It was the celebrity scandal that launched a thousand memes, dominated column inches and eclipsed all other subjects in group chats up and down the land. Coleen Rooney, wife of former Manchester United and England captain Wayne Rooney, publicly accused Rebekah <\/span>Vardy, wife of Wayne\u2019s former England teammate and Leicester City legend Jamie Vardy,\u00a0<\/span>of leaking false stories from her private Instagram<\/a> to The Sun newspaper.<\/span><\/p>\n In the now legendary social media post, Rooney kept us all on tenterhooks as she detailed her predicament and the Hercule Poiret-esque steps she took to unmask the alleged traitor lurking in her midst, signing off with a line that is now immortalised in pop culture: \u201cI have saved and screenshotted all the original stories which clearly show just one person has viewed them. It\u2019s \u2026 Rebekah Vardy\u2019s account.\u201d<\/p>\n The powers of deduction! The ellipsis! The strategic use of the word \u2018account\u2019! The greatest minds in Hollywood could never.<\/p>\n Vardy strenuously denied the allegation and launched a defamation lawsuit against Rooney, but High Court judge Justice Steyn later ruled in Rooney\u2019s favour.<\/p>\n The Wagatha Christie dispute, as it was dubbed (a reference to the now outdated term WAG, wives and girlfriends of famous athletes), is the subject of Channel 4\u2019s Vardy v Rooney: A Courtroom Drama<\/a>, a two-parter that explores how the high profile trial unfolded.<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t really have an opinion on it,\u201d said Chanel Cresswell, who plays Rooney. \u201cI didn\u2019t really follow it, so I didn\u2019t know the information. I didn\u2019t know who was right, who was wrong. But when I kept seeing it crop up on the TV, I thought, \u2018Oh God, this is getting a bit heated. This is getting quite serious.\u2019 But I didn\u2019t think it\u2019d go that<\/em> far.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The series does exactly what it says on the tin: the action takes place within the High Court and the dialogue is based on real transcripts<\/a>, <\/span>with \u201clittle flashbacks\u201d interspersed throughout. <\/span>Most of the details are well-known but \u201cthere is a lot of information that I <\/span>don\u2019t think people will know\u201d, said Cresswell.<\/p>\n \u201c[The vast majority of the time] we see their glossy lifestyles but this is the bit we don\u2019t get to see, behind the curtain. It\u2019s not the polished article.\u201d<\/p>\n As the trial progressed, a raft of extraordinary details emerged. After Vardy\u2019s agent\u2019s phone was requested as evidence, it was lost to the waves of the North Sea. On another occasion, Vardy was asked why she didn\u2019t respond to a message from her agent about passing on information to the press, to which she claimed she\u2019d been too distracted by <\/span>Gemma Collins\u2019s faceplant on Dancing on Ice to comment. And let\u2019s not forget Vardy\u2019s remarks about <\/span>Peter Andre<\/a>\u2018s \u201c<\/span>miniature chipolata\u201d following a one-night stand several years ago. I could go on, but I\u2019d be here all day.<\/span><\/p>\n The show does \u201ctouch on\u201d those comedic moments, but it\u2019s largely played straight, according to Cresswell.<\/p>\n Did she get a chance to meet the woman she\u2019s playing?<\/p>\n \u201cTime didn\u2019t allow that, for one. It was quite a quick turnaround. And I think just out of respect, I decided not to. Coleen, I gathered, is a private person and I didn\u2019t want to intrude on that. But I would have loved to have spoken to her.\u201d<\/p>\n What questions would she have asked?<\/p>\n \u201cTo be honest, I\u2019d just like to sit and have a general chit chat, really. I would never really press her on anything. I\u2019d just ask some stupid questions like, \u2018Do you believe in aliens? Do you believe in the afterlife?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Without that face-to-face encounter, Cresswell watched \u201ca lot of\u201d Rooney\u2019s interviews and clips to get acquainted with her.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was interesting seeing her when she was a lot younger because I feel that\u2019s the more naive version of her,\u201d she said. \u201cThat\u2019s the roots of her. And then obviously as she\u2019s gotten a bit older, I think she\u2019s probably become a lot more private within her life for various reasons.<\/p>\n \u201cIt must be very strange being somebody who was just a normal person and then they go out with somebody who blows up, but you\u2019re still just a normal person. You\u2019ve had to change your whole structure, the way that you live to accommodate marrying the love of your life, so I think it must be really difficult to find people that you can 100 per cent trust.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd the one thing that became very apparent in the transcripts I read from Colleen was this was a massive betrayal of trust for her. You think your information is safe and then it isn\u2019t. It creates a paranoia within your little world. You feel like you\u2019ve been invaded. It almost has a hint of the phone hacking scandal.\u201d<\/p> This role was \u201cone of the most testing\u201d performances of Cresswell\u2019s career, but not for the reason you might expect. Obviously there\u2019s the innate pressure that comes with re-telling one of the biggest entertainment stories in recent memory, but there wasn\u2019t much room for artistic expression, which she found limiting.<\/p>\n \u201cIn terms of creative freedom, I didn\u2019t have a lot,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m playing somebody [real] and I have to stick to that, so I couldn\u2019t make it mine. And it\u2019s quite difficult because she\u2019s in a courtroom situation, so she\u2019s got to act a certain way. You\u2019re told not to react that much because you\u2019re playing them within a situation where they have to be quite straight, so there were times where I felt a bit one-dimensional. There were times when I was questioning what I was doing.\u201d<\/p>\n But her biggest concern was not falling into a caricatured portrayal of Rooney, \u201cfocusing on just making her a normal person, and playing her as strong\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cShe\u2019s a mum of four boys, so she\u2019s going to be a strong person,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n Cresswell certainly knows a thing or two about playing resilient women. She made her name as Kelly Jenkins in This Is England, Shane Meadows\u2019s brutal yet beautiful drama about a group of working class friends in the Midlands, for which she won the BAFTA for Best Supporting Actress in 2016.<\/p>\n There have been rumblings of a fourth series set in the 2000s, but there\u2019s been no official word from the powers that be.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were all together not long ago for Tommo\u2019s [Thomas Turgoose] 30th and we were all asking him [Meadows], and the answer hasn\u2019t been no. He\u2019s definitely got some ideas but I don\u2019t know [if he\u2019ll do another one]. I did say to him, \u2018Come on, we\u2019re getting older. You\u2019ve got to hurry up. We\u2019ve only got so long in us.\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m sure most of us would jump back at a chance.\u201d<\/p>\n Like all of the characters in This Is England, Kelly\u2019s journey takes her to some difficult places. Her father rapes her best friend and her sister Lol, played by Vicky McClure, almost dies after an overdose. \u201cWith Kelly, it either goes really, really well, or it goes really, really dark. And I love playing the dark side. That\u2019s what I\u2019d ask for [in the next series].\u201d<\/p>\n But despite what the character and the project as a whole means to Cresswell, she \u201ccan\u2019t really watch it back anymore\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cShe\u2019s very personal to me because I was going through quite a lot of the time.,\u201d she added. \u201cThe music, what\u2019s happening, it just makes me so upset. But at the time it was like a therapy session going on set and talking with Shane and acting those things out. And it definitely put very strong stepping stones down for my career.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s one of those moments. And you can\u2019t knock any of the people involved. They were all insane, so I hope we come back.\u201d<\/p>\n If you have been affected by the themes\u00a0discussed in this article, you can find help and support at www.victimsupport.org.uk<\/a> and www.rapecrisis.org.uk<\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n Vardy v Rooney airs tonight on Channel 4 at 9pm.<\/strong> Looking for something else to watch? Check out our\u00a0TV Guide<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0Streaming Guide<\/a>, or visit our dedicated\u00a0Drama<\/a>\u00a0hub for the latest news.<\/strong><\/p>\n The Christmas double issue of Radio Times magazine is on sale now<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013\u00a0<\/strong>subscribe now<\/strong><\/a>. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to the\u00a0<\/strong>Radio Times View From My Sofa podcast<\/strong><\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div> <\/body><\/html>\n By Abby Robinson Published: Wednesday, 21 December 2022 at 12:00 am **This article contains discussion of themes such as sexual assault that some readers may find upsetting.** It was the celebrity scandal that launched a thousand memes, dominated column inches and eclipsed all other subjects in group chats up and down the land. Coleen Rooney, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":27564,"template":"","categories":[1,5],"acf":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/12\/chanel-cresswell-on-vardy-v-rooney-this-is-the-bit-we-dont-get-to-see.jpg",620,413,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/12\/chanel-cresswell-on-vardy-v-rooney-this-is-the-bit-we-dont-get-to-see-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/12\/chanel-cresswell-on-vardy-v-rooney-this-is-the-bit-we-dont-get-to-see-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/12\/chanel-cresswell-on-vardy-v-rooney-this-is-the-bit-we-dont-get-to-see.jpg",620,413,false],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/12\/chanel-cresswell-on-vardy-v-rooney-this-is-the-bit-we-dont-get-to-see.jpg",620,413,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/12\/chanel-cresswell-on-vardy-v-rooney-this-is-the-bit-we-dont-get-to-see.jpg",620,413,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/12\/chanel-cresswell-on-vardy-v-rooney-this-is-the-bit-we-dont-get-to-see.jpg",620,413,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Abby Robinson Published: Wednesday, 21 December 2022 at 12:00 am **This article contains discussion of themes such as sexual assault that some readers may find upsetting.** It was the celebrity scandal that launched a thousand memes, dominated column inches and eclipsed all other subjects in group chats up and down the land. 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