Must Watch reviews ‘Kidnapped: The Chloe Ayling story’

Every week, the Must Watch podcasters review the biggest TV and streaming shows.

This week, Hayley Campbell and Scott Bryan join Steffan Powell to review ‘Kidnapped: The Chloe Ayling story’.

It tells the true crime story of Ayling’s abduction in Italy in 2017, having travelled there for a photoshoot.

It’s based on detailed research, extensive interviews, documented legal proceedings and Chloe’s own book. It follows the kidnap itself, her escape, and the court case that put her captors in jail.

It also covers the media storm in the UK, in which Ayling was accused of faking her own kidnapping for publicity.

Steffan: “Hayley, is it a Must Watch?"

Hayley: “I really wanted to like this, but I found it too slow. I wish it had spent less time on the actual crime and more time on the media aftermath which, is the thing I think really sets this crime apart from other ones, and is the reason it would get a series like this.

“Obviously, the crime stuff is horrible and we need to know about this for the other side to make sense.

"But I always gauge a true crime watch by how desperately I want to pick up my phone and google what happens, instead of watching the thing – and with this it was mid-way through the second episode.”

Hayley: “To me, this is a story about what the media can get wrong in a huge way and the impact it can have on a life. I would have appreciated more of that being put up front.

“Time needs to be devoted to explaining how she got free, which was essentially trying to win her captor round and convince him she was in love with him.

"I’ve noticed in a couple of reviews of this show, men especially, find it hard to get their head around the psychological messiness of that.

“But it was clear to me immediately what she was trying to do and evidently the extra time the show has spent on that didn’t make it clear to them, so for me it’s as if it's fallen in the middle where maybe it’s useful to no one – and now and the thing that sets this story apart is further away than I wanted it to be.”

Steffan: “I remember that being a bit of a problem at the time, so it’s interesting it is mirroring the reporting of the time even all these years later.”

Hayley: “Exactly. She famously had an interview with Piers Morgan who accused her of being a liar.

"But that psychological messiness is something that every woman has been through, where you’re trying to keep somebody calm so that situation doesn’t escalate.

“It’s a fascinating story. I just thought it was a little slow for me.”

Steffan: “Was it slow for you, Scott?”

Scott: “No, I mean I have a more positive review than Hayley. I wouldn’t say it is a Must Watch again but I’m more positive.

“I do agree. Essentially the fact that she was put on trial twice, the first was the criminal trial, the second was the media trial, it does get to that part a little later than I would have wanted but I still felt the performances and level of detail in the first half of the series was needed.”

Scott: “I think this shows another side to the story a lot of people were following at the time.

“I think having it as a dramatisation was a good idea.

“It's well-acted and put together and what stands out is that. I think in an interview I saw the other day, she said: “Dealing with the media has left a longer negative term impact on her mental health than actually the kidnapping.””

Scott: “It highlights how when the media has an agenda which isn't favourable to you, even though you were trying to get your story across, then there isn’t much you can do, no matter how much PR tries to help and how much social media does.

“And the impact that can have on your personal life can be highly damaging. But I agree with Hayley that it is a bit uneven for me, this is why it’s not a Must Watch.”

All six episodes of 'Kidnapped: The Chloe Ayling Story' are available to watch on BBC iPlayer.

Must Watch is released as a podcast every Monday evening on BBC Sounds and all other podcast providers.

This week the team also reviewed ‘Merseyside Detectives’ and ‘Made in Korea’.