Review: ‘The Chloe Ayling Story’ – TV as Nonsensical as the Real Crime

What would you do? How would you react in an extraordinary situation? These questions anchor most dramas but are particularly crucial in Kidnapped: The Chloe Ayling Story, a dramatization of real yet disputed events.

Chloe Ayling, a British model, was abducted in 2017. Hired for a photoshoot in Milan, Ayling, then 20, arrived at a quiet building’s location for the job. Once there, masked men attacked her, drugged her with ketamine, and transported her to a remote farmhouse. Six days later, she appeared at the British consulate in Milan, freed despite no ransom being paid.

What makes Ayling’s story compelling is what happened afterward. Following her stay in Italy for three weeks during the police investigation, Ayling returned to the UK and began appearing in the media, starting with interviews in her mother’s front garden. This is where trouble surfaced: commentators claimed Ayling was too calm, upbeat, and eager to pose for photographers, and her attire was deemed too sexy. By the time she appeared on Good Morning Britain later that year, host Piers Morgan had latched onto a detail from her police interview to question her credibility.

Kidnapped opens with a forward flash to Ayling’s contentious interview with Piers Morgan. Edited down by scriptwriter Georgia Lester but with Robert Glenister speaking Morgan’s words verbatim, the scene shows Morgan pressing Ayling repeatedly, focusing on the single point that she “LIED,” justifying it by noting her earnings from interviews and a book deal. Morgan asserts that Ayling must expect tough questions but shows no interest in her answers. Nadia Parkes, playing Ayling, captures her detached tone and stilted speech, reminiscent of Ayling under such pressure.

As the interview airs, Lester shows a viewer casually disbelieving Ayling after reading online that her account was doubted. Ayling later scrolls through numerous comments branding her a “fake.”

Kidnapped brilliantly portrays a harsh element of the digital age: instant, direct communication of confident opinions on situations people often know little about. The series also highlights Ayling’s daily life, showing how men react aggressively when she turns them down, both before and after her abduction. She transitions from an object of desire to a public figure, making her “fair game.”

However, the six-part drama’s opening episodes focus mostly on the less compelling half of the story: the crime itself. This portion is largely a two-hander involving Parkes and Julian Swiezewski, portraying Lukasz Herba. After the media frenzy subsided, Herba was convicted in 2018 of kidnapping and attempted extortion, receiving a sentence of more than 16 years. At the farmhouse, Herba presents himself as an unwilling participant in a dark web mafia, Black Death, claiming he objects to their plan to auction Ayling as a “sex slave” and can protect her if she cooperates. Initially handcuffed to a chest of drawers, Herba later offers to ease her situation if she shares his bed.

What would you do? Ayling attempts to show gratitude to keep Herba on her side without being coerced into an unwanted sexual situation, creating a tense psychological standoff. However, Kidnapped adheres to the facts, revealing that Herba’s plan was flawed from the start. Much of his actions, as recounted by Ayling and police evidence, lack coherence. While the series values its authenticity, the tangled reality hampers a deeper exploration of a criminal mastermind’s psyche. Consequently, much of the early drama feels static, waiting for later episodes to delve more rewardingly into Ayling’s post-abduction public life.

Ayling’s difficulty in articulating her story stemmed from its convoluted, illogical nature. She couldn’t mold it into a compelling narrative, and neither can Kidnapped.

Kidnapped: The Chloe Ayling Story aired on BBC Three and is available on BBC iPlayer.

Source: BBC