Dad was no fool or spy.. I guess mental illness doesn't sell

Daughter's fury at hit ITV drama Stonehouse

- BEN GRIFFITHS

WHEN Julia Stonehouse tuned in to ITV's new drama, she was horrified by what she saw.

Three-part blockbuster Stonehouse - watched by an estimated six million viewers each night this week - is based on the life of her MP father John, who attempted and failed to fake his own death after a mental breakdown in the 1970s.

Julia called the drama a "vicious attack on her family that is "littered with falsehoods" about her father, who was mentally ill and addicted to mind-altering prescription drugs.

Julia, 71, said she had even written to ITV complaining about the show, starring Keeley Hawes and Matthew Macfadyen, before it aired.

She told the Sunday Mirror: "It is emotional abuse to our family.

"It portrayed my father as a communist spy, he wasn't, he was anti-communist. They said he was caught in a honeytrap, he just wasn't.

"My mother, who is 91, has been really worried about it.

"My father was depressed and suicidal from prescription drugs and had had a mental breakdown during the six months before he faked his death but that was hardly addressed.

"They made him look like a hapless fool. But I guess mental illness isn't funny and doesn't sell.