Is Hunting Alice Bell based on a true story? Cast and crew talk "inspiration" for Channel 4 drama

With Hunting Alice Bell premiering on Channel 4 just last night, plenty of fans have been left intrigued by its premise and also wondering if the drama has been based on a true story.

Across six episodes, we follow a group of five women who have all been pulled into the online spotlight as the public starts to believe they could each be the lover and accomplice of notorious anaesthetist serial killer Dr Jason Nash (Simon Pegg).

And while the David Baddiel and Peter Bradshaw-crafted series hasn't exactly been plucked straight from the headlines, it has been loosely inspired by one of Britain's most harrowing true crime cases.

Chatting to Radio Times about the timing of Hunting Alice Bell's release feeling "current", series star Emily Barber said of the series: "I certainly find that just this idea that this did happen. Obviously, this is kind of loosely based on what happened with Maxine Carr and these women that were completely wrongly accused of being her.

"But what's interesting is that happened at a time where nothing was online. So it's just this interesting idea that now, something like that can blow up online so quickly and a narrative can be created so quickly.

"I just find that it certainly highlights that and how quickly we are to judge people, pick a side and the black and whiteness of that without kind of any evidence, I guess."

Similarly, Ralf Little explained: "The whole Maxine Car situation that was what had loosely inspired the idea for David and Peter in the first place. It is really interesting that its that mentality has always been there because it was happening then. But it was sort of pre-internet and now rather than let that mentality shift, I guess it's almost grown exponentially because information and misinformation can be spread so quickly.

"Once an idea takes hold like that, it's sort of if not impossible, is very difficult to shift. So you know whether it's whatever social media platform it is in in any situation – whether it's somebody trolling somebody else or all that kind of thing, the actual person that's actually sitting behind it, I think gets lost and I think we see that a lot in this show."

As the stars of the show explain, the basis of the idea for Hunting Alice Bell actually came from Baddiel watching a documentary called Being Maxine Carr.

In a self-written piece for Radio Times magazine, Baddiel detailed that despite its title, the documentary wasn't about the ex-girlfriend of Ian Huntley, who murdered the Soham schoolgirls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman in 2002.

He explained: "It was about several other women, living in different parts of the UK, none of whom had any connection to, or even looked like Carr, but were nonetheless targeted by locals who refused to believe they weren’t her."

Carr – who had worked as Holly and Jessica's teaching assistant – was jailed for providing Huntley with a false alibi. Upon her release, much like Alice Bell in the Channel 4 drama, she was granted lifelong anonymity.

As Baddiel outlined: "The tabloids, furious at being denied the chance to pursue her for the rest of her life, began dropping random and misinformed hints as to her possible whereabouts.

"This fed into a public desire for vigilante action, and the result, as the documentary showed, was that random women had to sate that hunger. These women were suddenly faced with mobs in their gardens, bricks through their windows, and strangers spitting at them in the street. Some lost their jobs, and none were offered protection by the authorities."

Baddiel also said of the series: "It’s a work of complete fiction, for which that 2008 documentary is only an inspiration."

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Hunting Alice Bell continues on Thursday 12 November at 9pm on Channel 4.

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