A true life crime drama is airing on Channel 5 - revisiting the Soham murders through the eyes of school assistant Maxine Carr.
This August marked 20 years since schoolgirls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman went missing after they left a family barbecue to buy sweets. Best friends Holly and Jessica were just 10 years old when their lives were cruelly cut short by deceitful murderer Ian Huntley.
Despite Channel 5's pre-show warning, some viewers are calling for the new show to be taken off air with many viewers left horrified by the subject matter.
Titled simply 'Maxine', the drama follows Maxine Carr, the girlfriend of killer Ian Huntley. Carr had provided Huntley with a false alibi after he had killed Holly and Jessica, claiming to be in the East Cambridgeshire village when the two 10 year-olds vanished.
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Huntley had claimed Holly and Jessica had spoken to him outside of his and Maxine’s home on the night the girls vanished, when the tragic truth was in fact very much different to that, reported Chronicle Live. Huntley was eventually charged with the girls’ murders, with him still in prison now, while Maxine served 21 months of a three and a half year sentence for conspiring with him to pervert the courts of justice.
The programme began on the evening of Monday, October 10, but before it even began Channel 5 issued its stark warning to viewers. The channel announcer said: “A warning for strong language and upsetting scenes from the outset".
Viewers reacted immediately calling for the channel to take Maxine off air. On Twitter, one blasted: “If channel 5 had any decency they would pull the plug on this really not fair on Holly and Jessica's family.”
Taking the same stance, a second tweeted: “Are Channel 5 trying to make us feel sorry for Maxine Carr? A woman who lied and covered for her evil boyfriend. A man who killed two beautiful children. It's 20 years since this horrendous & awful event & I don't think anyone needs to watch,” but, of those who say through the first episode, some praised the way it was done.
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