Serial con-artist Samantha Cookes assumed multiple identities and made up wild stories. BBC’s documentary tonight sheds a light on the true crime case
Like an evil Mary Poppins, serial con-artist Samantha Cookes posed as a nanny and scammed families with disabled children – even taking their money for a fake trip to Lapland. Gripping two-parter Bad Nanny (Tues 8th July, BBC1, 10.45pm) rakes over all the shocking details of this true crime case, that saw Cookes assume multiple identities, including a child therapist, an arts teacher and a surrogate mother, to con families in the UK and Ireland between 2011 and 2024.
She even posed on TikTok as Carrie Jade Williams, a terminally ill woman and disability activist, winning the sympathy and support of thousands. But when one of her posts went viral, some followers became suspicious and began to dig, discovering her real name was Samantha Cookes, a fraud with multiple aliases and a troubling history.
Speaking for the first time, Katie and Luke in North Yorkshire describe how she posed as a surrogate mother, defrauding them of their savings.
Mother-of-three Layla describes how she believed she was hiring ‘Lucy Hart’, a Mary Poppins-like au pair at their home in County Offaly. When Layla became suspicious, ‘Lucy’ vanished, leaving an ominous note that left Layla fearing for her children. And Dublin mums Lorraine and Lynn reveal how they hired ‘Lucy Fitzwilliams’ as a child therapist for their disabled children, eventually handed over desposits for a fake trip to Lapland. ‘Lucy’ also told wild stories, pretending she was the 3M company heiress and was set to marry a pastor. Lorraine says: “She took advantage of people’s trust and their emotions and vulnerability.”
Bad Nanny is airing on BBC One tonight at 10.45pm
There’s plenty more on TV tonight – here’s the best of the rest…
TRAINWRECK: THE REAL PROJECT X, NETFLIX
The Trainwreck documentary series revisits headline-making events that went terribly wrong. This latest instalment recounts what happened when a teen’s birthday invite accidentally went viral on Facebook, leading to a full-blown riot. In 2012, a teenage girl in the small Netherlands town of Haren created a Facebook event for her sixteenth birthday party, but made the page public instead of private.
Inspired by a love of the Hollywood movie Project X, which saw three high school seniors throw a party that spiralled out of control, Dutch teenagers made the event go viral, and soon thousands of people had RSVP’d. Despite warnings, police and local authorities didn’t seem to think that anyone would turn up, so no provisions were made to entertain the 3,000 young people who arrived in Haren. Before long the quiet Dutch town became host to a night of drunken chaos, the birthday girl fled her home and riot police were deployed. If it wasn’t true, you’d never believe it…
SHARKS UP CLOSE WITH BERTIE GREGORY, NAT GEO WILD, 8pm
Wildlife filmmaker Bertie Gregory is a braver man than most as he gets extremely up close to some scary-looking sharks. Arriving on the coast of South Africa, he says: “I have dived with a lot of sharks around the world, but I have never seen the most famous and the most feared – the Great White. I’m going to try something that my mum really doesn’t want me to do. I’m going to dive with a Great White Shark without a cage.”
There is only one place where this is possible, thanks to its shallow waters, which prevent sharks from attacking from below, and clear visibility, which allows the team to see the predators coming. It still doesn’t feel completely reassuring. Bertie works alongside local shark spotters, a community-led initiative developed in response to past fatal shark attacks. Their shared mission is to explore how humans and Great White sharks might coexist in these waters. With a cage, I’d suggest…
A YORKSHIRE FARM, 5, 7pm
As a new series kicks off, farmers Rob and Dave Nicholson pick sloes from their farm hedgerows before turning them into artisanal chocolate. JB Gill takes a trip to the rolling hills of Wales, visiting a farmer who is reaping the rewards from a rather unusual diversification – he’s making medicine from daffodils. And on his farm in the Cotswolds, Adam Henson works hard looking after his native pigs, which are some of the rarest breeds in the UK.
EMMERDALE, ITV1, 7.30pm
Joe is fearful as the harassment campaign against him continues with an envelope containing a blackmail demand for £100,000 being placed in the Home Farm kitchen. Unsure of who else to trust, Joe shows the blackmail demand to Sam, but he’s none-the-wiser. When Ross confronts Robert about the missing weed, Robert threatens to cancel the land deal with Moira, forcing Ross to back down. Forced to take Gabby’s car to Kammy at the garage, Vinny faces unavoidable questions about his sexuality.
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