Sheridan Smith plays the real life friend of Karen Matthews in BBC1's recreation of the kidnapping of Shannon Matthews. But which other stars have played real people on screen?
Sheridan Smith is about to star as Julie Bushby, real life best friend of Karen Matthews, in BBC1's drama The Moorside, about the hoaxed disappearance of schoolgirl Shannon Matthews.
It got us thinking about other stars who have played real people...
Sheridan Smith as Julie Bushby
Sheridan Smith (left) as Julie Bushby, leader of the search for missing nine-year-old Shannon Matthews in real-life dramatisation The Moorside (2017)
Dominic West as Fred West
Dominic West (left) as notorious British serial killer Fred West in Appropriate Adult (2011)
Cuba Gooding Jr. as O.J. SImpson
Cuba Gooding Jr. (left) as the disgraced US sports star in The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story (2016)
Julie Walters as Mo Mowlam
Julie Walters (left) as Labour secretary of state Mo Mowlam in Mo (2010)
Michael Douglas as Liberace
Michael Douglas (left) as legendary entertainer Liberace in Behind the Candelabra (2013)
Al Pacino as Phil Spector
Al Pacino (left) as notorious record producer in TV movie Phil Spector (2013)
Claire Foy & Matt Smith as Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip
Claire Foy and Matt Smith (left) as Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip in The Crown (2016)
John Lithgow as Winston Churchill
John Lithgow (left) as British Prime MInister Winston Churchill in The Crown (2016)
David Walliams as Frankie Howerd
David Walliams (left) as the classic British comedian of the title in Frankie Howerd: Rather You Than Me (2008)
Helena Bonham Carter and Dominic West as Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton
Helena Bonham Carter and Dominic West (left) as legendary movie couple Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton in Burton and Taylor (2013)
Andrea Riseborough as Margaret Thatcher
Andrea Riseborough (left) as the future Prime Minister in her younger days in Margaret Thatcher: The Long Walk to Finchley (2008)
Michael Sheen as Kenneth WIlliams
Michael Sheen (left) as the famous British comic actor in Kenneth Williams: Fantabulosa! (2006)
Tim Roth as John Christie
Tim Roth (left) as notorious 1940s British serial killer John Christie in Rillington Place (2016)
Toby Jones as Alfred Hitchcock
Toby Jones (left) as British film director Alfred Hitchcock in The GIrl (2012)
Sheridan Smith as Cilla Black
Sheridan Smith (left) as British singer and TV star Cilla Black in Cilla (2014) Watch The Moorside premiere on BBC1 on Tuesday, February 14
