A controversial film about the kidnapping of schoolgirl Shannon Matthews is to go ahead.
Work on the two-part drama, given the working title of The Moorside Project, was suspended last year while editorial issues were ironed out.
But BBC chiefs have now given the green light for the programme, which examines the public response to the faked abduction of the nine-year-old Dewsbury girl by her own mother.
The story will be told from the point of view of other residents on the Moorside estate, who joined forces in a bid to find the missing girl.
The inquiry was the biggest for West Yorkshire Polcie since the Yorkshire Ripper hunt.
Shannon was drugged and hidden under a bed for almost a month in 2008.
Karen Matthews and Michael Donovan hoped to make £50,000 from the reward when Shannon was “found” by Donovan in his flat. Both were later sentenced to eight years in jail.
Actress Sheridan Smith had been lined up to play Karen Matthews, but may now be replaced because she is no longer the main focus of the drama. Shannon’s abduction is not portrayed, nor her experience during the time she was missing.
Jeff Pope will produce the shows using writer Neil McKay, who penned the award-winning Appropriate Adult, about Fred and Rose West.
The drama, which has already been blasted by politicians and church leaders, aims to show the “spirit and determination” of the Moorside women – and the impact on them when they discovered the truth.
McKay said: “This drama tells a story of people pulling together for the sake of a child. In a world where all too often our estates are written off, this drama challenges us to think again about this. We hope the drama will have something to say not only about this community, caught up in the events unfolding on their doorstep, but about our wider society too.”
Pope added: “The committed and passionate search mounted by local people had seemed to sweep away all the clichés and prejudices about estates like Moorside. But when the truth about what had happened was revealed, the sense of betrayal and bitter recriminations that followed threatened to submerge the estate. This truthful, unvarnished drama will take us inside the eye of the storm.”
BBC One boss Charlotte Moore said she was proud to be tackling the tricky subject on her channel.
“Drama has the ability to tackle sensitive subjects from different perspectives and consider the impact of a crime rather than the crime itself. 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 BBC1 it’s important to bring human stories to life and allow the audience to come to their own conclusions.”
Filming will start later this year for transmission in 2016
