The Moorside is a 2 part Crime Drama that follows the real life story of Shannon Mathews, a 9 year old girl from a council estate in Dewsbury, Yorkshire, who goes missing. The series was released in 2017, and it stars Sheridan Smith as Julie, Gemma Whelan as Karen, Sian Brookes as Natalie and Siobon Finneran as Officer Christine.
When Shannon Mathews goes missing, Julie Bushby, the best friend of Shannon’s mother, Karen Mathews, leads a search party with the rest of Dewsbury volunteering to search for Shannon. Though the Police order Julie to stop leading the public search, she refuses, determined to find Shannon alive. Karen’s neighbour and other best friend, Natalie Brown becomes suspicious of Karen. The search is successful, however when the truth about Shannon’s kidnapping and Karen’s involvement in the plot is revealed, the Moorside Estate becomes infamous, with their respect from the public being short-lived.
The series was released to critical acclaim with the performances of Sheridan Smith and Gemma Whelan being praised in particular.
The Moorside provides examples of:
- Based on a True Story: The drama is about the real-life case of Shannon Mathews, who’s working-class mother, Karen, used her as a pawn to claim money.
- Bittersweet Ending: Karen and Michael Donovan are sent to prison, and Julie’s youngest child, Peter, is back at school improving his behaviour. However, Natalie and her husband get divorced, the Moorside estate are forever infamous for the crime committed by just one of their neighbours (Karen), and Shannon (now in Foster care) must live with the trauma of her abduction and imprisonment for the rest of her life (suffering from nightmares of her abduction). Karen’s six other children are also placed in foster care and will never be able to forget their sisters abduction. And it’s unknown if they ever even saw Shannon or each other again. Also, Shannon’s doting father also might never get to see his daughter again. And Karen and Michael will each get parole, not serving very long sentences.
- Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: Julie has Dirty Blonde hair, Natalie is a Brunette and Karen has Ginger hair. This is Truth in Television.
- In the present day, real-life Julie now has Honey Blonde hair, Natalie is now Auburn (Brunette with Red undertones) and Karen dyed her hair Black (likely an attempt to avoid being recognised by the public).
- Bratty Half-Pint: Julie’s youngest child, Peter, is gobby to his mother and does not hood his tongue. He’s also been suspended from school for playing truant and getting into fights. His behaviour improves after he realises that his mother is upset when the truth about Shannon’s kidnapping comes out.
- Comedic Sociopathy: Karen dancing to a ringtone on Officer Christine’s phone, when her child is missing and presumed dead by the public.
- Karen’s brother-in-law, Neil Hyatt, who jokingly shouts to the press that if they pay £5 they can feel his wives breasts. His wife, Amanda Hyatt (the sister of Craig, Karen’s boyfriend) calls him out on this.
- The Con: It turns out Karen kidnapped Shannon herself (who already lived with her) and sent her to live with her boyfriend Craig’s uncle, Michael Donovan, keeping her drugged in a divan bed, hoping that Michael could lie about finding her and then they could split the reward money.
- Copycat Mockery: When Karen does a press conference, she clutches a teddy bear (which turns out to not even be Shannon’s). She is trying to mimick the grieving Kate McCann, the mother of missing toddler Madeline McCann (another famous missing child), who often holds Madeline’s favourite toy in interviews, her “Cuddle Cat.”
- The Ditz: Karen is undoubtedly very naive and though she does a good job at manipulating the public as a grieving mother, Natalie doesn’t fall for it. Her best friend even admits she’s immature. Many people now have noted that in her interviews when she was crying she was not shedding tears, and didn’t seem particularly upset or panicking. Instead, some might argue that the situation was just so bad that people believed her because she appeared to be a mother who lost her child. And let’s face it, who would want to call out a mother who lost her child?
- Manipulative Bastard: Karen lied to the public about not knowing where her daughter is. She even lies to her best friends, family and even her other children (Shannon’s half-siblings).
- Parental Neglect: Karen is a neglectful mother at best, abusive at worst. Though she tries, and does seem to love her children, Karen crosses the line when allows Shannon to be kept drugged in a bed at the flat of someone Shannon has never even met.
- Parental Substitute: While Karen is seemingly grieving, Natalie looks after her other children and keeps them entertained.
- Really Gets Around: Karen is infamous at the estate to begin with for her promiscuity, having seven children, most of whom have different fathers. It’s explained that she doesn’t know the difference between sex and love.
- Teen Pregnancy: Julie’s eldest daughter, Stacy, is pregnant and gives birth by the time the drama ends. She has her own flat, however, so she may be a bit older, but it’s unclear. She could be between 16-early 20’s at best. Her age is never revealed.
- Karen really did forget that she had seven children, mistakingly telling the Police she had six.
- Karen also did dance to Officer Christine’s ringtone.
- Karen also did copy Madeline McCann’s mother by holding a teddy bear that didn’t even belong to Shannon. And the McCann’s faced a lot of scrutiny because people believed that Madeline’s reward was higher because she was from a Middle-Class background. As Julie’s son, Peter, asked his mother about the comparison, “is it because they’re posher than us?”
- People really did volunteer to help find Shannon (even those who didn’t know her or her family or the people involved).
- Julie really did get accused of being in on the kidnapping and her hard work and stubbornness was not appreciated for quite a while.
- Karen really did sit on Michael Donovan’s knee at Craig’s fathers funeral. They may have also had a sexual relationship. And Craig and the rest of his family really wasn’t involved in the abduction, but he did have child pornography on his computer, and his sister Amanda Hyatt was given a prison sentence of her own a year later, due to a benefit fraud.
