Nottingham's Chanel Cresswell will star as Coleen Rooney in the Channel 4 drama based on the much publicised Wagatha Christie case. It sees Games of Thrones' Natalia Tena play Rebekah Vardy, Dion Lloyd as Wayne Rooney and Marci Nagyszokolyai appears as Jamie Vardy.
The cast also features Michael Sheen as Rooney's barrister David Sherborne, whose previous clients have included Diana, Princess of Wales, Hollywood actor Michael Douglas and model Kate Moss.
Titled Vardy v Rooney: A Courtroom Drama, the real life drama was dubbed the #WagathaChristie case when it first unfolded on social media in 2019. It turned into one of the most expensive libel cases to date, beginning when Coleen conducted a 'sting' operation to find out who had been leaking stories from her private account to the Sun. It was Rebekah Vardy's account.
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Mrs Vardy sued for Mrs Rooney for libel but lost the case, ending up having to pay Cresswell's character, Coleen, up to £1.5million in legal fees.
Who is Chanel Cresswell?
Born in Nottingham, Cresswell is a BAFTA winning actress famous for her roles in the film This Is England and the three subsequent series. She has also appeared in the likes of ITV series The Bay, Death in Paradise, Des, Dracula and Sky One sitcom Trollied.
Though born in Nottinghamshire, Cresswell grew up in Codnor, Derbyshire and attended Aldercar Community Language College. She was just 15 when she landed her first acting role as Kelly Jenkins This Is England.
Speaking to Channel 4 back in 2015, she spoke on how she secured the role which transformed her life.
"I was still at school, and part of the Nottingham Television Workshop, when Shane Meadows came down to do an audition," she said.
"Obviously we all knew it was for a proper film and so we didn’t really think we'd get a look in. I got told that he was interested in me, and it kind of all just went from there."
On working on her first professional set, she said she felt something special was happening as they filmed the cult classic.
"There was such a buzz on set, so you knew something exciting was going on. But because I was only 15, I was kind of ignorant to it all, which was probably a good thing because it didn't distract me. But there was a definite air about it all...we were just having a laugh on the set."
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