"I have faith in people." So declared a puffy-faced Sheridan Smith, playing a determined Julie Bushby leading the search for Shannon Matthews in BBC One drama The Moorside.
The story of Karen Matthews and her grotesque crime against her nine-year-old daughter is one we all know - but last night the spotlight was on the community betrayed by 'one of their own'.
Dewsbury's Moorside estate was painted as one where the residents don't place their trust in the council, the police or the 'social' - but in each other. Parenting courses were 'bollocks', the police 'lost the plot' in their search and so Julie became not just a campaign coordinator but a source of information, a source of candles for endless vigils, the one voice they trusted when the news came in that Shannon had been found.
It makes for uncomfortable viewing. Watching the tears and panic of a community refusing to believe Shannon was dead, even though the reality later revealed was even harder to comprehend, results in a grim sense of foreboding from the off.
It made the scenes where Karen Matthews sat, seemingly emotionless except for hostility towards the family liaison officers (hello Siobhan Finneran, of Happy Valley fame) seemingly laced with clues.
Every facial expression was an opportunity to see if the facade was cracking.
Craig Meehan (played by Tom Hanson ) sat in the corner, gaming, showing the immaturity of his 22 years - he was more stroppy teen than stepdad.
The scene with the 'Calpol' overdose showed him for the uneducated, thoughtless and childish man he he was. And of course we know the secrets he was hiding.
Interesting too were the references to the Madeleine McCann case. Regardless of outcome, would the coverage of Shannon's disappearance have been different if Karen Matthews wasn't a mum on an estate in Dewsbury, mother to seven kids from different fathers, some taken into care?
A reward of £20,00 for Shannon - compared to £2.5m for Maddie. The difference spoke volumes about how the press - and society - judge different families, even in on-the-surface tragic circumstances.
The episode ended as the estate celebrated Shannon being found with fireworks and a rowdy party. Karen, emotionless as she identified her daughter, simply asked when she could go home.
It was an unbearable cliffhanger - from here the story gets dark, fast, and all of those elated people will realise they marched for a monster. That their tireless, all-night searches were witnessed by a mother who had deliberately hidden and drugged her child in a abhorrent attempt to claim a £50,000 reward fund.
Natalie (played by Sian Brooke) may have appeared as the voice of scrutiny, the only one suspicious of Matthews in last night's episode - but there was no joy in it. There's no closure to be had in being right, only more betrayal.
Before the show aired, many took to social media to accuse it of being exploitative, of causing unnecessary trauma to Shannon and other members of the Matthews family.
But the story of the Moorside estate is an important one, that shines a light on the strength of a community in one of the poorest parts of Kirklees.
It may not be comfortable viewing, but it's important viewing. Because that estate - and that community - is more than just the actions of one evil woman. And their pain deserves to be recognised.
