The Victim, BBC1

What is it about a high-profile court case that really gets people talking? Three years ago, writer Rob Williams and I were discussing the Oscar Pistorius trial and how court cases seem to have a particular ability to polarise opinion. We wondered why drama rarely gets people talking in the way that true-crime stories do.

Around the same time, Rob had been reading about several cases of social media being used to vilify individuals whose lives were then changed forever, irrespective of their guilt or innocence.

Added to the mix was Rob’s longstanding interest in issues of crime and punishment – in particular, the difference between the law and justice. All of these ideas came together in the The Victim.

With the BBC’s interest piqued, Rob began writing the story of Anna Dean and Craig Myers. Both characters are damaged: Anna by the murder of her nine-year-old son 15 years before and her belief that the system failed to deliver justice; and Craig, who is brutally attacked after being identified online as her son’s killer.

By telling the story from both Anna and Craig’s point of view, the audience are invited to empathise with them both, but as a court case unfolds in the present and we witness the fallout from the attack in the past, we start to question both versions of events.

As head of drama at Glasgow-based indie STV Productions, I was thrilled when Rob said he wanted to set The Victim in Scotland.

The uniqueness of the country’s legal system offered an interesting point of distinction to other courtroom dramas and, because of the differences in procedure and language, allowed us to avoid familiar ‘courtroom drama’ tropes.

With a greenlight secured, Jenny Frayn joined the team as producer, bringing her passion and editorial rigour to the project. Our next priority was to find a director who could deliver both a gripping genre piece and total authenticity of world and performance.

Niall MacCormick brought all those skills as well as an innate under standing of how to balance the need for tension and character. He also shared our determination to create a show that entertains through its twists and turns, as well as engaging the audience emotionally and giving them some morally complex questions to chew over.

Niall quickly established an aesthetic for the show that combines cinematic beauty with absolute truthfulness. One of the first practical challenges we faced was finding a courtroom in Scotland in which to film our trial.

It soon became apparent that no real courtroom could give us access for the length of time we needed, and our only option was to build one. So in a draughty warehouse in Glasgow’s Possil Park, our supremely talented art department set about creating our version of Edinburgh High Court.

As well as taking advantage of the extraordinary craft talent in Scotland, filming and setting The Victim there gave us the opportunity of working with some of the country’s most stellar acting talent. Kelly Macdonald was on our dream cast list from the start, so when she agreed to come on board as Anna, we knew The Victim was turning into something special.

We were excited when John Hannah then joined as DI Grover. He hasn’t done a lot of British TV in recent years, so we knew that audiences would be happy to see him back.

When it came to casting Craig Myers, it was obvious that it would take a young man of real range and sensitivity to act alongside actors of the calibre of Kelly and John, and we found him in James Harkness: he gives a truly searing performance.

Alongside our mighty trio, we assembled a cast comprising some of the country’s most exciting emerging and established stars.

It’s impossible to say whether we’ve got near to achieving what we set out to do at the beginning of the process – whether we can get people talking and taking sides in the way the Pistorius trial did, for example – but we can certainly say the ambition contributed to the show becoming something of which we are all immensely proud.