Under Suspicion: Kate McCann - actress reveals why she was ‘wary’ of playing Madeleine McCann’s mother in new Channel 5 show

Channel 5's one-off drama about the 2007 disappearance of Madeleine McCann approaches the story of the missing child from a new angle - when suspicion fell on her mother, Kate.

Under Suspicion: Kate McCann airs on the platform on May 20, and the 90-minute film is based on official statements and recorded testimony from the time Kate was interrogated by Portuguese investigators.

Police and authorities were under mounting pressure to deliver answers and find clues about what happened to Madeleine.

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As one of the most famous and heavily reported missing person cases in modern history, the public has maintained an ongoing intrigue into what really happened the night a three-year-old was taken her family's holiday apartment as her parents dined nearby.

With the case often coming under media scrutiny, and investigators seemingly no closer to finding Madeleine nearly 20 years later, the actress taking on the role of Kate McCann reveals she was "wary" of taking on the role.

"It was challenging, very affecting," Laura Bayston she says during an appearance on Good Morning Britain.

Under Suspicion: Kate McCann | Promo | Channel 5 - YouTube

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The actress continues, "I think we've done justice to the story, and we're very proud of it."

When asked if she was wary of taking on the role, Laura replies, honestly, "Yea, initially, when I was approached with the project before any meetings had even taken place."

Explaining that she needed to "sit" with the idea for a while, the actress shares, "If it was going to be done, it had to be done correctly, and for the right reasons and right intentions."

"I was very keen to meet the team, and thankfully our views on it and how we felt, were very much aligned," she says.

Laura continues, "That really helped me when I walked away from that meeting, before any offer had been made."

After being on good terms with the police, it was a shock for Kate to be named "arguida", or a formal suspect in her daughter's disappearance, after 11 hours of questioning.

She believed the police wanted a confession, and without one might charge her with murder. In her final interrogation, Kate defied all accusations by answering "no comment" on the advice of her lawyers.

Laura Bayston found scenes where Kate is given the offer by police to admit her guilt, the most emotional ones to film.

"It was all emotional," she shares, adding, "But when Kate is presented with her offer by the police, which is to admit guilt, that was truly horrific and an absolute punch in the guts to film."

"It was hard to rein in the emotions for that one - a mix of utter despair to white rage and back again," she adds.

Delving into how she prepared for the role, Laura reveals, "I use what’s available to me in terms of research, so that’s reading books, interviews etc, and I approach the role as I would any - I try and get inside the human, but also that of a mother, a wife and a woman."

She concludes, "I’m all these things and I’ve felt the pain of grief and loss, so I use that. But I think to truly understand the weight of such immense pressure and scrutiny of this scale is impossible."

Under Suspicion: Kate McCann airs on Channel 5 from May 20.