British star Daniel Mays (Line of Duty, Des, Atonement) will play prolific sex attacker John Worboys in a new ITV true crime series.
ITV’s director of drama Polly Hill has commissioned the four-part show, Believe Me, written by the BAFTA-winning Jeff Pope and produced by his production company Etta Pictures (part of ITV Studios).
The series will tell the true story of the three victims of Worboys, dubbed the “black cab rapist” by the British press after he used his profession as a licensed taxi driver to prey on the women of London in a spate of crimes committed between 2006 and 2008.
Aimée-Ffion Edwards (Slow Horses) Miriam Petche (Industry) and Aasiya Shah (Raised by Wolves) will star as the women Worboys sexually assaulted and ultimately made to feel as though they were “just not believed.” Believe Me will cover how Metropolitan Police failings allowed Worboys to remain undetected for years, culminating in a trial where he was linked to allegations of attacks on over 100 women.
The show is set to be filmed in Cardiff and is produced with the support of the Welsh Government via Creative Wales. Pope will executive produce the drama alongside Saurabh Kakkar on behalf of Etta Pictures. Julia Ford (Until I Kill You, Showtrial, Unforgiveable) will direct the series. Catrin Lewis Defis (The Winter King, Hollington Drive, The Pact) will produce.
“The series goes on an emotional journey with the victims of Worboys’ attacks, showing what happened to them when they reported being raped and assaulted, the pain and indignity of the process and how this de-humanised them,” said Pope.
“But most shocking of all is how they felt that not being believed by the police and having the attacks recorded, essentially, as non-crimes, was as traumatising for them as the actual assaults.”
Deadline first reported the casting news.