Hunting Alice Bell is a new Channel 4 drama, which opens with a news item from Sept 2012, about the titular character having been jailed for 18 months for falsifying hospital records, thus giving an alibi for her ex-boyfriend Jason Nash (Simon Pegg – Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning), aka The Sandman.
But no-one knows who Alice Bell is, hence the hunt. The trailer shows several women claiming to be Alice Bell, but obviously no spoilers from me, because (a) it would negate the point of watching the programme, and (b) at the time of posting this, I don’t know! Maybe it’s me? …it’s probably not me.
But initially, this centres on Fran Da Silva (Alexandra Roach – Nightsleeper), as someone throws a brick through her window, while there’s a “True Crime Buster” podcaster who sounds as deranged as Tommy Robinson, claiming she’s Alice Bell, causing everyone without a brain who assumes she’s done wrong, and then worse still… all the Tommy Robinson Nonce Bonnets turn up!
We’ve certainly gone 180 degrees from “I’m Spartacus!” to “I’m not Alice Bell!”
Hunting Alice Bell slowly drip-feeds information, so again, obviously, no spoilers here. And so far, I’ve seen two of the six episodes; it’s interesting, but I’m not quite sure where it’s going, and I’m not sure IT feels it knows, either.
And if I’ve not written too much here, it’s because there’s very little that can be said without giving spoilers or going into the plot.
Hunting Alice Bell begins on Wednesday on Channel 4 at 9pm, amd then will be available to watch on All 4.
It’s not yet available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD, but once it is, it will be listed on the New DVD, Blu-ray, 3D and 4K releases UK page.
Running time: 45 minutes per episode (6 episodes)
Release date: November 11th 2026
Channel: Channel 4
Format: 1.78:1
Director: Paul Walker
Producer: Tamryn Reinecke
Writers: Polly Buckle, Kate Verghese, David Baddiel, Peter Bradshaw
Music: Daithi O’Dronai
Cast:
Fran Da Silva: Alexandra Roach
Julie: Amanda Abbington
Vanessa: Emily Barber
Ros: Toni O’Rourke
Charlotte: Christina Bennington
Nick: Rudi Dharmalingam
Graham: Ralf Little
Jason Nash: Simon Pegg
Violet: Aiyana Bartlett
Jay: Mason Dhokia
Herself: Cathy Newman
Himself: Alastair Campbell
Himself: Rory Stewart
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.