YP Comment: TV entertainment or voyeurism?

IT goes without saying that The Moorside, the BBC drama recounting the Shannon Matthews kidnap hoax, featured another masterclass by the acclaimed actress Sheridan Smith who will surely win a host of awards for her portrayal of Julie Bushby who galvanised the public search for the missing schoolgirl. Her co-stars were equally meritorious.

A chilling story about how nine-year-old Shannon, and a local community, was betrayed by the youngster’s heartless mother Karen in 2008, it’s also a gritty story of how residents of the maligned Dewsbury Moor estate pulled together despite their benefit-dependent lifestyles being besmirched by many, including a youthful David Cameron who said it was symptomatic of ‘broken Britain’ and those areas “where decency fights a losing battle against degradation and despair”.

Ahead of the concluding episode charting the estate’s reaction to Shannon’s discovery and the wider deception, it’s indicative of this shocking story’s lingering legacy nine years on that public opinion is so divided about whether this was public service entertainment or gratuitous voyeurism.

The Moorside: Shannon Matthews drama divides opinion on Dewsbury estate