A BBC interview in which the chief executive of the National Theatre of Scotland praises the Moors murderer Myra Hindley has been pulled at the last minute after station bosses decided it was inappropriate.
Vicky Featherstone, who is also artistic director of the NTS, revealed her admiration for the child killer in the BBC programme You'll Have Had Your Tea. The Radio Scotland programme invites public figures to list three people they would like to have
to dinner with.
Featherstone, 39, from Clackmannanshire, picked Hindley as her first choice. She also chose playwright Tennessee Williams and Burmese peace campaigner Aung Sang Suu Kyi.
Details of the programme's content - due to air tomorrow - came out yesterday lunchtime, but last night the BBC announced the broadcast would no longer go ahead as scheduled.
In the programme, Ms Featherstone, a mother of two, who met Hindley in prison during a theatre workshop, claims the killer had "totally redeemed herself" and was a "human, funny and talented woman".
Ms Featherstone said: "I was fascinated with her as a student in Manchester at the time when they were looking for one of the last bodies. I have always been fascinated with this idea of the personification of evil.
"For me, there is something about Myra Hindley. There is a lot of talk about how far she was led by Ian Brady and how culpable she actually was. Of course she was culpable because she was part of it. But I am interested in whether someone is able to go through life imprisonment.
"She totally redeemed herself. Everybody who had anything to do with her talked about the fact she seemed like she was a changed woman."
On 6 May, 1966, Hindley and her partner, Brady, were jailed for life for the murders of Lesley Ann Downey, aged ten, in 1964, and Edward Evans, aged 17, in 1965. Brady was also convicted of the murder of 12-year-old John Kilbride, and Hindley was found guilty of being an accessory.
A tape-recording made by Hindley and Brady of Lesley Ann Downey pleading for her life was played to the 1965 trial.
In 1987, Brady and Hindley confessed to two further murders - of Pauline Reade, aged 16, and 12-year-old Keith Bennett, whose body has never been found. The other bodies were found buried on Saddleworth Moor outside Manchester.
Myra Hindley died in prison in 2002, aged 60.
Ms Featherstone met Hindley in Cookham Wood prison. She said: "I was working for a 'women in prisons' theatre company at the time doing workshops.
"I found her one of the most thrilling people I have ever met, because she was so human and so funny and she was so dedicated and actually very talented.
"I am interested in how she was drawn into those [crimes] in terms of her relationship with Brady."
A spokesman for BBC Scotland said: "The programme is intended to be of a slightly light-hearted nature and it was felt that it may be inappropriate for a mid-morning audience.
"The intention would be to use the programme as the basis for a debate about feelings towards Myra Hindley in which Vicky Featherstone may take part, or for the programme to be run in a different slot."
In a statement, Ms Featherstone said: "I am aware of the sensitivity of issues like this and I don't want the serious comments I made in the programme to be taken out of context in case they offend listeners."
A spokesman for Victim Support said that Ms Featherstone's description of Hindley would be "irreconcilable" with the experiences of her victims and their families.
She said: "People who have been directly touched by the crimes of Ian Brady and Myra Hindley would be astonished.".
Director's role
VICKY Featherstone, who was born in Surrey but lived in Alva, Clackmannanshire, as a child, became inaugural artistic director of the National Theatre of Scotland in 2004. The company, which is tasked with making theatre more accessible, receives £4 million a year from the Scottish Executive.
Ms Featherstone, 39, courted controversy when she commissioned a play from Gregory Burke for an "unflinching examination" of the role of the Black Watch in Iraq.
