Hunting Alice Bell creator David Baddiel reveals the real-life inspiration behind the thriller: ‘The worst that can happen on social media’

If you've been hearing a lot of buzz around Channel 4's new thriller Hunting Alice Bell, you're not alone - the six-part thriller has arrived with a furore of speculation surrounding it.

Mostly, viewers want to know if the drama is based on a true story, as it has all the makings of one. Airing from November 11, those tuning in can follow the story of Fran playing out, a woman accused of being Alice Bell.

Alice was a nurse who worked alongside her lover, anaesthetist and serial killer Dr. Jason Nash. After falsifying hospital records to cover up his crimes, she'd been convicted of being his accomplice and is now hiding under a new identity.

Fran is just an ordinary woman living an ordinary life, when she's "outed" by an online true-crime investigator online as being Alice, needing to prove her innocence amid a wave of mob hate.

She soon discovers she’s not alone in this experience - other women have been accused of being Alice Bell and have been forced to fight back against internet trolls to clear their names.

In today's culture of misogyny, mob mentality and the dangers of the internet, this really could be a real tale. Series creator David Baddiel confirms that although Hunting Alice Bell isn't based on a particular true story, he was inspired to write it after watching a documentary about women who had been mis-identified as Maxine Carr.

The former girlfriend of Soham killer Ian Huntley, Maxine was imprisoned for providing him with a false alibi. Since her release from prison in 2004, she has been granted lifetime anonymity, although women have been publicly accused of being her.

Speaking to Cosmopolitan, David Baddiel says of the drama that inspired him, "Women [were] being targeted in their local communities by people who decided that they were Maxine Carr."

He explains, "There were literally people whispering, 'that woman is Maxine'. And then next they did have mobs in their garden. In one case, the local paper actually printed an article saying 'Maxine Carr living amongst us'."

David also wanted to highlight the misogyny and witch hunt mentality that is something women experience far more than men. "Whatever you think about her, Maxine Carr didn't do anything as bad as what Ian Huntley did, and yet Maxine Carr is the face of evil at some level," he shares.

The writer adds, "And it's true of Myra Hindley and others like that, because the man seems to be [thought of] lesser in the public imagination - and I guess that's because it's misogyny, but it's also because people have an angelic idea of women.

"And so if a woman does something evil, there's sort of a huge treasonous assault on her gender or some equally cliche idea. So, I'm also trying to raise questions about, you know, how evil is Alice Bell?"

As well as looking at treatment of women in this way, David wants to explore how the rise of social media has made the ability to incite hatred and create mass hysteria through pack mentality frighteningly easy.

He tells us that in Hunting Alice Bell, he's "exploring the worst that can happen on social media." He shares, "This is a departure for me in that it’s probably the most straightforwardly dark, thriller-y thing that I've written."

Summing up the show, he says it "has a whodunit element and lots of secrets and lots of stuff where you need to work out what's going on," suggesting, "It’s been very interesting to challenge myself as a storyteller, because it requires a lot of discipline."

However, there's a twist in the series when a proclamation from the serial killer himself, Dr. Jason Nash, casts doubt over the women protesting their innocence. There's a chance one of the group is lying and really is Alice Bell - but you'll have to watch until the end to find out.

Hunting Alice Bell airs on Channel 4 from November 11.