A new drama following Nicola Sturgeon and her estranged husband’s fall from grace has been commissioned as television movie for Channel 5 following his embezzlement scandal
A drama following Nicola Sturgeon and her estranged husband Peter Murrell has been commissioned by Channel 5(Image: PA)
Nicola Sturgeon and her estranged husband’s dramatic fall from grace is to be turned into a movie length drama for TV.
Channel 5 announced today they will make a 90 minute factual drama about how Sturgeon’s husband, Peter Murrell, embezzled £400,000 from the SNP over a 12 year period.
Called ‘To Nicola, Love Peter’ it will follow the channel’s success with Power: The Downfall of Huw Edwards. The drama creators say they will draw on an extensive range of factual sources including evidence gathered by Police Scotland, The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service as well as extensive TV and newspaper interviews with Nicola Sturgeon and interviews with other key protagonists.
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 & pepper grinders…?!”
In June, former SNP chief executive Murrell was sentenced to five years and three months in jail after he admitted to embezzling more than £400,000 from the party.
Murrell – the estranged husband of Nicola Sturgeon – used the funds to buy goods ranging from cars and a motorhome to kitchenware and toiletries.
The Glasgow home he shared with Sturgeon was searched as part of the police operation, as was the SNP headquarters in Edinburgh.
Murrell’s largest single purchase, in 2020, was a £124,550 luxury motorhome, paid for entirely with party funds. When it was seized by police three years later, it had only ever been driven four miles.
Murrell also used party funds to buy further items including a £3,223 coffee machine, a £3,000 robotic lawn mower, £2,600 salt and pepper grinders and a £425 gold pendant that Sturgeon was photographed wearing.
Sturgeon has said she was not aware that Murrell had purchased many of the high-value items listed in court documents. The former first minister has consistently insisted that she had no reason to believe that Murrell had not used his own money for the items he was buying.
Sturgeon had stepped down as first minister in March 2023 and was arrested In June 2023. But she was later told she was not being investigated.
Last year Sturgeon announced that the pair were ending their marriage. She appeared at the Edinburgh Fringe earlier this month and in an on stage interview told the audiences she “feels like a mug” for caring about estranged husband Murrell.
She also claimed he “lied right up until he pled guilty”, and said she won’t be visiting him in prison.
Sturgeon also said: “Over the years, he never really levelled with me. The day he pled guilty, I was still learning about some of the detail of what he had done for the first time. I suddenly realised I had been living with somebody that I never really knew properly.”
Casting for ‘To Nicola, Love Peter’ is currently underway with filming likely to begin later this year. it is expected to air on 5 in 2027.
Power: The Downfall of Huw Edwards pulled in almost two million viewers when it aired earlier this year on 5.
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