Girl Taken
Based on Hollie Overton’s novel Baby Doll, Girl Taken is a six-part thriller that depicts every parent’s nightmare. Celebrating the end of their school years, twins Lily (Tallulah Evans) and Abby (Delphi Evans) attend a secret party taking place in an abandoned industrial warehouse in their sleepy English country town. After the pair get into a sibling argument, Lily walks home alone and is kidnapped by her schoolteacher, Rick (Alfie Allen) and hidden away in the basement of a cottage deep in the woodland. As the years pass, Lily and her family never give up the hope of being reunited, but when she does finally manage to escape, the future looks more complicated than ever as they rebuild their broken lives.
Directors Laura Way and Bindu de Stoppani have taken Overton’s gripping original 2016 material and brought it to life in a chilling on-screen adaptation that is boosted by some outstanding performances. Led by Allen and Evans sisters, Girl Taken is a story not just about a kidnapping and captive experience, but of the fragility that follows the lasting trauma when trying to recover. Allen is truly unnerving as Rick, utterly deranged and sick in the head, with no apology, once again showing his excellent acting versatility and portraying multiple personas in each episode. He is truly detestable with every second of screentime, and his turn in this series will only continue to take his career higher.
Opposite him for large portions of the series is Tullulah Evans, who goes to the ultimate extreme to deliver a devastating and exhausting portrayal as Lily. The young actor goes through the mill as her character experiences five years in captivity, only to then be tasked with displaying the deeply embedded damage in the drama that unfolds afterwards. The wider cast help keep the story ticking over, with Delphi Evans proving the standout addition to the leading pair, although it must be said the ineptitude of the police force in this story leaves you incredibly frustrated throughout.
This TV incarnation of Girl Taken is as transfixing as the novel and arguably darker at its core. The book is one of the tensest reads you will encounter, but the way Rick’s psychological manipulation of everyone around him is depicted in this series is something to behold. While the series is definitely something we have seen countless times before, with Harry and Jack Williams’s 2014 British drama The Missing coming to mind, it veers away from the original text to summon something new. You need to be in the right mood before you embark on this harrowing series, but without a doubt, it is worth the time and effort for the acting alone.
Guy Lambert
Girl Taken is released on Paramount+ on 8th January 2026.
Watch the trailer for Girl Taken here:
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