Crime thriller? Social commentary? Nightmare fantasy? Who knows...: CHRISTOPHER STEVENS reviews Hunting Alice Bell
Published: | Updated:
Hunting Alice Bell (Channel 4)
Rating:
Whether it’s a stroke of bold brilliance to cast Amanda Abbington as the victim of an online hate mob, or a ploy that will backfire horribly, is too soon to judge.
The actress was bombarded with threats and harassment on social media after making accusations of abusive behaviour, largely dismissed, against Strictly dance pro Giovanni Pernice in 2024.
She was barely glimpsed until the final five minutes of the opening episode of Hunting Alice Bell.
And when she did appear, it was in the least convincing scene of a drama that started with attention to realism but, as it dialled up the satire, became progressively less plausible.
By the time Ms A arrived, in a black wig that had apparently been dropped onto her head from some height, the story had taken leave of all claim to credibility.
Hunting Alice Bell doesn’t seem to know if it’s a crime drama, a psychological thriller, a social commentary or a nightmarish fantasy.
Alexandra Roach plays Fran, the stepmother of two teens with a new baby of her own and a job at a leisure centre.
After she appears on local TV news, announcing the installation of a wave machine in the swimming pool, online trolls begin making baseless accusations against her.
The leading conspiracy theorist, a thug in a metal balaclava, names her as the notorious Alice Bell, girlfriend and accomplice of a serial killer (the name obviously inspired by Mary Bell, convicted of child murder as a teenager, who lived the rest of her life under an assumed identity).
Alice Bell has been in hiding for 15 years – and the frothing online vigilante announces that facial recognition software proves ‘a 74 per cent match’ with Fran.
The farcical figure of 74 per cent is a detail that encapsulates why this six-part series isn’t working. It’s an obvious lampoon, a sneer at the stupidity of people who spread fake news.
Equally undermining is the show’s contempt for the police. The vigilantes start filming outside Fran’s family home, and within minutes a mob gathers, waving iron bars and hurling rocks.
Fran rushes outside to confront them, waving her passport and a certificate for swimming 100 metres, as proof of her identity.
When that doesn’t work, her husband, Nick (Rudi Dharmalingam), chases them away with a baseball bat. But when the police arrive, they show no interest in the rioters on a suburban street.
They’re only there because a malicious co-worker has reported Fran to social services.
At this point, Fran decides to go for a walk down a lonely country lane. Amanda A, vaping away like a volcano about to erupt, chases her in a Range Rover and almost runs her down – then produces the Big Plot Twist.
She isn’t one of the vigilantes... she too has been accused of being Alice Bell. So have loads of other women.
The series continues tonight, when no doubt all these Not-Alices will be fighting back.
KioskNews shows a cleaned-up reading view extracted from the publisher’s page — the original always lives on their site, not ours.