Friends and family of late cricketing legend Shane Warne have slammed the ‘Warnie’ mini-series, labelling it as “disgraceful” and “in poor taste.”
The two-part drama series was billed by Channel Nine as the “must-see drama event of 2023” and was reportedly in pre-production just three weeks after his sudden and tragic passing on the fourth of March 2022.
WATCH NOW: Trailer for Warnie. Article continues after video.
When the show was announced, eldest child Brooke, 26, took to her Instagram story to express her heartache at the project.
“Do any of you have any respect for Dad? Or his family? Who did so much for Channel 9 and now you want to dramatise his life and our family’s life six months after he passed away? You are beyond disrespectful.”
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Fans and commentators alike were also quick to pass criticism on the series for its low budget, inaccurate storylines, and lack of respect shown to Shane Warne and his loved ones.
The show drew a mere 528,000 metro viewers for the first episode and saw a significant drop in viewership for its second and final episode at 434,000.
Entertainment Reporter Peter Ford confirmed to 3AW Radio that he had received a phone call from Keith Warne (Shane’s father) on Sunday night after the first episode had premiered.
“Keith is a very astute man, he knows it’s entertainment, he knows it’s not a documentary, but he feels that they missed out on a few key things,” Peter revealed to the radio station.
“The main thing is he feels they didn’t portray the growth of Shane from the larrikin teenager to the mature adult who wanted to make a difference in the world.”
“He feels there were some inaccuracies that didn’t reflect well on Shane, for example, the fact that Shane took up with Elizabeth Hurley.”
“Which is correct but in the show, it’s presented that he did that during the time he was still married to Simone [Callahan] and Keith is quite adamant there was quite a distance between those two things happening. He’s not angry, he’s just disappointed by the result.”
Whilst Shane and Simone divorced in 2005 after a ten-year marriage, the pair remained on friendly terms, happily co-parenting their three now-adult children.
“I haven’t wanted to read too much about it,” Simone told the Herald Sun about the controversial miniseries.
“I think it’s a bit unkind and mean-spirited, to be honest.”
“It’s my opinion. He’s just passed, let him rest in peace. And for the kids, I just believe that [Nine is] not showing any compassion at all by putting this out there in such a short amount of time after this has happened.”
Former teammate Ian Healy continued the train of criticism, blasting Warnie for including a voiceover that he said inaccurately portrayed Shane as “cynical” and “up himself.”
“I was a little annoyed with the first voice-over bit of Warnie speaking about his life and how he got a state funeral and his attitude,” Ian said.
“They didn’t have his attitude right. They made him out to be too cynical and sarcastic. He was not like that at all.
Liz Hurley has not yet made a public comment in relation to the miniseries but did show support to Brooke Warne this week and she celebrated her 26th birthday, writing “Love you. Happy Birthday xxxx” and a string of heart emojis under Brooke’s celebratory post.
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