Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Telly addicts

Related: Film discussion forum.

Original poster

The Moorside

531 replies

NancyDonahue · 06/02/2017 09:23

BBC dramatisation based on the kidnapping of Shannon Matthews. Starts Tuesday 7th February 9pm, starring Sheridan Smith.

Obviously a horrendous crime against a young child so I wasn't sure I'd want to watch, but it looks like it focuses on friends of the mother who headed up the search and barely features the child herself.

I love Sheridan Smith too so will give it a go.

OP posts:
PerryCoxHair · 08/02/2017 13:22

I think that is exactly it MrsJayy Not saying it is right but just that I understand.

SumThucker · 08/02/2017 13:24

I get that, Perry, and I understand your motivation for doing so. Unfortunately I've known a few 'Julies' who absolutely thrive off attention and just love placing themselves right in the middle of someone else's crises.

PerryCoxHair · 08/02/2017 13:26

Sum Yes I know people like that too and I am ashamed to say I have been guilty of that in the past. A need to be seen as a good person, a rescuer, a do-er. But most of all to be seen, to be noticed.

MrsJayy · 08/02/2017 13:32

I probably have been a julie too if i am honest not to that scale but as i said it is a distraction from your own shit. I used to work with a julie she was lovely but if she was sorting somebody out she didn't need to sort her own family out at that point in time.

PerryCoxHair · 08/02/2017 13:37

if she was sorting somebody out she didn't need to sort her own family out at that point in time

Exactly that. I have made that mistake. Plus you get others telling you how great you are - which is "nice" but then you go home and close the front door and have to face your own mess...I have found the programme really thought provoking actually. Just a chance too make your mark and to be someone, To do something. I think there are many Julies. Not many will admit it though.

SumThucker · 08/02/2017 13:39

Yeah, I can understand why they do it. As you say Perry, there will be more than would care to admit to it.

MrsJayy · 08/02/2017 13:49

This thread has made me realise that maybe I judged Julie a wee bit harshly and didn't think of the bigger picture, not that i think leaving her son to fend for himself is right

PerryCoxHair · 08/02/2017 13:52

MrsJayy I think there is a bit of Julie in all of us. We see it on MN whenever anything tragic happens.

Maudlinmaud · 08/02/2017 13:53

MrsJayy Julie is still courting publicity on this subject, I don't think she was judged harshly at all.

PerryCoxHair · 08/02/2017 13:57

Maud is she?

Maudlinmaud · 08/02/2017 14:03

Perry I might be wrong, but I'm sure she has been interviewed for talk shows recently. I guess it is no different to us discussing the case on this forum though.
I'll be honest I just didn't like her from the portrayal on tv last night, no more, no less. You could argue that was the actress not her.

MrsJayy · 08/02/2017 14:14

Yeah she is like perry said I don't think it is right

1happyhippie · 08/02/2017 14:42

I'm not sure Julie's intentions were all bad to be honest. She knew they had to keep Shannon on the news and in the publics mind.
Doing the candle lit vigils and marches, she knew it would get reported.
She did jump at taking charge, but I suppose they needed someone to tell them what to do.
I can't imagine what it would be like to have a child from your community go missing. I'm sure I would want to do all I could to help.
i agree, there are a lot of people about like Julie, who appear when there's a crisis or tragedy. Maybe they mean well, but come across badly.
Of course I might be completely wrong, and Julie was just looking for her few minutes of fame.

OneWithTheForce · 08/02/2017 14:52

I don't think her intentions were in any way bad. She was doing a good and useful thing at a time when people needed it. She should be commended for that. I think she just liked feeling important. And in the show it came across as a bit aggressive in the way she did it.

eddiemairswife · 08/02/2017 15:04

According to the Radio Times, when Sharon went missing Julie was chair of the estate's tenant's association, so she would have been the obvious person to co-ordinate things.

balence49 · 08/02/2017 15:44

I really hope Shannon and all her siblings are being supported thru all of this.

thegreylady · 08/02/2017 16:11

Still reading thread but I have just finished reading the book Betrayed from Birth and the scene where Karen danced to the ringtone is in there. It seems that the portrayal of Karen was scarily accurate.

OneWithTheForce · 08/02/2017 16:17

Oh i wasn't questioning that it happened. It was so odd, and so oddly shoehorned in, that there Is no doubt that it happened. I am saying the way it was directed in the show makes it hard to believe. Her demeanour in the immediate lead up to it made it seem very out of place. Her demeanour after it was perfect, the smirking and defensiveness.

Bestthingever · 08/02/2017 16:32

I think Bitoffun's analysis is great. I wonder if the real Julie managed to channel all that energy afterwards into doing something to help improve the community.
I thought the actress playing Karen did a great job.
Most importantly, while I enjoyed watching last night, it must be bloody painful for Shannon wherever she is. I wish her the best.

HalfShellHero · 08/02/2017 17:39

I just wondered if the suggestion that a strong northern woman on a drama is a thing of fantasy...

BitOfFun · 08/02/2017 18:14

No, not at all. I meant that it was a trope that is often used in drama, that's all.

DesolateWaist · 08/02/2017 18:22

I don't think anyone is saying that the Strong Northern Woman is a fantasy, rather a cliche. It's more the strong working class woman battling against her surroundings, upbringing, education and prejudice.

MrsJayy I think there is a bit of Julie in all of us. We see it on MN whenever anything tragic happens.
I think so. We have all been guilty of hanging about on the 'I picked my friends kids up from school and its now 9pm and I've not heard anything' threads.

BitOfFun · 08/02/2017 19:27

I'd like to thank PerryCoxHair for her courage in sharing her self-insight with us, by the way. That's a quality often in short supply on mumsnet.

HalfShellHero · 08/02/2017 20:02

Oh right apologies bit of fun, I wasn't sure when I read it.

LuluJakey1 · 08/02/2017 20:16

I found the character of Julie really irritating. I worked in a school that served estates like this and they are full of Julie's and women like Karen Mathews. The Julies are interfering, can't mind their own business, like to be important and loud and continually challenge authority. They create a false impression of a close commnity where people have hearts of gold and care when infact most are bound by their weakness and lifelong poverty. They defend people like Mathews as a parent - who should have had her children removed from her years before- she neglected them and took a child sex offender into the centre of their lives.
It is the awful sub group of deprivation that exists in Britain today- they have been failed by society and generations of their own families and their children will be the same.