The Independent’s Ciar Byrne on ITV’s latest attempt to spice things up.

Best-known as the crazy bleach blonde next-door neighbour in the hit drama Shameless, Maxine Peake is preparing to take on one of the most controversial roles of her career – the Moors murderer Myra Hindley.

The Bolton-born actress is close to signing a deal to portray the notorious child killer in an ITV drama being screened next year to mark the 40th anniversary of the Moors Murders trial.

Granada, which is making the drama, See No Evil: The Story of the Moors Murders, has promised it will be “sober and unsensational”. The film has the backing of the relatives of the five murdered children. But Brady’s and Hindley’s crimes were so shocking that the decision to dramatise them will be considered brave.

There is probably no truth to the rumor that Anthony McPartlin, aka Ant, campaigned (unsuccessfully) for the part of Ian Brady. But it’s fun to imagine, just the same.