The crimes of John Worboys – a suitable case for TV drama?
A new ITV series will explore the campaign of victims of the serial rapist to get justice after the police failed to properly investigate their allegations
John Worboys was one of the most prolific sex attackers in British criminal history. Just to hear his name is to feel horror and revulsion.
So news that ITV is going to revisit this shocking case in a new TV drama will lead to some concern about the suitability of such a series as ‘entertainment’.
Recent dramatisations about serial murderers Jeffrey Dahmer and Ed Gein led to criticism of their voyeuristic depiction of the crimes and fascination with the killers.
Both at the cinema and on TV there have series that fetishised crimes and made the guilty men the star of the show, a potentially traumatising experience for victims’ loved ones.
However, such worries are probably wide of the mark with regard to Believe Me, the title of this latest series. This does not sound as though it will foreground the perpetrator, played by Daniel Mays.
Rather, the focus is on two victims: Sarah, played by Aimée-Ffion Edwards, and Laila, portrayed by Aasiya Shah (both character names are pseudonyms to protect the identities of the real women). These characters are seen reporting sexual assaults by Worboys, the driver of a black London taxi.
As the story unfolds, it soon becomes clear their allegations are not being thoroughly investigated.
Instead, they have to go through the indignity of reporting rape – an experience highlighted by many victims – the many interviews, intimate evidence gathering, only to be treated like a criminal themselves.
At one point, apparently, we see Laila being asked by an officer if her red nail varnish is an insight into her character.
Difficult though such events are to dramatise sensitively, the value of such true-crime depictions – from the post-office scandal to serial-murder cases – is that they allow us to have some understanding of how these terrible events happen.
ITV also has a fine track record of making high-quality dramas that explore the most challenging cases. The Long Shadow in 2023 explored the lives of the victims of Peter Sutcliffe, along with their families, and the calamitous failures of the police investigation.
Appropriate Adult (2011), about the Fred West case, was nominated for eight Bafta awards, winning four including two for lead actors Dominic West and Emily Watson.
The Pembrokeshire Murders (2021), Des (2020) and Manhunt (2019-2021) were all compelling and superbly written series.
Worboys was convicted in 2009 for crimes including sexual assault and drugging with intent against 12 women between 2006 and 2008. Police complacency in investigating was partly down to the prejudice that a ‘respectable’ licensed black cab driver would be unlikely to have alcohol or drugs in his cab to overpower victims.
The attacker’s method of entrapment was to pick up female customers, claim he had had a lottery or casino win, and offer them a glass of drug-laced Champagne.
True scale of Worboys’ crimes
Following his trial, police finally came to realise that Worboys was connected to sexual offences against more than 100 women.
Predators such as Worboys are bad enough, but series like Believe Me keep alive the fact in our minds that it is often institutional and/or political failings that allow them to continue damaging lives for so long.
Carrie Johnson (née Symonds, played by actress Miriam Petche), who was targeted by Worboys in her youth but had a narrow escape, said, ‘I hope Believe Me serves as a wake-up call to the police, the CPS [Crown Prosecution Service] and the parole board. Far too often, women and girls are failed by the very institutions meant to protect them.
‘The treatment of the victims in this case was truly shameful.’
In terms of the production, we might spare a thought for the actors having to perform in such a devastating drama based on real events.
Daniel Mays as Worboys found he had underestimated the toll the role would take on him. ‘It was a difficult thing to have rolling around in my head before filming,’ he has said.
‘It was a very isolating character to play. When I was announced to play him, I got this tirade from family and friends and work colleagues who can’t quite believe it, going, “Why would you want to play something like that?”
‘So, the challenge was to humanise him, really, and that was a very difficult and unsettling thing to take on.’
Believe Me is coming soon in the UK to ITV1, ITVX, STV & STV Player
I appeared on the documentary series Murder by the Sea in an episode about the Pembrokeshire murders. You can read about it here