CHANNEL 5 have commissioned a TV movie on Peter Murrell’s £400,000 embezzlement from the SNP, it has been announced.
The channel has revealed that there will be a 90-minute special called To Nicola, Love Peter.
It will be made by Wonderhood Studios.
The studios previously cast Martin Clunes as Huw Edwards in the programme Power: The Downfall of Huw Edwards.
The Scottish Sun reports that the new drama will draw on an “extensive range of sources” and evidence gathered by Police Scotland and the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service about the former first minister's estranged husband and his criminal activities.
Former SNP chief executive Murrell pled guilty to the embezzlement earlier this year, and is currently serving a five-year sentence.
The 61-year-old doctored invoices and falsified accounting records to cover up how he was misusing party funds to buy items ranging from the extravagant, such as a £3500 silver wine coaster or a £125,000 motorhome, to the mundane, such as egg poachers and toilet seats.
Ben Frow, Chief Content Officer, 5 said: “This is an epic tale of Shakespearean proportions – an extraordinary tale of power, envy, deception and greed.
“It’s both a high-stakes political melodrama and bizarre domestic drama that has dominated headlines and gossip columns.
“We will be pulling together the events and characters involved to create a compelling revealing drama, as well as answering that very important question – why would anyone pay £2,600 for a pair of salt and pepper grinders?”
David Abraham, executive chairman of production company Wonderhood Studios, said: “This project reflects our growing ambition to develop quality dramas about contemporary stories that resonate with broad audiences.
“We are delighted to be working with the brilliant team at 5 once again.”
Bafta-nominated director Misha Manson-Smith will direct the project, with the script written by fellow Bafta nominee Lucy Brydon.
It is understood that the process of casting actors to play Murrell and Sturgeon is now underway.
The former couple began dating in 2003 before they married in 2010 at Glasgow’s Oran Mor venue.
However, in 2023, Murrell was arrested as part of Operation Branchform, the Police Scotland probe into the SNP finances.
Branchform was set up after activist Sean Clerkin put in a complaint about the SNP in March 2021.
From 2017 to 2019, the SNP had raised some £667,000 to fight a second independence referendum. The money was “ringfenced” for that campaign, the SNP insisted, but there were suggestions it had been spent elsewhere.
While investigating the SNP’s finances, Police Scotland uncovered Murrell’s embezzlement.
Sturgeon revealed the deep pain Murrell’s crimes caused her in an interview with the BBC after he pleaded guilty.
The former first minister insisted she had never suspected her husband of swindling party funds.
