Strictly Come Dancing star Amanda Abbington has issued a desperate plea after suffering horrific online abuse over her latest role.
The Sherlock actress, 52, has pleaded with trolls to ‘leave me alone for a bit’ after they tore her apart over her appearance in Meet the Richardsons.
In the mockumentary from comedian couple Jon Richardson and Lucy Beaumount, Amanda plays a fictionalised version of herself for a joke sketch.
The scene sees the Mr Selfridge acress launch into an expletive rant after a fan approaches her for a selfie while out and about with Lucy, 40.
However, some viewers have misunderstood the show – which is a scripted comedy and not real – as a documentary and have been slamming Amanda for her ‘behaviour.’
But as the Doc Martin star was forced to explain on her Instagram Stories: ‘Meet the Richardsons was an acting job. I’m an actress. That’s my career. I’ve cultivated my career for 31 years. I would never treat anyone like that in real life. Obviously.
‘I’m posting this because some folks seem to think it newsworthy.
‘If you could just leave me alone for a bit, that would be lovely. Loads of other stuff going on in the world. It’s all feeling pretty relentless. Please.’
In the episode – which is a scripted sketch, just to be very clear -‘Lucy’ and ‘Amanda’ were in good spirits after agreeing to work on a film together.
However, the atmosphere turned sour when a Sherlock fan asked ‘Amanda’ for a selfie and she responded with a ‘no.’
Again as part of the comedic scripted skit, she turned to’ ‘Lucy’ and said: ‘F*****g Sherlock, f*****g fans are the f*****g worst.” and said: ‘F*****g Sherlock, f*****g fans are the f*****g worst.’
She also mocked a fan, saying: ”’You want get a selfie” oh shut up, t**t!’
Later on in the episode, ‘Amanda’ is accosted by another Sherlock-loving fan and rejects a second selfie, shouting: ‘No you can’t get a f*****g selfie you stupid Sherlock.’
Last year, Amanda Abbington competed on Strictly with professional partner Giovanni Pernice but withdrew early citing ‘personal reasons.’
After she quit, it was rumoured that she had feuded with Giovanni over his ‘harsh’ teaching style.
It was also claimed Amanda was seeking legal advice about her time on the BBC dance competition and had requested video footage of her rehearsals.
A source close to Giovanni told The Sun: ‘Gio finds some of these allegations deeply unfair and offensive. He believes he’s done nothing wrong, and simply wants to get the best out of his partners.’
Amanda later said she was ‘diagnosed with mild PTSD’ and received death threats after her Strictly departure.
Metro.co.uk has previously contacted Amanda and Giovanni’s reps for comment.
Meet the Richardsons airs on Dave on Mondays at 9pm.
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