Everyday, somewhere in the world, someone becomes obsessed with another person’s life. Based on an extraordinary true story, one-off drama U Be Dead reveals how an obsession almost cost one man his freedom.
It stars David Morrissey (State of Play, Blackpool, The Deal), Tara Fitzgerald (Waking the Dead, Jane Eyre, Brassed Off), Lucy Griffiths (Collision, Robin Hood) and Monica Dolan (Wallis & Edward, The History of Mr Polly, Poirot).
Dr Jan Falkowski (Morrissey) and his fiancée Debbie Pemberton (Fitzgerald) can think of no- one who would want to stalk them with threatening texts and phone calls. Even when the stalker professes to being in love with Jan, they refuse to take her increasingly manic behaviour seriously. That is until she breaks into their houseboat and opens the gas taps, threatens Jan’s family and attempts to cancel their wedding. Jan and Debbie’s relationship suffers under the strain.
In fear for their lives, they move to an address nobody, including their parents, knows. In an attempt to flush the stalker out, Jan and Debbie eventually stage a fake wedding. Although Jan has now fallen in love with a younger woman, Bethan Ancell (Griffiths), he agrees to go through with the charade, shadowed by plainclothes officers. Warning texts and phone calls rain down on everyone connected to the wedding and Debbie is told to “prepare your funeral, not your wedding”.
U Be Dead was filmed in 2008 but sat on the shelf for a couple of years, although it did air first in New Zealand on 5 July 2009.
Cast: David Morrissey (Doctor Jan Falkowski), Tara Fitzgerald (Debbie Pemberton), Lucy Griffiths (Bethan Ancell), Monica Dolan (Maria Marchese)
Writer: Gwyneth Hughes / Executive Producer: John Smithson / Producer: Elinor Day / Director: Jamie Payne
UK / ITV – Darlow Smithson / 1×105 minute episode / Broadcast 5 September 2010