ITV orders four-part true crime drama based on ‘black cab rapist’ case from Jeff Pope

UK commercial broadcaster ITV has commissioned Believe Me, a four-part true crime drama from screenwriter Jeff Pope.

Polly Hill

Believe Me tells the story of three victims of one of the most prolific sex attackers in British history, John Worboys, dubbed by the media as the ‘black cab rapist’ after preying on women under cover of being a ‘respectable’ licensed taxi-cab driver.

Commissioned by ITV’s director of drama, Polly Hill, the series will be produced by Pope’s production company Etta Pictures, part of ITV Studios.

Aimée-Ffion Edwards (Slow Horses, Peaky Blinders, Dreamland) Miriam Petche (Industry) and Aasiya Shah (Raised by Wolves, Bloods, The Beast Must Die) play the women Worboys sexually assaulted. Daniel Mays (Des, A Thousand Blows, The Long Shadow) takes the role of Worboys.

The drama will be filmed in Cardiff and is produced with the support of the Welsh Government via Creative Wales.

Worboys was convicted in 2009 for sexually assaulting 12 women between 2006 and 2008, with their cases selected from a large number of suspected further victims. His modus operandi was to claim that he’d had a win at a casino or on the lottery, then offer women he’d picked up in his cab a glass of champagne, which he had laced with drugs and which rendered his victims unconscious.

The drama focuses on the ordeal of two of the women who reported sexual assaults by Worboys, and how the Metropolitan Police failed to thoroughly investigate the women’s allegations.

Academy Award-nominated and BAFTA- and RTS award-winning screenwriter Jeff Pope is no stranger to true crime drama having recently written Suspect: The Shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes and previously being known for The Walk In, Hatton Garden, A Confession, Little Boy Blue, Mrs Biggs and Lucan. He was also executive producer on The Reckoning and Appropriate Adult, both written by Neil McKay.

Pope will executive produce the drama alongside Saurabh Kakkar on behalf of Etta Pictures. Julia Ford (Until I Kill You, Showtrial) will direct. Catrin Lewis Defis (The Winter King, Hollington Drive) will produce.

The drama will air on ITV1 and STV and will be available for streaming on ITVX and STV Player. It is produced in association with and distributed by ITV Studios.