A musical film based on the fake kidnapping of Yorkshire schoolgirl Shannon Matthews will be released next month.
The nine-year-old’s disappearance was shocking enough before it turned out, nearly a month after she vanished in 2008, that it was her own mother’s money-making scheme.
She was found bound and drugged under a bed in the flat of Michael Donovan, 54, who had conspired with Karen Matthews to claim a £50,000 reward for her return.
They had even tried to extort money from a charity launched by the parents of Madeleine McCann, who had vanished in Portugal a year before.
Matthew and Donovan never got a payout, but dark comedy troupe Kunt and the Gang have seen success with ‘the definitive sing-along to one of the UK’s most bizarre true crime cases’.
After selling out a four-week run of ‘Shannon Matthews: The Musical’ at Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2022, they’ve now turned it into a movie.
It comes complete with songs like ‘Shannon Ain’t Dead (She’s under me bed)’, ‘You’re A Paedophile’ and ‘Karen Calls The Maddie Hotline’.
The group’s description of ‘Shannon Matthews: The Musical… The Movie’ says: ‘West Yorkshire’s worst case of absolute stupidity is brought to the silver screen for the very first time. You can now split your sides at a comedy, about a drama, that once split the population of Dewsbury.’
But it seems the film is itself dividing opinion in Dewsbury, a town of 64,000 people south of Leeds.
Dewsbury West Councillor Ammar Anwar said: ‘Just imagine being that poor girl Shannon Matthews, and re-living the ordeal all over again.
‘I think they are cruel and sadistic movements for her to live again.
‘I think people should let her move on in life, and let her forget about what happened in the past.’
Writing on Facebook, Janet Ayre said: ‘This is a sick joke, why would anyone make a musical about anything so horrendous?
‘Further, why would anyone in their right minds go to see it?’
Local Tory MP Mark Eastwood, who helped search for Shannon in 2008, previously said the musical ‘does seem to be in poor taste’.
Responding to this criticism, the comedy group’s frontman said it was healthy to ‘break down taboos’ with comedy about topics that are ‘really bleak’.
With 9.9 out of 10 stars on IMDb, following a premiere in April, it seems they have fans who agree.
One wrote: ‘I can honestly say this was the funniest film I have ever seen.
‘I was lucky enough to watch it at the premiere and I cannot wait to see it again. The acting, singing and the detail of the sets were brilliant.’
Another added: ‘The film really brought the story to life and gave the audience a clear insight into the characters.
‘Despite the daft subject matter- the film was well researched, well acted and well produced.’
For his role in the fake kidnapping, Donovan was jailed for eight years for kidnap, false imprisonment and perverting the course of justice.
He was also disowned by his family, reportedly not having a single visitor in the months before he died of throat cancer in April this year.
Donovan and Shannon’s mother had planned to keep Shannon at his flat, just a few miles from where she went missing on her walk home from swimming, until it was time to hand her in and claim the reward.
Hundreds of police officers and numerous volunteers joined the nationwide search effort.
Karen Matthews was also jailed for eight years for the same crimes.
Sentencing them, the judge Mr Justice McCombie said: ‘It is impossible to conceive how you could have found it in you to put this young girl through the ordeal that you inflicted upon her.’
The saga was later dramatised in the BBC miniseries The Moorside.
‘Shannon Matthews: The Musical… The Movie’ will be available to stream on Amazon Prime Video, iTunes, Google Play and Vudu from November 15.
It will be released on DVD later this year or in early 2025, the comedy group said.
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