Laura Bayston, the actress portraying Kate McCann in Channel 5's new drama Under Suspicion: Kate McCann, has opened up about taking on the emotionally charged role. The programme focuses on the period in 2007 when Kate McCann was declared an 'arguido' (formal suspect) by Portuguese police following the disappearance of her daughter Madeleine in Praia da Luz.
Bayston, who trained at the Anna Scher Theatre School in London and The Bristol Acting Academy, has built a career in television, theatre and independent film. Her previous credits include Killing Eve, Doctors, Slow Horses, Safe and Casualty. Despite her growing profile, she keeps her personal life private; according to IMDb, she is married with two children.
Speaking about being offered the role, Bayston said: 'I was stunned because at my first meeting with our director, I already had a strong sense of how I'd want to approach the role, an opinion I gambled on sharing at that time because I felt there was no other way for me to do it respectfully.' She added that she was relieved the team shared her views on approaching the story.
The drama aims to explore the emotional toll of the investigation on Kate McCann, who faced intense scrutiny and hours of questioning before being cleared of any wrongdoing in 2008. The case remains one of the UK's most well-known missing person cases, with Madeleine McCann's disappearance in 2007 still officially unsolved.
