02-05-2025
Spend your May bank holiday weekend bingeing ‘best Australian drama in a decade'
A 'gripping' thriller inspired by the real-life story of a woman who discovered her ex-partner was a fraud is now available to stream in the UK.
The Australian series Fake stars Asher Keddie as Birdie Bell, a magazine feature writer who thinks she's found her perfect match when she meets successful rancher Joe (David Wenham).
However, she's then torn between his magnetic pull and the instinct that her boyfriend isn't all he seems.
It's been teased of the eight-part show: 'Fake is a story of deception, a tense and exhilarating exploration of the illusions life lays out for us, through both the lies we are told and the lies we tell ourselves.'
The series was based on journalist Stephanie Wood's memoir, Fake: A Startling True Story of Love in a World of Liars, Cheats, Narcissists, Fantasists and Phonies, which detailed how she uncovered her ex's web of lies.
When it was released in Australia last year, Fake was praised by both critics and audiences.
'This does feel like an antipodean version of the Joanne Froggatt-Ioan Gruffudd-starring Liar. But whereas that BBC psychological thriller wasn't exactly subtle in its manipulation and moustache-twirling villainy, this is far more insidious and nuanced,' The Post NZ wrote in its review.
'It's anxiety-ridden and frustrating, but that's only because it's evoking a visceral response,' The Nightly shared.
'One of the best Australian dramas of the decade so far, Fake is an unflinching examination of deception's cruel grip — whether it's wielded by an imposter or delivered through our own flawed self-esteem,' The Age added.
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Meanwhile viewers called it 'gripping' and an 'emotional rollercoaster'.
In an interview with Metro, Wood explained how her experience with a love scammer came in an era before Dirty John and the Tinder Swindler.
'There had been none of those sorts of stories out there about romantic kind of scams, and I knew there was something not quite right about Joe, but he never asked me for money,' she explained.
'Enough added up that it left me blind to the stuff that didn't add up. Of course, I knew that you could lose money to horrible men, but when he wasn't asking me for that, I just wanted to hope so much that it could be a beautiful relationship.' More Trending
Ahead of the show's release creator Anya Beyersdorf said Fake was 'a story of what it feels like to be lied to, to have your instincts broken, to be gaslit not only by your romantic partner but by society at large'.
'The most remarkable thing about this story is that it's not remarkable at all. These stories are frighteningly common, the minute you start telling people this story, someone invariably pipes up – this happened to my friend/my aunt/my sister/me…'
'It is my hope that this show will allow us to recognise a Joe in the wild, and RUN the other way.'
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Fake is now streaming on ITVX and will also air weekly from Saturday May 3 on ITV1.
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