If you’ve watched enough prestige crime TV, you know the kidnapping is rarely the most disturbing part – it’s what happens when the victim comes home. That’s the space Paramount+ is moving into with “Girl Taken,” a six-part psychological thriller that’s just dropped its first trailer ahead of a global launch on January 8, 2026.
Based on Hollie Overton’s novel “Baby Doll,” “Girl Taken” follows twin sisters Lily and Abby, whose lives are destroyed when Lily is abducted from their quiet rural English town by beloved local teacher Rick Hansen. Years later, Lily escapes after sustained abuse in captivity, only to discover that freedom comes with its own nightmare: the world she’s been clinging to in her head has moved on without her, and her family has been frozen in a different kind of trauma.
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At home, Lily, Abby, and their mother, Eve, try to rebuild some version of a family unit while living with the knowledge that Rick is still out there, determined to twist the story and evade justice. Paramount+ is framing the series as a “raw and emotionally charged” look at trauma, resilience and sisterhood rather than a puzzle-box whodunnit – the crime is never in doubt, but what it does to everyone involved is the point.
The show is led by Alfie Allen, Jill Halfpenny, Tallulah Evans and Delphi Evans. Allen plays Rick, the respected teacher whose community-guy veneer hides what he’s done; Halfpenny is Eve, the mother trying to hold the family together around scars that don’t show up on missing posters. Real-life sisters Tallulah and Delphi Evans step into the roles of Lily and Abby, which gives the twin dynamic an extra charge whenever the two characters share the frame.
The supporting cast is thick with familiar faces from recent British film and TV: Vikash Bhai, Niamh Walsh, Levi Brown, Victoria Ekanoye, Holly Atkins and Kiran Krishnakumar fill out the world around the family – cops, friends, bystanders – the people who either helped keep the search alive or learned to live with not knowing what happened.
Behind the scenes, “Girl Taken” comes from Clapperboard Studios, with executive producers Mike Benson and Suzi McIntosh and producer Mick Pantaleo. The scripts are adapted by David Turpin, Suzanne Cowie, and Nessah Muthy, all of whom have a form in the domestic suspense and crime space, while Laura Way and Bindu de Stoppani direct. That combination suggests a show more interested in slow-burning dread and emotional fallout than lurid twists.
“Girl Taken” was commissioned for Paramount+, with Paramount Global Content Distribution handling the series outside Paramount+ markets. All six episodes premiere globally and exclusively on Paramount+ on January 8, 2026.
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