Believe Me premieres on Sunday, 10 May 9PM on ITV1 and ITVX.
Believe Me tells the story of how the victims of one of the most prolific sex attackers in British history were failed by the system. John Worboys was dubbed the ‘black cab rapist’ after preying on women under the cover of being a ‘respectable’ licensed taxi-cab driver. He was convicted in 2009 for sexually assaulting twelve women between 2006 and 2008, with their cases selected from a large number of suspected further victims. His modusoperandi was to pick up women in his cab after they’d been on a night out, claim that he’d had a win at a casino or on the lottery, then persistently offer them a drug-laced glass of champagne to help him celebrate – but which rendered his victims unconscious.
The drama focuses on the ordeal of Sarah (Aimée-Ffion Edwards) and Laila (Aasiya Shah), who reported sexual assaults by Worboys (Daniel Mays),and how the Metropolitan Police failed to thoroughly investigate their allegations, leading them to feel that they were just not believed. We see what countless women say they have to go through after reporting being raped, the indignity of multiple interviews and intimate evidence gathering, and how they can face skeptical lines of questioning from the police.
Believe Me will relate how the Met’s failings effectively left Worboys free to commit assaults undetected for many years; following his trial came the realisation that he was linked to allegations of further sexual offences against over a hundred women. Sarah and Laila then joined forces with solicitor Harriet Wistrich, played by Philippa Dunne and barrister Phillippa Kaufmann QC, played by Rachael Stirling, to sue the Metropolitan Police under the Human Rights Act for their failure to properly conduct investigations into their allegations of sexual assault, leading to their being subjected to degrading treatment and contributing to their distress. They won. And when the Met appealed that judgment all the way to the Supreme Court, they won again and again.
As these women fought against the odds to have their cases heard, looming in the background was Worboys’ first parole hearing. Unbelievably, only eight years after he was convicted for his crimes, his victims were made to fight again to keep him behind bars.Sarah, Laila, Harriet and Phillippa were joined by Carrie Symonds (Miriam Petche), who was targeted by Worboys in her youth but had a narrow escape, and who was now a senior figure in the Conservative Party press team. She put her career on the line to spearhead a huge media and political campaign pushing for an unprecedented judicial review of the Parole Board’s decision. The campaign, with Sarah, Laila and Carrie at the forefront, was successful, and Worboys’ parole was quashed. The bravery and resilience of these women resulted in significant changes to the law.
Daniel Mays speaks about taking on the challenging role of Worboys: When you’re playing a real person in any drama, there’s always a huge responsibility that comes with it, but this was a whole other level. This isn’t a drama about the motives of John Worboys, and rightly so. This is told from the perspective of the victims, and for them to tell their truth, have their stories told – the ordeals that they went through and the fight they took on against the Metropolitan Police and the court systems. So, when you’re dealing with that, the onus was on me to get it absolutely 110% right. That was paramount to me.
I hope it shines a light on an incredibly dark story, and I hope that it allows all of these women that he attacked to have their moment in the sun, to speak their truth. It’s an incredibly harrowing and controversial and disturbing story to watch, but in the middle of all of that and throughout, it’s incredibly inspiring – the strength and the courage that all these women found within themselves to fight the good fight and to keep him in prison. It was a long and arduous legal journey for them to go on. Ultimately, I hope this is a really uplifting and inspiring story, and that it’s compelling.
(photos courtesy of ITV/ITVX)
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Daniel Mays 