Actor Sheridan Smith has struck up a friendship with Dewsbury Moor’s Julie Bushby after playing her in BBC drama The Moorside.
The Cilla star told the Radio Times how she got talking to Julie – a former friend of Karen Matthews – while filming the series on the infamous Dewsbury case.
The pair even stayed up one night chatting about issues close to the heart, Sheridan told the magazine.
She said: “I am still friends with Julie. She’s a great mum and grandmother and, although she doesn’t always let it show, she has a heart of gold.
“There was a really emotional scene I had to play where my character talks about losing her baby boy to cot death. She stayed up all night with me discussing what had happened and how she had coped, just to help me play the scene.”
Sheridan also told how Julie helped her with her fears over her sick father, who died just before Christmas.
She said: “At the time I was so worried about my dad, but I learned a lot from her that night about staying strong for those you love and for that I’ll always be grateful.”
The Moorside chronicles the events leading up to the discovery that Karen Matthews plotted her own daughter’s kidnap in 2008.
It will be screened at 9pm on BBC One on Tuesday, February 7.
