‘I wrote ITV’s Believe Me and this is why we cast Daniel Mays as John Worboys’

ITV Believe Me stars Daniel Mays as John Worboys.

Believe Me returns tonight, Monday, May 11, at 9pm, for episode two of the four-part ITV true crime drama about the victims of “black cab rapist” John Worboys.

While Mays admitted he “underestimated how difficult it was going to be” to portray Worboys, creator Jeff Pope had a very good reason for casting the 48-year-old.

Opening up during an ITV Q&A, Pope explained: “I thought what was so interesting about what I imagined and what Danny delivered, you see him on screen, and you kind of have a reaction to him.

“You trust him, he’s engaging, and I thought it was so important that the audience understood why the women in his taxi accepted drinks from him.”

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“And it was because he was incredibly personable, or he pretended to be an incredibly personable, kind of guy.

“So we spend a lot of time in the first episode when the character that Aimee-Ffion [Edwards] plays, when she gets into Danny’s cab, we don’t rush that.

“It was so important you didn’t get in the cab and think ‘what, you accepted a drink from him?’, this was a normal, regular, apparently chirpy, cheerful guy.”

But it was by no means an easy feat for Mays to take on the role of Worboys, admitting that it did “take its toll” on the star.

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“It was a huge thing to take on, but alongside that, I could recognise the acting challenge as well.

“You’re being asked to humanise someone who is evil essentially, and it’s about delving beneath those headlines and trying to play him as three-dimensionally as possible.

“I underestimated how difficult that was going to be. I thought, I’ve got 26 years of experience as a professional actor, but I’m not going to lie to you, it did, at times, take its toll.

“It was a difficult thing and an unsettling thing to portray and very isolating by its very nature.”

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Believe Me is available to watch on ITVX.