Channel 5 (now 5) is making a factual drama about the interrogation of Madeleine McCann‘s mother.
Suspect: Kate McCann will recreate using official police material, documentary evidence and recorded testimony the moment three months after McCann’s disappearance when Kate McCann was taken in for questioning by Portuguese police.
Killing Eve actor Laura Bayston is starring as Kate McCann and the 90-minue single is directed by Paula Wittig and written by Philip Ralph.
Three months after her daughter’s disappearance, Kate McCann was brought in for questioning by Portuguese police. What started innocently enough quickly turned hostile – police told her that they no longer believed her and would be considering her an ‘arguida’ (formal suspect). Detectives told her they had evidence that would prove her involvement in the disappearance, and that if she didn’t confess she would face murder charges. The show focuses on an extraordinary and tense 48-hour period that threatened to halt the search for Madeleine, and which left the McCanns fighting for their freedom.
Paramount network 5 has been moving into the factual drama space of late and is also making a show about disgraced BBC newsreader Huw Edwards with Martin Clunes, and the case of Tracie Andrews, who claimed her fiance had been killed in a shocking road rage attack but was accused of murdering him. The McCann and Andrews shows are being produced by Orchard Studios, the indie run by former Prime Video UK boss Dan Grabiner.
The disappearance of Madeleine McCann has been a fixture in the British press for nearly 20 years. Multiple documentaries have been made about her, including a high-profile Netflix one from Pulse Films. One of the main suspects, Christian Brückner, was recently released from prison after serving a sentence for a different conviction.
5 commissioning editor Dan Louw said: “Suspect: Kate McCann is one of the most tense, moving and shocking films you will see this year. I cannot praise the writing, directing and acting enough – especially a star-making turn from Laura Bayston as Kate McCann.”