For those not in the know, The Following Events Are Based On A Pack Of Lies is a dark comedy-thriller that's now airing on BBC One and BBC iPlayer. This off-beat drama follows Alice Newman (Rebekah Staton), a woman whose life is flipped upside down when she miraculously crosses paths with the conman (her ex-husband) who walked out on her, leaving both Alice and her family penniless, fifteen years ago.
In the first episode, we see Alice start to unravel at the realization that Rob (Alistair Petrie) has returned and is now posing as an accomplished climate scientist affiliated with Oxford University. Instead of crumbling, though, she resolves to try and get to the bottom of his latest grift and begins following him around to gather evidence of what he's currently up to. Here's our The Following Events Are Based On A Pack Of Lies episode 1 recap.
A Chance Encounter
After a brief fourth-wall-breaking comment from Rob, where he tells us he believes in a little thing called karma (how ironic), we meet Alice at her sewing machine. She's putting the finishing touches on a bright pink cape, a new project she's pulled together for a big pitch at the fashion boutique she works at. Whilst she heads to work, she happens to pass Rob on the street; he's been cycling around handing out invites to "An Introduction to Disruptive Exploration", a guest lecture he's set to deliver at Gideon College.
She instantly recognizes him, but Rob doesn't clock Alice at all. Wrestling with his return, Alice chases him down the street and towards a building, only to have a gate shut in her face by an attendant, who tells her the general public's entrance is elsewhere. Before she leaves, she picks up one of his leaflets from the street, and then heads to work (where she promptly messes up her pitch).
In a diner, she tells her father about Rob's return. Concerned and furious that the con artist has returned, he urges her not to have any contact with him and tells her to focus on the life she's leading now.
Enter: Cheryl Harker
We jump over to the luxury home of the successful fantasy author, Cheryl Harker. She's just recently lost her terminally ill husband, and is currently dealing with a backlash from her loyal fans who haven't received her latest book very well whatsoever. Whilst making plans for her immediate future, she receives an invite to Rob's event that's signed from Sir Ralph Unwin, a much-loved broadcaster and naturalist.
Whilst Alice chats with Juno from work (who tells her she absolutely must either go to the police about Rob or get drunk and threaten to spill his secrets herself), Cheryl mulls over attending. She's reluctant to attend the lecture, but reading through more fan outrage on social media prompts her to go along.
At the talk, she's reunited with Unwin, who doesn't seem to recall personally inviting her along. Regardless, he regales Cheryl with tales of Dr. Rob Chance's successes as an independent explorer and climate scientist. Rob makes his grand entrance by stepping off the top of the building wearing some wires (in a stunt that nearly goes very wrong) and delivers an impassioned talk about how he was saved from a life of debauchery as a wealthy youngster by one of Ralph Unwin's documentaries, which inspired him to take up his new path. Later in the evening, Rob corners Cheryl over a mishap with their coats whilst they're both trying to sneak away from the event, and he successfully talks the author into having dinner with him that same night.
Too much talk
Unbeknownst to Rob, Alice had also popped along to his guest lecture. Incensed by his lies, she almost confronts him whilst he's mingling with his other guests after the talk. After imagining how he might turn the crowd against her, she stops herself and heads to the police station to report Rob's crimes.
Rob whisks Cheryl off her feet at dinner and then later after taking her to listen to a harpist and they end up spending the night together. Meanwhile, Alice speaks to a police officer. Initially, they believe she's attempting to file a missing persons report about her husband, but she opens up about their past, how "Robby" (as he was known back then) wormed his way into their hearts and then promptly disappeared after getting them pile all their life savings into a dodgy property scheme.
Unfortunately, the officer tells Alice that she needs more concrete evidence, and cannot take the case any further. Alice then returns home to find her father, her mother and her new partner and Benjy, her husband, Benjy, all in a tizz over news of Rob's return.
Benjy seems worried that she's still got feelings for Rob, whilst her mother is convinced she's missed out on the high-flying life that her ex-husband now leads, refusing to believe Alice's assurances that Rob's living a lie. After the argument escalates, she sends them all home and then begins her own investigation, looking into Rob's climate academy and other achievements to see whether they're real or not.
Break up
Rob continues to come onto Cheryl very strongly, heaping praise on her and her body of work to try and get closer to her. He also tells her that, miraculously, the expedition to the arctic he was due to go on has suddenly been pushed back, so he can spend even more time with her.
Later on, they're having dinner, and he tries to invite her away to France on a lavish getaway. Cheryl rebuffs Rob's advances, and tells him that she thinks it best if they break things off whilst she focuses on herself in the wake of her husband's death. After all, she has noticed that things between them are moving very quickly.
He asks if he can still come along to one of her book signings, though she tells him she'd prefer if he didn't. When Cheryl leaves, Rob starts to cry. Alice overhears all of this, as she'd tracked him to the restaurant and sat at a table behind them to spy on him.
At work the following day, Alice is sent off on another errand for her boss. She asks whether they'd had enough time to consider her pitch for the boutique, though Juno tells her that they felt the pink cape she'd put forward was a bit too 'mad' for what they're making.
Alice throws on the cape and heads out. Whilst in the queue for a cashpoint, she spots Rob heading into Blackwells Books, only to witness him briefly watch her giving a reading from her new novel before taking off in his car with a black duffel bag in tow.
Alice gives chase, almost gets involved in an accident as she speeds along behind him. She watches Rob hurl the bag into the river, and then leave the scene. When she retrieves the bag, she opens it to find Cheryl's dog, Goblin, zipped inside (but alive, thankfully!) She takes this as clear evidence that her ex is up to no good.
The Following Events Are Based On A Pack Of Lies airs Tuesdays at 9 pm on BBC One. All five episodes are available to stream on BBC iPlayer right now.
