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Fans praise BBC's Ordeal of Innocence after Ed Westwick replaced

The show was originally intended to air on Boxing Day 2017

christian cooke ordeal by innocence
Emmy Griffiths
TV & Film Editor
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Fans have praised BBC's Ordeal of Innocence after the show was reshot and used split screen technology to replace one of the lead actors, Ed Westwick, after he was accused of sexual harassment in 2017. The show was originally meant to air on Boxing Day before the network made the decision to pull the drama from the schedule following the accusations and replace Ed with another actor. Viewers took to Twitter to praise the show after the first episode aired on the BBC on Sunday night.

ordeal by innocence© Photo: BBC

The show was reshot for Easter

One person wrote: "And this is why I love Agatha Christie books and adaptations. One minute your sure you know who the murderer is then the next minute you think it’s someone else! Constantly has us guessing #OrdealByInnocence," while another added: "Christian Cooke is in so many scenes, it must have taken forever to do reshoots! Well done to the production team. #OrdealByInnocence." A third person was disappointed that the show wouldn't be shown over consecutive evenings, writing: "Why, oh why, would @BBCOne not show #ordealbyinnocence over consecutive nights - after all the love, cleverness, creativity and high production values that have clearly gone into getting it to our screens? A whodunit over three weeks?"

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Christian Cooke, who replaced Ed as Mickey Argyll, previously opened up about taking over the role, telling BBC Breakfast that it was "surprisingly seamless". He continued: "It was surprisingly seamless, which is a credit to the producers and the director. I think [the producers and the director] had worked tirelessly behind the scenes to get everybody back together and logistically I’m sure it was difficult for them, but they were very sensitive towards the fact that they wanted it to be a fresh experience for me and the cast were more than welcoming. To be honest, it felt like the first time for everybody."

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