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Spotlight: May 16

Spotlight special on Craig McLachlan will air on Sunday night.

Seven News has confirmed its Spotlight special on Craig McLachlan will air on Sunday night at 7pm.

Produced by Mark Llewellyn, this will comprise video diaries kept by McLachlan and exclusive interviews.

McLachlan was cleared of sexual assault charges but still has a defamation case against the ABC and Sydney Morning Herald / The Age. For Spotlight he will get to tell his side of the story.

It is likely different versions may screen in different states due to legal proceedings.

Back before the allegations, the life of once-acclaimed actor Craig McLachlan and his long-time partner, Vanessa Scammell, was perfect and their future looked bright.

Overnight, that all changed.

From mega-star to alleged monster, in January 2018 press reports put McLachlan in the frame of multiple sexual harassment allegations against female theatre actors.

Soon after McLachlan sued for defamation, a case that’s still to be heard. He was charged and would face trial on 13 serious indecent assault and common law assault offenses against four women on the set of The Rocky Horror Show in 2014.

The public vilification was instant and unforgiving against the backdrop of Harvey Weinstein and the international #MeToo movement.

McLachlan’s career was dead: he was stood down from The Rocky Horror Show and The Doctor Blake Mysteries and hasn’t been able to land a job since.

Just before Christmas last year, he was acquitted of all crimes, but McLachlan’s fight to clear his name is far from over.

In this confronting and emotionally-charged 7NEWS Spotlight exclusive documentary, McLachlan opens up for the first time about the case which has dominated the past three-and-a-half years of his life.

Fearful even of trips to the local supermarket, McLachlan self-exiled to a shipping container on a remote property to escape the public glare. He reveals at the height of his despair being admitted to a mental health facility and a failed suicide attempt.

Nothing if off limits as he details his stratospheric fall and the depression that ultimately saw him hit rock bottom, featuring hours of never-before-seen, unfiltered confessional videos shot by McLachlan over the course of his ordeal.

Above all, this is a love story between McLachlan and his leading lady, Vanessa Scammell: how their relationship survived allegations that would have destroyed most couples.

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