The parents of missing Madeleine McCann have blasted controversial BBC One drama The Moorside, which is based around the real-life kidnap of nine-year-old Shannon Matthews.
Kate and Gerry McCann accuse the series of heaping misery on the schoolgirl’s family, as well as their own in the lead up to the 10th anniversary of their daughter’s disappearance.
During the first episode of the miniseries, starring Sheridan Smith, several references were made to the McCanns, which – apparently – the couple believed to be in poor taste and bad timing.
The Moorside depicts the search mounted for schoolgirl Shannon, after her mother Karen reported her missing from her home in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire.
Hundreds of her neighbours – rallied by Julie Bushby (Sheridan Smith) joined in the 24-day search for the young girl.
Shannon was found just a mile away from home, drugged and hidden inside the wooden base of a bed in the house of Michael Donovan.
The nation was shocked to discover that her own mother Karen had orchestrated the whole kidnap with Donovan – uncle of her then-boyfriend – to bag £50,000 reward money, having seen the money the McCanns raised through the real disappearance of their child.
Both were convicted.
A source apparently close to the McCanns, who are also parents to teenage twins, said of the drama: “The whole Shannon Matthews saga only came about because of Madeleine’s disappearance and what the family wrongly thought they could claw, through rewards and interviews.
“The BBC have been trailing it for a few weeks, Kate and Gerry think the whole thing is appalling, and in really poor taste and bad timing.
“They feel it’s very insensitive and the show tries to glorify a terrible crime involving a young girl.”
One scene of the drama said to have irked the McCanns featured Karen mentioning a stuffed toy belonging to her daughter, which she held during her media appeal.
Kate McCann carried Madeleine’s favourite soft toy Cuddle Cat with her at all times in the days after her three-year-old vanished.