poignant poems written by the award-winning poet Simon Armitage alongside her mother, Sylvia Lancaster, remembering her daughter's shortened life. Originally broadcast as the 'Afternoon Play' on 11 March 2011. 'Black Roses: The Killing of Sophie Lancaster' is an elegy to the young gap-year student who was murdered in Stubbeylee Park, Bacup, Lancashire, on August 24th 2007. Aged twenty, Sophie suffered fatal injuries while cradling her boyfriend Rob's head in an attempt to protect him from a ferocious attack by a group of youths. Rob survived but Sophie went into a coma and never recovered. Sophie was an intelligent bookish child who showed signs of wanting to be different from an early age. Political, vegetarian, a pacifist, Sophie had left school with A-levels and was thinking about what to do with her future, when it was taken so brutally from her. Written by Simon Armitage and featuring Rachel Austin as Sophie Lancaster, with an interview with Sylvia Lancaster.