Call to delay Shipman TV drama

The drama will feature Shipman's murders

Television executives are coming under pressure to delay the screening of a drama about serial killer GP Harold Shipman.

A Greater Manchester MP has said broadcasting of the drama-documentary should be postponed to spare the families of the victims.

A two-hour screening of the Shipman drama reduced many of the relatives to tears when it was shown to them on Sunday night.

But TV bosses have defended their decision to broadcast the programme, planned just days before an inquiry into the GP's activities reports its findings.

I consider it inappropriate to broadcast this drama while the inquiry is still ongoing

James Purnell, MP

James Purnell, Labour MP for Stalybridge and Hyde, where Shipman lived and worked, has called on television executives to delay the screening.

He said: "I have contacted both Granada TV and ITV in order to express my deep concern at the timing of this programme.

"I consider it inappropriate to broadcast this drama while the inquiry is still ongoing.

"I have been contacted by representatives of the families of Shipman's victims, who are extremely upset.

"I have called on Granada to reconsider the timing of this programme and to take the families' distress into account."

Families shocked

The families of Shipman's former patients have also publicly criticised the timing of the programme.

One woman, who is waiting to discover whether her mother was murdered by Shipman in 1993, said it was traumatic watching the drama.

"It showed Shipman as an evil character, a side I had not seen to him as he was my family GP."

Lawyer Ann Alexander, who represents 300 families who potentially lost loved ones to Shipman, said: "We feel the timing of this programme, if it is shown on 9 July, is grossly insensitive."

But John Whiston, director of programmes for Granada North, said: "A film like this is always going to be harrowing for the families of the victims involved.

"But our motivation for making the film was not to grab ratings.

"It is not a sensationalist film, but part of the important public debate about Shipman."

Nick Finnis, who produced the programme, said that of the 36 family members at Sunday night's screening, only two were supportive, four were "very hostile" and the rest were "visibly moved".

Relatives' co-operation

In the ITV1 drama, Shipman - played by veteran actor James Bolam - is shown carrying out the murders of the 15 known Shipman victims by injecting them with morphine.

One of the opening scenes shows him apparently treating patients while a woman he has just murdered lies dead on a couch in the same room.

The victim featured most heavily in the drama is Kathleen Grundy, whose case first brought Shipman's activities to the attention of the police.

Shipman murdered Mrs Grundy, an 81-year-old former mayoress, at her home then forged her will to make himself the sole beneficiary of her estate.

Mrs Grundy's daughter Angela Woodruff, who raised the alarm and contacted police, was happy to cooperate with the programme makers, Mr Finnis said.

The inquiry, chaired by Dame Janet Smith, is considering whether the deaths of another 500 of Shipman's patients were suspicious.

Shipman is being held at Frankland Prison, County Durham, serving 15 life sentences for killing 15 women.

But he is suspected of killing 100 more by lethal injection during his 24-year career.