Featured Image Credit: Cheshire Constabulary via Getty Images
Topics: Lucy Letby, UK News, TV
Mia Williams
Topics: Lucy Letby, UK News, TV
The creator behind Line of Duty is developing an ITV drama about child serial killer Lucy Letby, according to reports.
Jed Mercurio, the creator behind BBC 1's Line of Duty, is said to be making a new drama about the child serial killer Lucy Letby, who got sentenced to life imprisonment last year, The Sun has claimed.
The 34-year-old was sentenced to a whole-life jail term for murdering seven infants and attempting to murder six others, whilst she was working as a neonatal nurse between 2015 and 2016 at the Countess of Chester Hospital, Chester.
During her ten-month trial, it was revealed that Letby had injected the babies' stomachs with air, overfed them, physically abused and poisoned them with insulin.
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In September 2023, she appealed her convictions that later got rejected in February, making her only the fourth ever woman in the UK to be receive a whole-life sentence.
Despite permission for her appeal being rejected, she is set to face a retrial at Manchester Crown Court this month on a single count of attempted murder, which the jury were unable to reach a verdict on, the BBC reports.
According to a source, the show is reportedly being made by Mercurio and his team, along with the help of hospital consultant paediatrician Dr Ravi Jayaram, who was one of the medics that raised serious concerns about Letby with senior staff.
A TV insider: “Jed sees this as an important story that should not just be chronicled in a drama but also explored.
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“It aims to try to explain how her crimes could have gone on for so long and how others - particularly Dr Jayaram - tried to act when suspicions were raised.
“Bagging a high-profile name to play Letby would help give the show the attention it deserves too, but it’s not a role to take lightly.”
It is not yet clear whether the drama would be a one-off or a series.
LADbible has contacted Mercurio's reps for comment.
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As well as Line of Duty, Jed is also well-known for creating Bodyguard, starring Game of Thrones' Richard Madden and Spooks star, Keeley Hawes.
Last year, his latest ITV drama series Breathtaking, which was set during the Covid-19 pandemic, had viewers urging others to watch it 'if they were able to'.
Before becoming a writer, Mercurio spent three years as a hospital doctor, which partly inspired his first drama, BBC1’s Cardiac Arrest, which aired from 1994 to 1996.