‘They are ripping my family apart all over again’: Mother of newlywed, 23, who was shot dead by her abusive father slams BBC for creating a series based on the tragedy
- The mother of a murdered woman has hit out at BBC’s new drama Sherwood
- It is partly based on 2004 murder of Chanel Taylor, 23, by father Terry Rodgers
- Mrs Taylor’s mother Anne MacPherson slammed the channel over the drama
- She said: ‘How can my daughter’s murder be played out sensitively?’
The mother of a young woman who was brutally murdered just weeks after getting married has hit out at the BBC for referencing the tragedy in a new series.
Anne MacPherson says her family is being forced to relive their trauma as BBC’s Sherwood depicts a storyline based on the shotgun killing of her 23-year-old daughter Chanel Taylor in 2004.
Mrs Taylor’s father, Terry Rodgers, 55, carried out the murder for unknowns reasons and later hid for 17 days in Annesley Woods, Nottinghamshire, where he built a shelter.
Police eventually found Rodgers and tasered him during his arrest.
He died in prison on hunger strike a month before his March 2006 murder trial, taking the reason for his daughter’s death with him to the grave.
Her grieving mother has hit out at producers’ suggestion they will handle the tragedy sensitively and said she will be forced to ‘reluctantly’ watch the programme, The Mirror reports.
David Morrisey, Lesley Manville and Robert Glenister star in the BBC’s Sherwood, which airs on BBC One tomorrow and Tuesdays at 9pm
Terence Rodgers, 55, and his daughter Chanel Taylor, 23, on her wedding day in 2004, weeks before he shot her dead
The funeral cortege of 23 year old Chanel Taylor in Teversal, Derbyshire, in 2004
Mrs MacPherson, of South Normanton, Derbyshire, said: ‘How dare they do a programme about my poor daughter which will be watched by millions?
‘How can my daughter’s murder be played out sensitively? I wanted nothing to do with it.
‘They are ripping my family apart all over again, and we’ll get the backlash. The programme has brought it all up again for me. It makes me so cross.’
Rodgers was reported to have been violent to his wife and three children, and was living with his daughter Chanel and her husband at the time of the murder.
While out in the woods, he met another murderer on the run – Robert Boyer – who was hiding after killing 62-year-old ex-miner Keith Frogson.
Boyer attacked Frogson with a crossbow and then a samurai sword.
Sherwood takes its inspiration from the events in 2004 rather than a literal adaptation, according to the BBC
The police manhunt to trace the pair – Operation Rendition – was the biggest in British history.
Sherwood follows a fictional story of two officers investigating the crimes, who go undercover in the community – which is still reeling from the miner’s strike 20 years earlier.
A BBC spokesman said: ‘Production worked closely with a number of people locally throughout the making of the series to ensure their stories were told with sensitivity, and respected those who preferred not to be directly involved.
‘As a result the decision was made to heavily fictionalise the series, rather than create a literal adaptation of any events, including inventing new characters, names and stories.
‘Sherwood is a story that is personal to [creator] James Graham and inspired in part by events within the community in which he grew up, over many years.’
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