BBC’s New Drama Is A Shocking Tale About A Real Life Kidnapping
The BBC is always reliable for a great drama, with unmissable shows this year like Industry and The Listeners. One to watch if you love true crime though is their latest miniseries, out this week. Kidnapped: The Chloe Ayling Story is a six-part drama, based on true events, coming to BBC Three on 14th August and chronicling the true story of Chloe Ayling, a model whose life was changed forever when she was suddenly abducted in Milan in 2017- but even her safe return wasn’t the end of her ordeal. Hooked? Here’s all you need to know:
What is Kidnapped about?
It’s quite a story, so strap in. In mid-2017, Chloe Ayling was aged 20 and working as a model in London for an agency. She was offered to go on a shoot in Milan, Italy in July of that year, and she accepted as she was in the midst of developing her burgeoning career. The “shoot” however was actually a setup with Ayling as the target, with the young woman terrifyingly approached, drugged and abducted by masked men as she entered the studio. Hours later she would awaken in a remote farmhouse, while her family back home would discover her absence from her scheduled landing at Gatwick. The next day, ransom emails demanding cash payment or else forfeit Ayling’s life appeared in her mother’s inbox. After her mother contacted Italian authorities, Ayling would appear again six days later alongside 30-year-old Łukasz Herba at the UK consulate in Milan.
The kidnapping was reportedly carried out by the crime group The Black Death with the aim of human trafficking, but despite her ordeal, things didn’t end there. Much of the British media back home and others believed that the kidnapping was a fake stunt, with Ayling in on it, and Kidnapped follows both the abduction and the media frenzy that followed. Ayling herself has said that she thinks she wasn’t believed due to not showing her emotions easily to the cameras and inaccurate reporting and has given her support to the series.
What else do we know?
Nadia Parkes, known for her roles in Dominia, Doctor Who and The Bastard Son And The Devil Himself, plays the role of Ayling, and said she was drawn to the project by what the story said about society and social media in particular. Ade Edmonson, best known for his comedic characters in classic anarchic comedies The Young Ones and Bottom, takes on a dramatic role in Kidnapped as Phil Green, the head of Ayling’s modelling agency who maintained he was in the dark about the kidnapping plan. You can follow the whole story when the six-parter arrives on 14th August on BBC Three and iPlayer, and you can watch the official trailer below.
