The Twelve on ITV: Is it based on a true story?

The Twelve is ITV1's latest crime drama series set in a courtroom that's set to shock and delight viewers, but what is this series based on?

ITV1's latest drama The Twelve is set to hit screens this week. The Australian courtroom drama focuses on the lives of 12 ordinary people who are selected as jurors on a murder case involving a woman named Kate Lawson who stands accused of killing her niece. The members of the jury bring their prejudices, trauma and own life experiences to the stand and must find a way to work out if Kate is in fact guilty of the crime she is accused.

While the series has already delighted Australian viewers, many UK viewers are curious about this drama and want to know more about what inspired the events in the ten-part series. Here's what you need to know...

Is The Twelve based on a true story?

In short, no. The Twelve is not based on a true story. Actually the Australian series is based on a Belgian series of the same name- or the same name in Flemish - De Twaalf. 

In and interview with Variety, the creators of the original Belgian series, Bert Van Dael and Sanne Nuyens, revealed that they wanted their series to question how much bias there is in the judicial system. "We put a lot of time in the research of our show. We really wanted to get to know how it felt inside a jury room. How much bias do we take with us? Every person has a background. How much of personal background defines our judgements?  These were the ultimate questions for us while developing the series," they said.

They also said that they spoke to real jurors when preparing their script."We talked discreetly with quite a few ex-jurors. We really knew we had a show when one of the ex-jurors told us about her terrorising husband while being on jury duty. She said she recognised traits of her jealous husband in the defendant and told us she feared ending up like the victim when she would stay with her husband. After her jury duty she finally had the courage to leave her husband. It was the jury duty that changed her life. But it was also her own personal life that found the defendant convicted," they said.

They commented that they knew that the series would spark a debate which meant they needed to be as informed as possible. "We knew that The Twelve would put ourselves right in the middle of this big debate about the need for juries in the Belgian judicial system. We talked extensively with a lot of players in the field about this: Judges, politicians, lawyers, prosecutors, jurors," they said.

"And the interesting fact for us was that our series encompasses both the good and the bad of the jury system. We feel that there’s something really good to say about juries, and we feel that there’s bad things to say," they said. "We hope The Twelve shows both sides after ten episodes because this is very much how we feel. Maybe a jury system is not per se the best or the most fair system, but it could very well be 'the best system we have at hand'."

When is The Twelve on?

All ten episodes of The Twelve are available to stream on ITVX and has been available on this platform since 2023. However, the series will also begin airing on ITV1 on Thursday 28th March at 9pm.

The entire series will be released every Thursday night at 9pm from March 28th until May 16th when the 10 episode series concludes.