Kidnapping Of Model Chloe Ayling To Be Dramatized For BBC By ‘Killing Eve’ Writer Georgia Lester

EXCLUSIVE: The headline-grabbing abduction of British model Chloe Ayling is to be dramatized for the BBC by Killing Eve writer Georgia Lester.

The BBC’s youth channel BBC3 has greenlit the six-part true-crime series, which will be produced by BBC Studios. Casting is underway ahead of production beginning later this year.

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Ayling is working with BBC Studios to tell her story after she was abducted in Italy in 2017, having traveled to Milan for a photo shoot. She was freed unharmed after six days.

The series, working titled Kidnapped, will follow her ordeal from the kidnap to her resilience in captivity, and the subsequent court case that put her captors in jail.

Ayling’s experience dominated the headlines in the UK and Ayling was accused of staging the abduction to raise her profile, despite the conviction of her assailants.

Lester, who was the lead writer on Idris Elba’s Netflix series Turn Up Charlie, said: “Every moment that I have spent researching this series and spending time with Chloe, learning about the ordeal she suffered both by the men who abducted her and the people who doubted her, has been shocking and infuriating.”

Fiona Campbell, Controller of Youth Audience for iPlayer and BBC3, said Kidnapped would tell Ayling’s story “from the inside out” and would be brought to the screen with “sensitivity and insight.”

Priscilla Parish, Head of Drama for BBC Studios, added: “This is a jaw-dropping true story of a woman who survived a horrific ordeal using her wits, but was vilified in the aftermath.”

Al Mackay (Without Sin) is the director, while Clare Shepherd produces. The executive producers are Parish, Michael Parke, and Andrew Morrissey for BBC Studios; Lucy Richer for the BBC; and Lester.

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