Fury at BBC for hiring a male writer for its drama about the rape and murder of Sarah Everard

Article here. Excerpt:

'The BBC is facing a furious backlash after hiring a man to write a forthcoming drama about the murder of Sarah Everard.

Acclaimed screenwriter Jeff Pope has been commissioned to pen the two-part factual series about Ms Everard's abduction, rape and murder by serving Metropolitan Police officer Wayne Couzens in South London in 2021.

The open letter, which gathered 400 signatures from leading female screenwriters in 24 hours, said the decision had prompted a 'great deal of anger' among female writers and that they were 'genuinely shocked' by the commission.

It read: 'The announcement of this particular commission brought a great deal of anger to the surface among women writers - anger that has been building for some time. Sarah Everard was killed because she was a woman.

'The case did not simply expose the actions of one individual. It cracked open a national conversation about systemic misogyny, about the safety of women in public spaces, about institutional failure and the silencing of women within structures meant to protect them.

'That conversation is not over. Given all that, we are genuinely shocked that the BBC has commissioned a man to write it.'

The writers added: 'We are not saying men cannot write about women's experiences. But we are saying that in a case this specific, this raw, and this rooted in the dynamics of power and gender, the question of who tells the story is inseparable from the story itself.''