Hunting Alice Bell true story: the real women mistaken for Maxine Carr behind Channel 4's new thriller

Highlights

• Hunting Alice Bell, a six-part Channel 4 thriller created by David Baddiel and Peter Bradshaw, began on Wednesday 11 November at 9pm
• Its central characters, Alice Bell and the serial killer Dr Jason Nash, are fictional
• The premise draws on real women who were wrongly identified as Maxine Carr, the former girlfriend of the Soham murderer Ian Huntley, after her release in 2004
• Baddiel says Lucy Letby's case became "an important point of reference" while the series was being developed

LONDON, 11 November - A new Channel 4 drama about women hounded by a mob convinced they are a killer's accomplice draws on real cases of mistaken identity in Britain.

Hunting Alice Bell, which stars Alexandra Roach and Simon Pegg, is not based on a single case, its writer David Baddiel has said. But its central idea comes from real events, and in particular from a documentary he saw years ago.

Is Hunting Alice Bell based on a true story?

Not directly. Baddiel has said the series is a work of fiction, and that he did not want to make a "straightforward crime drama". Its plot is inspired by several real cases rather than one.

The series follows Fran Da Silva (Roach), who works in a leisure centre, lives in a cul-de-sac and has two teenage stepchildren and a new baby. When an internet sleuth decides she is Alice Bell, the former girlfriend and accomplice of the serial killer Dr Jason Nash (Pegg), her life is turned upside down by an online mob and then a real one, which threatens her life, her home and her family. She discovers she is not the only woman to have been misidentified, and five of them band together to clear their names. As they do, one of the group may actually be Alice Bell.

What is real and what is fictional in Hunting Alice Bell?

What is the real story behind Hunting Alice Bell?

It begins with Maxine Carr. In August 2002, the schoolgirls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, both 10, were murdered in Soham, Cambridgeshire, by Ian Huntley, who was given two life sentences with a minimum of 40 years. Carr, his girlfriend, who had been a teaching assistant at the girls' school, gave him a false alibi. She was convicted of conspiring to pervert the course of justice, and cleared of assisting an offender.

She was sentenced to three and a half years, served half, and was released on licence in May 2004. A High Court order gave her lifelong anonymity and a new identity.

After her release, a Channel 4 documentary from the late 2000s, Being Maxine Carr, directed by Maxx Ginnane, found that more than a dozen women around Britain had been mistaken for her and hounded from their homes, despite having no resemblance to Carr and being able to prove who they were.

What did David Baddiel say about the real cases?

Baddiel has told Channel 4 that the documentary was the original inspiration, and that a couple of scenes in the series come from what he saw in it. One involves a woman who had recently moved to a new area and found a crowd shouting at her in her garden. "She comes out with her passport to prove who she is; that stayed with me," he said.

He has also described how in one case a local newspaper printed an article saying "Maxine Carr living amongst us". Baddiel has described the series as being about misogyny, justice and "the psychosis of the mob", and about how rumours spread. He said that social media was the motor of the targeting, and that the documentary gave him a way into Fran.

Did Lucy Letby inspire Hunting Alice Bell?

Baddiel said Letby's case became "an important point of reference" as the series developed. He has said the idea of a nurse suspected of killing babies was already in his mind, and Bradshaw's, before her case was in the news.

Letby is a former neonatal nurse who was convicted in 2023, and at a retrial in 2024, of murdering seven babies and attempting to murder seven others. She is serving whole-life orders. Two applications for permission to appeal have been refused. The Criminal Cases Review Commission is reviewing a further application, and has said it cannot say how long that will take. Her convictions stand.

Who is in the cast of Hunting Alice Bell?

Where can you watch Hunting Alice Bell?

On Channel 4. The six-part series started on Wednesday 11 November at 9pm. Being Maxine Carr is not currently available to stream in the UK.