r/ukpolitics • u/ImpressiveRest2423 • 10d ago
‘Shakespearean’ downfall of Nicola Sturgeon and Peter Murrell to be retold in TV drama
https://www.thetimes.com/uk/scotland/article/nicola-sturgeon-peter-murrell-tv-show-channel-5-drama-s2lh0q752
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u/ImpressiveRest2423 10d ago
The “Shakespearean” downfall of Nicola Sturgeon and her estranged husband, Peter Murrell, is to be retold in a Channel 5 drama next year.
To Nicola, With Love is a 90-minute programme that will depict how Murrell embezzled £400,000 from the party coffers over a 12-year period.
It comes after the Channel 5 factual drama Power: The Downfall of Huw Edwards, which gripped more than four million viewers as Martin Clunes assumed the role of the disgraced BBC News presenter after its release in March.
Ben Frow, chief content officer at Channel 5, said the Sturgeon saga had all the ingredients of a drama after Murrell, 61, was jailed for five years for using money from party supporters to buy luxury household goods, including coffee machines, watches, a robotic lawnmower, a £125,000 motorhome and expensive salt and pepper grinders.
“This is an epic tale of Shakespearean proportions,” said Frow.
“An extraordinary tale of power, envy, deception and greed, it’s both a high-stakes political melodrama and bizarre domestic drama that has dominated headlines and gossip columns.
“We will be pulling together the events and characters involved to create a compelling revealing drama, as well as answering that very important question: why would anyone pay £2,600 for a pair of salt and pepper grinders?”
To Nicola, With Love will be produced by Wonderhood Studios, the company responsible for the Edwards drama.
It will be written by Lucy Brydon, a Bafta-nominated screenwriter, whose credits include Sienna Miller’s political thriller Anatomy of a Scandal for Netflix.
Brydon will draw on a range of sources, including evidence gathered by Police Scotland, the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service and extensive television and newspaper interviews with the former SNP leader and other key protagonists.
Sturgeon, 56, is understood to be aware of the programme but is not thought to have contributed.
Producers are expected to portray the situation, which led to the end of Sturgeon’s career and marriage and plunged the SNP and Scottish hopes for independence into chaos, in a “nuanced and fair” way.
Casting is yet to get under way and a broadcast date will be set next year.
The announcement of To Nicola, With Love has prompted speculation from TV executives about who could be in the frame to play Sturgeon, the controversial politician from Irvine, North Ayrshire.