In the upcoming ITV drama Believe Me, Aimée-Ffion Edwards (Slow Horses, Peaky Blinders) and Aasiya Shah (Raised by Wolves, Bloods) play two women who reported sexual assaults by John Worboys, who later became known in the U.K. as the “Black Cab Rapist,” but initially fell on deaf ears. London’s Metropolitan Police, also known as Scotland Yard, failed to investigate their cases thoroughly, leaving Worboys, portrayed in the four-part series by Daniel Mays (Line of Duty, Des, A Thousand Blows), able to commit more assaults.

Miriam Petche (Industry) also features in Believe Me, written and executive produced by Jeff Pope (Philomena, Stan & Ollie, Cilla) and produced by his Etta Pictures, part of ITV Studios. The director is actress (Happy Valley) and director (Showtrial) Julia Ford.

Telling the story of the victims of “one of the most prolific sex attackers in British history” and how they “were failed by the system,” as a show description puts it, came with all sorts of emotional and other challenges, as well as big decisions. For one, the two key victims in the series, Sarah and Laila, which are pseudonyms, saw elements of their stories changed to protect their anonymity. 

For the creative team, it was important to take audiences inside their experience, without showing the sexual assaults themselves in detail, but rather what leads up to them and their harrowing impact and fallout.

“How Jeff wrote it was brilliant,” Ford recalled during a recent chat with reporters. “When I first read the script, I felt a few [important] things were there. One was that we were in Sarah’s shoes inside that taxi. We wanted [people] to feel the experience of being in that taxi. Particularly in that first instance, we don’t really show the audience much of Worboys. And initially, you feel safe in the taxi.”

Added Ford: “In terms of the sexual violence that we see, Jeff absolutely wrote it so that we just see what we need to see for the storytelling. We never see any more. So it’s not gratuitous in any way. And it is literally the storytelling [from the perspective of] the women. Obviously, they don’t really remember anything, or they might remember little fragments. So the audience is told the story through their [eyes].”

Shah shared what it was like working with Sita Thomas, the intimacy coordinator on Believe Me. “Working with Sita and building that relationship with her, even before we started shooting, really was such a gift,” she said. “We were so lucky to have her because if we had any worries or things that we weren’t comfortable with, that went through Sita. That created a safe bubble.”

The actress also loved that Thomas and a fight coordinator jointly “mapped out what the choreography was going to be before they came in and talked us through. They worked together before coming to speak to me and Danny. We had a couple of chances to rehearse it, get it in our bodies, and then we just did it, and I felt safe. Obviously, I trusted Danny.”

All in all, the setup “just made that experience feel seamless and took the pressure off,” Shah shared. “Because obviously these are key moments, even though they’re very brief and we don’t see too much, but they’re obviously key to our story.”

Shah trusted Mays, but the actor shared that Believe Me marked his first time working with intimacy advisors despite his long career. “It was actually my first experience working with an intimacy coordinator,” he explained, quipping how he isn’t often cast as a love interest these days: “I’m a middle-aged actor. Those days are long gone.” But for the ITV drama and his role as a predator, the planning was key, he emphasized.

“It was all about trust,” Mays said. “We had to get to a point where there was trusting between me and the actresses, and they were offered a safe space to really risk things and go for it. It was a balancing act of getting it as graphic as you needed it to be, but keeping it within the boundaries of safety at all times. And the work with the intimacy coordinators was absolutely fantastic. … It was just a wonderful way of doing it, and it just helped the performances tenfold.”

Concluded Mays: “The great thing about those scenes is that you do feel those moments when they’re enclosed in that cab, and it’s claustrophobic, and it turns nasty. Like with any great drama, [audiences have] got to feel like you’re a fly on the wall.”

Mays also shared one more thing about how the production of Believe Me created safe spaces and support for the stars. “We also had access to a counselor,” he said. “I ended up having a half-hour conversation with her in the last week as well, which was definitely needed.”

Edwards highlighted the importance of having intimacy coordinators even for scenes outside the taxi. “What is so brilliant about having an intimacy coordinator is that there’s an acknowledgement that some scenes, and they don’t have to be physical, feel intimate,” she said. “In this case, the examination scenes in lots of ways were actually, I think, more intimate than the stuff in the taxi.”

Continued the star: “That goes hand in hand with this idea that these [women] couldn’t really remember, couldn’t necessarily remember the attacks. But the process that comes after that, in terms of the investigation and the evidence they need to collect, is so harrowing.”

Edwards also recalled that this part of the story was already feeling painful in writing. “When I read the script, it was actually the examination scenes that I found the hardest to read,” she shared. “I thought they were the most harrowing.”

Believe Me will premiere on ITV and ITVX on May 10. The drama was produced in association with, and is distributed by, ITV Studios. It was filmed in Cardiff with the support of the Welsh government via Creative Wales.