As well as the documentary there will also be a 10-part audio series for Radio 5 Live and BBC Sounds, on the story of Shamima Begum.
The podcast comes from the team behind I’m Not A Monster, the Beeb’s most awarded podcast series.
Begum is one of the most talked about and debated figures in Britain today, yet little is actually known about who she really is and what happened to her. Leaving London at 15 to disappear inside the Islamic State group, only to emerge four years later in 2019, her British citizenship has now been revoked and she is fighting to get it returned.
For over 12 months, Begum has been talking to investigative journalist, presenter and filmmaker Josh Baker, giving him what she says is her definitive account of everything that happened to her.
In 2015, Baker was working on a documentary in an East London Mosque, when news broke that three local school girls had disappeared and were on their way to join IS. Baker was filming as the mosque tried to help the families bring their daughters home but, ultimately, only one of the girls would survive the so-called caliphate – Shamima Begum. Returning to the story seven years later, the new film and podcast series will take listeners inside Baker’s attempts to figure out what really happened.
Seeking to separate fact from fiction and unearth new information along the way, Baker travels from Bethnal Green in East London to the depths of the so-called caliphate in Syria as he challenges Begum to try to figure out if the story she tells is true.
Filmmaker Josh Baker:
“This is one of the most talked about, yet least understood, stories of our time. For more than a year, I have been building on the work I started in 2015, examining Begum’s account of what happened and retracing her steps. Now it’s time to tell the story across multimedia, building on the success of our previous series.”
