AceShowbiz - The upcoming ITV drama Believe Me brings together a talented British cast to depict a powerful and distressing chapter of recent UK history. Featuring actors such as Aimée-Ffion Edwards (Slow Horses, Peaky Blinders), Aasiya Shah (Raised by Wolves, Bloods), and Miriam Petche (Industry), the four-part series stars Daniel Mays (Line of Duty, Des) as John Worboys, infamously known as the "Black Cab Rapist."

The series shifts focus from the widely publicized perpetrator to the women whose lives were irreparably affected by his actions. It highlights the grueling and often dehumanizing process victims endured, from repeated police interviews to invasive evidence collection, alongside the frustration of facing skepticism from law enforcement. Believe Me aims to immerse viewers in the painful and anger-provoking reality of these survivors’ experiences.

Created by writer and executive producer Jeff Pope (Philomena, Stan & Ollie), the drama is produced by Etta Pictures under ITV Studios and directed by Julia Ford, known for her work on Happy Valley and Showtrial. The show explores the story of "one of the most prolific sex attackers in British history" and the systemic failures that left his victims unprotected. Worboys was convicted in 2009 for crimes including sexual assault and drugging with intent against 12 women between 2006 and 2008, selected from a much larger pool of suspected victims. His method involved picking up women in his taxi after nights out, fabricating stories of casino or lottery wins, and persistently offering drug-laced champagne that rendered his victims unconscious.

Believe Me centers on the ordeals of two women, portrayed by Edwards and Shah, who reported assaults by Worboys only to be met with inadequate investigations by the Metropolitan Police. This failure allowed him to continue offending undetected for years. After his trial, it became clear that over a hundred women had made allegations against him. To protect anonymity, the show uses pseudonyms and alters certain story elements.

The drama is slated to premiere on ITV and ITVX in May, with the exact release date yet to be confirmed. Filming took place in Cardiff, supported by the Welsh government through Creative Wales. ITV Studios also handles distribution.

Jeff Pope has a history of exploring true-crime narratives focused on the victims’ perspectives, including series such as The Widower and The Reckoning. He expressed in a press discussion that his creative approach deliberately avoids delving into the minds of perpetrators, preferring instead to portray the human impact of their crimes. "I'm not really interested in trying to get inside the mind of psychopaths," Pope said. Early in development, the creative team, including director Ford, decided the series would concentrate on the victims’ experiences. "These women were drugged and they could tell something had happened, but they didn't know exactly what had happened," he explained.

The storytelling does not dramatize the crimes themselves but focuses on the lead-up and aftermath. Pope emphasized the depiction of the exhaustive and invasive process the victims endured: hours of interviews, intimate medical examinations, and the collection of sensitive evidence. Ultimately, these women were often dismissed with the message, "We don’t believe you," which is reflected in the series title.

Having previously worked with Pope on Mrs Biggs and Suspect: The Shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes, Daniel Mays approached this role with confidence in the script’s depth and authenticity. "If Jeff's going to come at you with a script, you know it's going to be heartfelt, it's going to be engaging, it's going to be thoroughly researched," Mays told the press. "He's absolutely meticulous with his storytelling. He comes from a journalistic background, and so, in as much as it was a huge character to take on, with all the challenges that it threw at me, Jeff, as a writer, seems to get the best out of me as an actor."

Mays acknowledged the significant challenge of portraying a convicted sex offender like John Worboys. "You're being asked to sort of humanize someone who is evil, essentially. It's about delving beneath those headlines and trying to play him in as three-dimensional a way as possible," he said. However, the emotional weight of inhabiting such a dark character proved taxing. "I underestimated how difficult that was going to be," Mays admitted. "I've got 26 years of experience as a professional actor, but I'm not going to lie to you. It did, at times, take its toll. It was a difficult thing and an unsettling thing to portray, and very isolating by its very nature."

Director Julia Ford described the series as a fair and balanced portrayal of the victims’ experiences. "It's just that this felt like the best way to tell the story," she explained. "Undeniably, these women were treated very, very poorly by the police, ... and we tell the story from their point of view." Ford clarified that the drama does not single out any one police officer but critiques systemic failure: "We don't point the finger at one individual, one policeman or policewoman. It's not about one particular individual, it's about the whole system."

Through Believe Me, viewers are invited to witness the harrowing reality faced by survivors of sexual violence and the institutional shortcomings that compounded their suffering. The series promises to shed light on the emotional and psychological toll endured by victims, rather than sensationalizing the perpetrator's notoriety.

With a compelling cast and a thoughtful creative team led by Jeff Pope and Julia Ford, Believe Me is poised to be a poignant and impactful drama when it airs later this year on ITV and ITVX.