Karen Matthews drama The Moorside prompts MPs to demand Ofcom probe into BBC’s ‘voyeuristic’ programme
MPs are demanding Ofcom probe the BBC over its new drama The Moorside about the fake kidnapping of Shannon Matthews.
Seven million people tuned into the new BBC drama starring Sheridan Smith on Tuesday - but it has since emerged Shannon, now 18 and living under a different name, did not speak with producers before it aired.
Politicians have slammed the BBC for not discussing in detail with victim Shannon that they would be dramatising her kidnap for the BBC One show The Moorside.
UKIP MP Douglas Carswell told the : "Ofcom needs to took into it... We need to bring it [the BBC] to account."
Labour MP Louise Haigh told the newspaper that she thought it was "shocking".
She added: "‘It sounds like a clear breach of Ofcom guidance. In a case as high-profile and traumatic as this, it should have been handled with the utmost sensitivity."
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The BBC confirmed it had notified Shannon, now in care, about the drama "via the professionals responsible for her" but the executive producer admitted she wasn't asked to contribute.
Ofcom said it had received one complaint, which it says it will assess before deciding whether or not to investigate.
Her disgraced mother Karen Matthews, who served half of her eight year prison sentence, has revealed she has been bombarded with death threats since the programme aired.
Matthews has received little public sympathy since the horrifying crime in 2008, when nine-year-old daughter was found drugged inside the base of a divan bed in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire.
It later emerged that Karen, dubbed the most hated mum in Britain, had orchestrated the whole plot so she could bag the £50,000 reward money and split it with her accomplice Michael Donovan.
Matthews is still apparently protesting her innocence over the kidnap plot of Shannon, now 18, and insisted the truth would out, said.
She allegedly told a pal: "I cannot go out of the door. I’m frightened out of my life. I’m shaking like a leaf. I’m s*** scared to even get any shopping or anything.
"I know I can’t stop it but why does it have to be dragged up again? Why don’t they just leave me alone and let me get on with my life?
"I’m worried I’ll have my windows smashed right now. I’m too scared to go anywhere. I feel isolated. If I could go back I would ask the police to re-investigate everything… the truth’s going to come out.”
She was pictured this week working in a charity shop just a day after the damning TV show gripped the nation.
She is now a teetotal born-again Christian, living on benefits under a new name.
Matthews insists that "others" were involved in the kidnap and said her fingerprints were never found in Donovan’s flat.
She has reportedly told pals: “They were saying it’s all me and it wasn’t just me.”
Matthews also denied she carried out the fake kidnap plot to get her hands on reward money.
The new drama retells the story of Shannon’s abduction and follows the search efforts to find the young girl.
The story of the nine-year-old girl who went missing on her way home in West Yorkshire captivated the nation once again after it aired.
Relatives and friends of the family appeared on TV to tell their side of the story in the run up to the first episode.
Series writer Neil McKay explained: “This drama takes us into the heart of a story and a community that was defined more by prejudice than genuine understanding.”
Charlotte Moore, Controller of BBC One, added: "Drama has the ability to tackle sensitive subjects from different perspectives and consider the impact of a crime rather than the crime itself.
“This was an extraordinary story of our time that rocked a community and thrust it under the media spotlight.
“As a nation, we only ever saw it from one perspective and I hope this drama will capture what it was like to be at the centre of that community - how they responded and lived through it.
“On BBC One it's important to bring human stories to life and allow the audience to come to their own conclusions.”
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