Thirteen is BBC Three's debut drama series and the first series to be released on BBC Three's new online format. The five-episode drama is centered on Ivy Moxam (
Jodie Comer), who was kidnapped at thirteen and held captive in a cellar until her escape at the age of 26. The show deals with her attempts to reconnect with her family and friends, and make up for the thirteen years that she has lost.
Aneurin Barnard, Valene Kane, Richard Rankin, Natasha Little, Stuart Graham, and Peter McDonald also star.
This show provides examples of:
- Bathroom Breakout: After an upsetting conversation with a childhood friend, Ivy climbs out of the bathroom window of her parents' house in order to spend some time alone in one of her old childhood haunts.
- Child by Rape: It's revealed that Ivy got pregnant from Mark White during her years of captivity with him, though she never actually had a baby since she miscarried. When he speaks about how upset Ivy was about it, she says they were tears of relief that she wouldn't be bringing a baby into that situation.
- Even Evil Has Standards: A particularly twisted example. Ivy's kidnapper has standards (and is in fact fanatical about following them, according to Ivy), but the standards are completely separate from any sort of societal standard, being based instead on White's own sense of propriety and morality. For example, he feels it's "improper" to have sexual contact with a girl under 16, but pays no mind to the question of consent.
- Missing Child: Thirteen year old Ivy Moxam went missing in 2002, when she was kidnapped by Mark White. She then remains missing for thirteen years, during which her parents have no idea whether she's alive or dead.
- One-Word Title: Title by Number, based on the initial age of the protagonist, and how many years she was kidnapped for.
- Stockholm Syndrome: Lisa, one of the police detectives, accuses Ivy of falling in love with her kidnapper and refusing to help the investigation, causing the young woman to break down into tears. Later, she suggests Ivy as having "Stockholm syndrome", particularly after a video surfaces showing Ivy walking around a shopping mall for six minutes by herself. The truth turns out to be Ivy was forced to pretend to love her kidnapper in order to survive but hated him.
- Title by Number: One-Word Title, based on the initial age of the protagonist, and how many years she was kidnapped for.
- Thwarted Escape: During her captivity, Ivy almost escaped once after Dillon let her go. However, Mark White came back home, threw her to the ground, and murdered Dillon in a rage. This traumatized her so much that she did not try to escape again for years.
- Why Did You Make Me Hit You?: After kidnapping Ivy again, Mark White smashes Ivy's face into a bathroom wall. However he makes it clear that he blames his own abusive actions on her trying to escape.
