Shipman drama under fire

Shipman's GP surgery in Hyde, Greater Manchester

Angry council officials have branded the makers of a TV drama about serial killer Harold Shipman as "ghoulish" and have demanded that production be stopped.

The programme, from Yorkshire-Tyne Tees Television, is to be filmed in Hyde, Greater Manchester, where the doctor is suspected of killing nearly 300 patients.

Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council has written to local MP Tom Pendry to complain about the planned £1.5m show.

Shipman was jailed for life in January 2000 for murdering 15 of his patients.

Harold Shipman: Jailed for murdering 15 patients

The council is also seeking advice from the Broadcasting Standards Commission on what action it can take next if the TV company refuses to back down.

A council spokesman said many relatives of Shipman's victims were upset that the company wanted to make "so-called entertainment drama" in the area.

"This is grotesquely insensitive and the council will do everything in its power to try to protect the relatives of the victims and the community of Hyde from this ghoulish intrusion," he said.

"The programme-makers have been told they are not welcome and will not be allowed to film on any council-owned premises or land," he added.

'Lookalike in town'

Likely Lads star James Bolam is to play Shipman in the show to be screened in the autumn.

The council have also accused the programme-makers of attempting to cash in on "people's grief and suffering" by making a star-studded show without factual integrity.

Likely Lad James Bolam is to play Shipman

The spokesman concluded: "If Yorkshire-Tyne Tees Television is still intent on riding roughshod over local people's views we will have no hesitation in formally complaining to the Broadcasting Standards Commission."

Jane Ashton-Hibbert - who runs a relatives' support group and whose grandmother is thought to have been one of Shipman's victims - also spoke out against the programme-makers.

"They have told us when they are going to be filming in Hyde but no-one wants to see a lookalike in town," she said.

"It is just too soon. The inquiry has not even started yet."

The programme's producers are believed to have already assigned the filming location of some scenes to the Yorkshire town of Ossett.

However a Yorkshire TV spokesman was reported to have said: "The plan is to do some filming in and around Hyde."