Don't miss The Following Events Are Based on a Pack of Lies

As well as having one of the most attention-grabbing titles of the year, the darkly funny thriller The Following Events Are Based on a Pack of Lies also has a very intriguing premise.

Rebekah Staton stars as Alice, a put-upon PA who shares her home with her magician partner and young son. Meanwhile, Cheryl (Marianne Jean-Baptiste) is a bestselling fantasy fiction author who recently lost her beloved husband and now lives alone with her poodle, Goblin.

On the surface, the two women are very different, but it turns out they have something in common – Rob (Alistair Petrie).

Alice knows him as Robbie Graham, her ex-husband who disappeared 15 years ago after she lost thousands in his dodgy property business. Now he’s calling himself Dr Robert Chance, claiming to be a climate scientist, and romancing Cheryl.

When his ex-wife spots him on the street by chance, she’s determined to get to the truth, starting a story that, unlike many con-based dramas, is less interested in the scam than it is in the victims who become increasingly determined to take him down.

Staton was certainly hooked by the story, saying: “From the moment I read the script I connected with Alice’s journey, the feeling of being a woman in her forties, who doesn’t feel that she’s shown yet what she’s fully capable of!”

She adds: “I connected with her vulnerability and when I read about that early relationship with Rob and how it had made Alice feel, I connected to the idea that you hope that person is going to be able to look after you, and in Alice’s case he disappears completely and abandons her with more problems than she had when she met him.”

In fact, the actress, whose previous credits include Pulling, Raised by Wolves and Home, admits she may have related to character a little bit too much, especially when it came to her more questionable actions.

She says: “I can’t lie, it’s come as a bit of a shock that people think what Alice was doing was unreasonable! Because in the playing of it, it felt practical, ‘well I’ve got to do this now, no one is going to believe me’ and then, six months later, and I’m watching it, I’m like ‘Oh! Why is she doing that? That’s a bit dubious!’”

However, there is a point to Alice’s bad behaviour. Staton says: “We want to show a three-dimensional victim. Victims can be angry, they can make mistakes, they can take on traits they’ve experienced from the perpetrator, and I think that’s what happens here, she becomes corrupted and sees the only way to fix it is to not play by the rules.”

She also hopes that the series may lead us to think differently about con artists too. Staton says:

“[We’re fascinated by] these characters – their narrative is always served, yet we forget about the victims and the people who’ve really been harmed by their actions. So if people come away and question why things aren’t quite what they seem, then I’ll be chuffed to bits!”