Featured Image Credit: ITV/Channel 5
Topics: Channel 5, Loose Women, True Crime, TV And Film
Joe Harker
Topics: Channel 5, Loose Women, True Crime, TV And Film
Loose Women star Coleen Nolan has defended Channel 5's true crime drama about the Soham murders after it was hit with criticism.
Have a listen to what she had to say:
The Channel 5 true crime drama Maxine has come in for criticism this week after some viewers thought it portrayed the titular character, Ian Huntley's girlfriend Maxine Carr, as a victim.
It focuses on the Soham murders, which saw school caretaker Huntley lure 10-year-old girls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman to his home before killing them both in 2002.
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Carr was a teaching assistant at the school and provided her boyfriend with a false alibi for the killings, leading her to be dubbed 'Britain's most hated woman'.
Huntley was given two life sentences in prison with a minimum time behind bars of 40 years, while Carr was sentenced to 42 months in prison and was released in 2004.
People watching Maxine, which shows the grisly events from her perspective, have pointed out it has too much of a focus on her and many believe the drama is trying to make the audience feel sorry for her.
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Some took to social media to slate the show for 'attempting to paint her as a victim', while others asked 'are we meant to feel sorry for Maxine Carr?'
Some even called for the true crime drama to be pulled from TV over the way it was portraying the horrific killings.
One person who has stepped up to defend Maxine is Loose Women's Coleen Nolan, who said she'd 'always want people to remember' a crime like the Soham murders.
The Loose Women panel had been discussing the impact of the true crime drama and whether the genre was insensitive to victims, with Janet Street-Porter saying people were 'addicted to true crime drama' and Channel 5 was responding to a 'demand' from 'millions and millions' of viewers.
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Coleen then chipped in to say she felt 'guilty' about the backlash towards the show as she was a big fan of true crime dramas herself.
She said: "I feel guilty now on this panel because I do watch them, you know, and it's an awful morbid fascination about true life crime.
"I do watch them. In some respects I know exactly what you're saying, if the family haven't agreed to it, traumatic, and I totally get it. I do think they should have a right to say whether they can or not."
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"I have to say for me I think they're quite good because it was 20 years ago. We remember Holly and Jessica we forget how awful that was really because we get on with our own lives. I was watching it last night and it brought all those memories back of those two just awful animal people."
The three part true crime drama Maxine concludes tonight at 9pm on Channel 5.