Mark Stanley is superb in this unflinching real-life story of a man left alienated from society as a result of a childhood ordeal
Sulphur and White is a painful, disturbing and absorbing episodic drama based on the life of NSPCC campaigner and abuse survivor David Tait – played here by Mark Stanley. As a young man in his 20s, Tait is a
London financial trader with the sharp suits and dead-eyed demeanour of Patrick Bateman, the reptilian monster of
American Psycho. But we can see that this master of the universe is the way he is because of a terrible childhood wound. Growing up in
South Africa, his unhappy mum (Anna Friel) was bullied by an insecure dad (Dougray Scott) who, nervously keen to fit in with the social circle, allowed his teen son David to work part-time job at the petrol station where he was being abused by a paedophile ring of local men. And the horror escalated from there.
As an adult, David is icy, hollowed-out, but fiercely committed to making something of his life, even as his marriage and state of mind continue to crumble. He endures a grotesquely parodic father-son relationship with his money-worshipping boss, Jeff (Alistair Petrie), but then falls for his colleague Vanessa (Emily Beecham), who might yet show him a way out of his misery.