A number of Channel 5 viewers were both surprised and 'confused' by a Benidorm star's appearance in new true crime drama Maxine, which sparked a huge reaction online when it debuted on Monday night.
It's been 20 years since Soham school girls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman were murdered by caretaker Ian Huntley, the then boyfriend of classroom assistant Maxine Carr, who worked at the school the youngsters went to. A large scale search and police operation were launched after their frantic families reported them missing, only for things to end in the way they never hoped they would, when their bodies were found in a ditch close to RAF Lakenheath.
Huntley is still behind bars for their murders, while Carr, who Channel 5's Maxine is focused on, was released after serving 21 months of a three and half year sentence. The Maxine cast is led by Jemma Carlton as Maxine Carr and Scott Reid as Ian Huntley, but it was the appearance of Benidorm favourite Steve Edge, that raised a few eyebrows as many viewers condemned Channel 5 for even allowing the drama to be shown.
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Steve is best known for playing Billy Dawson in the Costa Blanca set comedy, alongside on-screen wife Julie Graham and no-one was expecting him to show up in Maxine, where he plays Press Association reporter Brian Farmer. In episode one, viewers saw Steve's new on-screen alias arrive in Soham to report on Holly and Jessica's disappearance, before becoming suspicious of Huntley and raising his concerns to police.
It took some viewers a while to click that it was Steve on screen, while others were taken aback to see him in such a harrowing show. Watching episode one, one to Twitter to post: "Spotted the wonderful @sirsteveedge on Maxine and the 2 people who were watching with me said.... no, it's not him from Benidorm."
Reacting to how the first part ended, a second tweeted: "The closing image of Maxine practising her smile in the mirror and relishing the attention afforded her, despite the gravity of the circumstances, made me quite sick to the stomach. I'm keen to see how the drama progresses. Praise to Scott Reid, Jemma Carlton & Steve Edge."
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