Zara McDermott Tackles Stalking Epidemic In New BBC Documentary

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Based on the title and synopsis alone, this must be a perfect hybrid of horror and crime, set in an environment that attempts to romanticize stalking. Are you perhaps familiar with reality star Lara McDermott? The two-part documentary series, offered for viewing beginning July 1 on BBC iPlayer, follows McDermott as she works alongside victims of stalking and police personnel for 10 months to showcase the brutal reality of this growing epidemic.

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In a raw and brutal promo clip, Zara McDermott lets her feelings be known: Some survivors went to bed with kitchen knives for protection; others were told by police, “If she intervenes, he’ll kill her.” These chilling testimonies form the fury that Zara is lashing against dangerous societal misconceptions about stalking.

Hence, the sequence has arrived at a most crucial occasion in which one in seven persons over the age of 16 shall experience stalking at some point in their lifetime. According to McDermott, popular culture has since time immemorial whitewashed obsessive behaviors as romance, resulting in the creation of a “blurred line between harassment and stalking” which perpetrators glide through to freedom. She feels strongly about early education herself, thus wanting this film to be shown in schools so that kids may learn to recognize the warning signs.

Since the announcement, the buzz has overwhelmingly supported McDermott and her tackling such a heavy subject. One comment said, “For the person being stalked, it is never romantic – having to move city or change number every couple of weeks is not ideal, sleeping with a weapon is not fun.” And there are hundreds supporting with similar comments.

However, not everyone bought McDermott’s credibility. A lone dissenting voice citing McDermott’s own controversies on set sparked a storm in more responses before it got swallowed up by waves of praise. The tremendous responses may indicate that the audience are now ready to watch the redemption of McDermott as a serious documentarian.

Taking a real-time approach is what sets this project apart. Instead of being a traditional retrospective, McDermott films stalking victims during the course of the stalking to show viewers the never-ending terror that is stalking. She exposes how an average case lasts some ten years, a revelation so disturbing that she was visibly shaken on several occasions during filming.

The documentary also turned its lens on systemic failure, asking how it is that conviction rates continue to be appallingly low whilst reported cases of stalking go up. McDermott shadows the police trying to find gaps in procedure while standing up for survivors whose voices are all too often ignored by the authorities. She far exceeds what would be expected of a host: long after filming, she stayed in contact with the victims whom she now describes as “incredibly strong and brilliant” for sharing their anguish.

The fact that the subject held a personal connection for McDermott over many occasions where she had to explain the emotional toll this production took on her became very evident: “Seeing women in such vulnerable states full of self-blame makes me so angry.” From that moment onward, the project became so much more than an acting gig for the ex-Love Island girls-this was her heartfelt side project.

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Bearing such unflinching honesty from a victim point of view, ‘To Catch A Stalker’ may just be the catalyst for those necessary conversations so rarely spoken about regarding a crime so often ignored. We need to know how best to support victims and effect change in our society,” McDermott says, Preliminary responses seem to indicate she might have just laid the roadmap to achieving that change.