Strike star Holliday Grainger breaks down new drama The Stolen Girl: 'It's not a revenge thriller'
Grainger stars in the Disney Plus series alongside Denise Gough, Jim Sturgess and Ambika Mod.
Strike and The Capture star Holliday Grainger stars alongside Denise Gough, Jim Sturgess and Ambika Mod in new Disney Plus thriller series The Stolen Girl, which follows the nightmare scenario of a child going missing.
Gough and Sturgess play parents Elisa and Fred, whose daughter Lucia goes to a sleepover with a new school friend, but she soon disappears, taken by the friend's mother Rebecca – real name Nina – played by Grainger.
Grainger said that she was drawn to the series as she was "interested in playing a damaged character who comes from a place of trauma and grief but doesn't really show it".
"You can't play a character you think is flat out crazy," she explained, "you've got to find the psychological realism in there, so I did speak to a psychotherapist to make sense of every act Nina does. In my mind, it went from being quite out there and 'how am I going to find the truth in this?' to, 'oh my god, this actually could be...'
"I'm not going to talk in labels, but I did find a truth in that reality that really helped me make the choices I did. The series could be read as a revenge thriller but I really don't think it is. Nina is not out for revenge – she's out for her own survival. She has to create this construct of her own reality otherwise the truth is too difficult to cope with."
She continued: "On the surface, it's ostensibly a thriller, but each character comes from a place of some kind of trauma. You then see these huge events take place and everyone's lives change irrevocably. Nina and Elisa are such damaged women who have hurt each other so much. The fallout for the whole family and everyone involved is so huge.
"The Stolen Girl is about the strength and passion of motherhood and protecting your own and the emotional fallout when you're unable to do that. It's a whodunit and how-dunit and why-dunit thriller, but there's so much trauma and pain on all levels that no one really wins."
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The Stolen Girl is based on the novel Playdate by Alex Dahl, and will be released in full on Wednesday 16th April.
Grainger will also soon be seen starring in a third season of The Capture, in which she will be joined by her fellow Strike star Killian Scott in a new "pivotal role".
Indira Varma, Ben Miles, Lia Williams, Ginny Holder, Ron Perlman, Nigel Lindsay, Tessa Wong and Daisy Waterstone will all also be returning to their roles.
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The Stolen Girl is coming to Disney+ on Wednesday 16th April 2025.
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Authors
James Hibbs is a Drama Writer for Radio Times, covering programmes across both streaming platforms and linear channels. He previously worked in PR, first for a B2B agency and subsequently for international TV production company Fremantle. He possesses a BA in English and Theatre Studies and an NCTJ Level 5 Diploma in Journalism.
