Justice for Banaz in a new drama ‘Honour’

Keeley Hawes has played fictional police officers before, most notably in Line of Duty and Ashes to Ashes.

However, in the new two-part drama Honour, she’s playing a real-life detective – DCI Caroline Goode, who was instrumental in getting justice for Banaz Mahmod, a 20-year-old woman who was murdered because she fell for the wrong man.

Although Hawes points out that her performance is not an impersonation, she did meet the real Caroline, who also visited the set.

While it must have been a slightly odd experience, Caroline is pleased the drama is being made, as she feels it brings attention to the important issue of honour killings.

The detective, who retired from the Metropolitan Police in 2014 after leading over 100 murder investigations, says: “A drama like this is a great platform for talking about this subject, one I’m keen to raise awareness about. Hopefully Honour will reach a broad audience, bringing this to the attention of people who might otherwise have been unaware of something that is happening the length and breadth of the country and is actually increasing in prevalence at the moment.”

The drama shows how DCI Goode first became involved in the case when Banaz’s boyfriend reported her missing.

The real-life Caroline explains: “At the outset we viewed Banaz as a vulnerable missing person and very much hoped she would be found alive. There were so many different hypotheses of things that could have happened, we had to keep a very open mind.

“It became obvious very quickly she wasn’t missing of her own volition. It was also obvious that her relationship with her boyfriend Rahmat was being conducted against the will of her family so we quickly began to fear for the worst.”

Honour shows that DCI Goode made another disturbing discovery – Banaz had been to the police five times to report threats to her life.

Caroline remembers how she felt when she found out: “It’s like being punched in the stomach. It’s an awful feeling when you look through the trail of contact that Banaz had with police prior to her death and you get that sinking realisation that potentially we had missed opportunities to keep that young person alive.

“Of course you can never say with any certainty that she would still be alive if she had been treated any differently, but also there is a good chance she would be.”

In Honour, as in real life, this makes DCI Goode even more determined to get justice for Banaz. It’s a heart-breaking story, but Caroline points out that lessons were definitely learned.

“Banaz’s death has been a catalyst for change within police forces. There has been so much training that has gone on. I’ve provided a lot of it myself. To try and educate officers not to make the same mistakes the Met Police and West Midlands Police made in Banaz’s case.

“I’m now retired from the Met after 33 years of service. The police are far from perfect and they recognise there is more work to be done but it is incomparable to the knowledge we had back in 2006, there have been sweeping improvements.”

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