The Moorside

The true story behind this two-part drama is not really known in the U.S. so the reviews from the U.K. with spoilers or references to the real story won't mean much to those of us from elsewhere. I found it a very interesting story about rough living and choices for those in difficult situations with seeminly limited options. The directing, editing, and score bring to life a neighborhood and neighbors in the best and worst of circumstances, and the acting by all the female leads is absolutely tremendous.

I've only seen the first episode but I can be confident that my rating isn't going to change and neither will my opinion of this program.

Firstly, don't watch it if you think you're going to find out anything you didn't already know from TV and newspaper reports. Don't watch it if you want to see sweeping camera shots of Dewsbury and the surrounding countryside. It wasn't filmed there.

You'll watch this because it was written by Neil Mckay who has written some great TV in the past. He's written TV shows about the Moors Murderers and Fred & Rose West. You have to remember that when shows like this are written there will be some added drama that didn't actually happen so as to sex up the show.

The problem with this show is that it's impossible to sex up so there's lots of dialogue showing the "can-do" attitude of the residents of The Moorside estate. Whether much of it actually happened is questionable, however, the actresses did spend time with their real-life counterparts so there will be some true to life scenes and dialogue.

For me, it was exactly what I expected from a show on this subject.

Found this disappointing. It told the story from mostly From Karen Matthews friend, Julie's viewpoint. It didn't tell us anything new from what was reported at the time. It didn't show much of the police investigation. The ending felt like an afterthought. Trying to make excuses for what she did and suggesting it was everyone else fault than her own.

I did agree that in all honesty she wasn't evil just misguided and was overwhelmed by what happened. While she wanted and enjoyed the attention, once the estate was involved it was hard to find a way out.

However it did not ever really show her in a bad light or confirm she was involved. It also didn't show how the estate felt about being lied too when they were so passionate about finding the girl.

It was acted well but it didn't tell us anything you can't read about on the internet. It also seemed to be saying that if you are poor then you can't be held responsible for your actions. The estate was also shown as all wonderful people. I have worked for Kirklees Council in Dewsbury on a number of occasions. While there are some lovely people there, some people are really awful. A shame this was so much of a lecture and waste of a decent cast.

The Moorside tells the story of the staged abduction of Shannon Matthews from the viewpoint of Julie Bushby, the person who led the community effort to find the 9 year old Dewsbury schoolgirl. As she tells the press: 'When chips are down and one of us has a problem, we are all there to help, we stand shoulder to shoulder with one another, we will never give up hope'

The rallying cry felt hollow in this docudrama as we knew Shannon's mother was involved in this bizarre abduction. Even when Shannon went missing, there was an outcry that people living in council estates did not merit the sensitive media attention that the parents of Madeline McCann had got a year earlier.

The first episode focuses on Karen Matthews and her dysfunctional family. She had children from several men, her present partner seems to be more interested in surfing the internet. Some of the other relatives crave the media attention. Karen herself comes across as dimwitted and maybe even manipulative as well. Suspicions are aroused early when she starts dancing to a ringtone of a mobile phone.

By the end of the first episode, Shannon is found under the bed of Karen's boyfriend's uncle. A cack-handed stunt to get money from the media it seems.

In the second episode the police now turn their attention towards Karen. Her friends and neighbours who rallied for her now have doubts about her story. The community now vilify Karen Matthews but Julie Bushby saw her as weak, a symptom of a broken Britain where too many women from an early age were let down by men. In the drama Julie and one of Karen's neighbour talk about how both were sexually abused as youngsters.

The drama was strongly acted by the leads, Gemma Whelan, Sian Brooke and Sheridan Smith but I felt it still lacked freshness, too much about it that delved on 'council house scum.' I can imagine that wounds are still raw in parts of Dewsbury and although we do not see the character of Shannon, I could not help thinking that this drama did not do her much good given she is now 18 years old.

I won't go into any details because you should watch it and make up your mind.

The acting is brilliant, you would hardly believe that Gemma Whelan was the same person that played Yara Greyjoy in "Game of Thrones".

The story was basically play by numbers, you didn't really learn anything new if you saw this on the news.

I do think this could have been a three parter. We didn't really see the aftermath other than a few shouty bits at the end. I really wanted to see the impact it had on the town at the end, but it seemed to end rather suddenly.

It would have been nice to see what happened when she came out of prison, but we saw nothing of this.

I will repeat however that the acting was top notch, but I was left a little disappointed with the story.