Dramas like Stonehouse can turn fiction into ‘the facts’ that we remember

John Stonehouse. ‘John Preston’s disclaimer that his drama Stonehouse was “based on a true story” but includes imagined scenes does nothing to help viewers distinguish fact from fiction.’ Photograph: Getty

We no longer consider it appropriate to watch gladiators kill each other for public entertainment, yet the dramatisation of real people’s lives can be equally barbaric. Especially when their families are still living with the fallout of other people’s versions of a truth they actually lived.

As Julia Stonehouse points out in her opinion piece (ITV’s Stonehouse drama is a work of fiction, not fact. I should know – I’m his daughter, 5 January), John Preston’s disclaimer that his drama Stonehouse was “based on a true story” but includes imagined characters and scenes does nothing to help viewers distinguish fact from fiction. I should know because I came away temporarily believing some of the drama – the big house, fast cars and the children still living at home (to name but a few details) – although I had good reason to know better.