Channel 4 commissions The Push from BAFTA award winning film maker Anna Hall

24 August 2023

Fawziyah Javed was 31 - a beautiful clever lawyer from Leeds, 17 weeks pregnant with her first child.

 

On 2nd Sept 2021 she was on a mini break to Edinburgh with her husband. CCTV shows them arm in arm s as they stroll through Edinburgh but by 10:30pm that night Fawziyah was dead after she fell from Arthur’s Seat.  Two days later her husband had been arrested and charged with her murder.

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The Push is the jaw dropping new series produced by Candour TV which follows the murder trial, minute by minute. With exclusive access to the court, Fawziyah’s family as they go through the horrendous process of hearing evidence and her family and friends as they live with the aftermath, it’s a series that will make you shout in anger and weep in grief for a life lost through a coercively controlling domestic abuse relationship. What is truly astonishing is that it is Fawziyah’s extraordinary documenting of the abuse from her husband which provides enough evidence for the jury to be in no doubt of what was going on behind closed doors.

 

The series was commissioned by Channel 4’s Head of Documentaries Alisa Pomeroy. The Push will be made my Candour TV with Series Director Anna Hall, Series Producer Josephine  Besbrode and Series Editor Luke Rothery.

 

Alisa Pomeroy said: “To tell Fawziyah’s story in this way, with her family bravely sharing what is an unimaginably painful time for them, is both a great privilege and a great responsibility. No woman should have to suffer an abusive relationship. Shining a light on this heart-breaking case is important for many reasons, and I hope that other women suffering in a similar way might find strength in seeing this film to make a lifesaving change in their own life. The access gained by Anna and the team at Candour to make this series is unique and I have no doubt they will honour Fawziyah’s memory, showing how her killer was brought to justice.”

 

Anna Hall said: “It’s been such a privilege to see the process of justice played out minute by minute at Edinburgh High Court and it’s been an utter privilege to work with Fawziyah’s large and loving family who are destroyed by what has happened to her. I find myself making another film about a woman who was on the verge of leaving an abusive relationship – the most dangerous time for any woman – and I want to weep. How many more women will be killed at the hands of their abusive partners? But I know we will all learn so many vitally important things which helped to convict her abuser.” 

 

ENDS

 

For further information, please contact:

Samantha Fraser / sfraser@channel4.co.uk