ITV Drama 'Believe Me': Daniel Mays on Playing Black Cab Rapist
Aimée-Ffion Edwards in ITV drama 'Believe Me'
Courtesy of ITV
-
Share on Facebook
-
Share on X
-
Google Preferred
-
Share to Flipboard
-
Show additional share options
-
Share on LinkedIn
-
Share on Pinterest
-
Share on Reddit
-
Share on Tumblr
-
Share on Whats App
-
Send an Email
-
Print the Article
-
Post a Comment
The upcoming ITV drama Believe Me features established and rising British stars coming together to tell a harrowing British story. Aimée-Ffion Edwards (Slow Horses, Peaky Blinders, Mr Burton), Aasiya Shah (Raised by Wolves, Bloods, The Beast Must Die) and Miriam Petche (Industry) feature in the four-episode series opposite Daniel Mays (Line of Duty, Des, A Thousand Blows, Moonflower Murders) as John Worboys, who is known in the U.K. by a more sinister moniker: the “Black Cab Rapist.”
He has drawn many a headline, so now it is time for women who suffered because of him to see their stories and their experiences told. From the indignity of multiple police interviews and intimate evidence gathering to skeptical lines of questioning from police officers, Believe Me takes audiences through many a painful, frustrating and anger-inducing experience.
Related Stories
Music
Asobi System Artists, Executives on Global Aspirations and Asobi Expo Hawaii 2026
Music
PinkPantheress Throws Star-Studded Birthday Bash During Coachella Set With Slew of Celeb Guests
Indeed, Believe Me, written and executive produced by Jeff Pope (Philomena, Stan & Ollie, Cilla), produced by his Etta Pictures, part of ITV Studios, and directed by Julia Ford, tells the story of the victims of “one of the most prolific sex attackers in British history” and how they “were failed by the system,” a show description reads. “Worboys was convicted in 2009 for crimes, including sexual assault and drugging with intent, against 12 women between 2006 and 2008, with their cases selected from a large number of suspected further victims. His modus operandi 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 in the lottery, then persistently offer them a drug-laced glass of champagne to help him ‘celebrate’ – which then rendered his victims unconscious.”
Believe Me focuses on the ordeals of two women, portrayed by Edwards and Shah, who reported sexual assaults by Worboys, only to see London’s Metropolitan Police, aka Scotland Yard, failing to thoroughly investigate their cases, effectively leaving Worboys free to commit assaults undetected for years. Following his trial came the realization that he was linked to allegations of further sexual offenses against more than a hundred women. Believe Me is expected to premiere on ITV and ITVX in the coming weeks, with a launch date yet to be made official.
As a writer and/or producer, Pope has explored true-crime stories in such series as The Widower, about convicted murderer Malcolm Webster, and The Reckoning, about the sexual crimes of British media personality Jimmy Savile. But he prefers to explore the human fallout of crimes rather than glorify their perpetrators. “That’s really been my process for a long time now,” Pope shared during an online discussion about Believe Me with members of the press. “I’m not really interested in trying to get inside the mind of psychopaths.”
In fact, he shared that the creative team, including director Ford, knew quite quickly where the story’s focus would lie. “We really settled very early in the creative process on making this very much about the experience of the victims,” Pope explained. “These women were drugged and they could tell something had happened, but they didn’t know exactly what had happened.”
Daniel Mays in ITV drama ‘Believe Me’
Courtesy of ITV
The creative team is showing us not the crimes themselves, but what led up to them and the emotional fallout. “We take the audience along the journey with [these women] on the day they report being assaulted, hours and hours and hours of interviews, intimate examinations, more interviews, samples are being taken, intimate swabs,” highlighted Pope. “These women just went through the most horrendous process of all, ultimately to be told we don’t believe a crime has happened. Essentially: ‘We don’t believe you’.” That is also where the title of the series comes from.
Mays had in the past already collaborated with Pope on Mrs Biggs and Suspect: The Shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes, so he was confident that Believe Me would be a strong show. “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,” the actor shared with the press. “He’s absolutely meticulous with