The Stolen Girl: release date, cast, plot, episode guide, trailer, interviews and everything you need to know

The Stolen Girl is a psychological drama series starring Andor’s Denise Gough as a mother whose young daughter is kidnapped during a sleepover. The five-part series is based on the bestselling novel Playdate by Alex Dahl and also stars Strike’s Holliday Grainger, One Day’s Ambika Mod and Cloud Atlas star Jim Sturgess.

The disturbing story follows Elisa Blix (Denise Gough), a mother-of-two who allows her nine-year-old daughter Lucia to stay over at her new best friend Josie’s house. But the next day, when she goes to collect her, everyone has gone and Elisa’s world is turned upside down.

Here’s everything you need to know about the five-part Disney Plus series The Stolen Girl, which was formerly called Playdate after the novel…

The Stolen Girl release date

The five-part thriller The Stolen Girl launches in the UK on Disney Plus from Wednesday April 16 2025. In the US, Freeform will roll out episodes weekly at 10pm ET beginning 16 April 2025, and episodes will be available to stream the next day April 17 2025 on Hulu.

Is there a trailer?

Yes Disney has now released a trailer for The Stolen Girl so you can see all the heartache and intrigue to come. Take a look below...

The Stolen Girl plot and episode guide

The Stolen Girl focuses on Elisa Blix (Denise Gough), who allows her nine-year-old daughter Lucia to spend the night at the home of her new best friend, Josie. It’s Lucia’s first ever sleepover but Elisa is reassured when she meets Josie’s mum Rebecca (Holliday Grainger) and sees their beautiful home. But when she goes to collect Lucia the following morning, Elisa realizes Rebecca and Josie have vanished and Lucia is nowhere to be found.

The house turns out to be a rental property and it’s clear Lucia has been abducted. As a manhunt is launched across Europe, Elisa and her husband Fred (Jim Sturgess) find themselves in the center of a media storm and as they come under intense scrutiny, long-buried secrets come to light. It becomes clear Rebecca targeted Lucia for a reason, and it remains to be seen whether she might be better off staying hidden.

Here's a brief guide to all five episodes (with spoilers)

EPISODE 1
Late for pick-up, Elisa Blix is met at the school gates by mysterious fellow mum, Rebecca, and is persuaded to allow Lucia to go on an impromptu sleepover.

EPISODE 2
Hope arrives for Elisa in the form of a letter as the police scramble for clues. But is her husband Fred telling them everything?

EPISODE 3
Convinced that the police are looking in the wrong direction, journalist Selma is given free rein to pursue her story – leading startling revelations about Elisa to come to light.

EPISODE 4
Selma’s actions make Elisa the target of toxic online speculation, but could a secret buried in the past unlock the search for Lucia?

EPISODE 5
Long-held secrets are finally revealed as Elisa embarks on a race against time – and across borders – to save her daughter.

The Stolen Girl cast — Denise Gough on playing Elisa Blix

Denise Gough is distraught mother Elisa in The Stolen Girl. "Elisa thinks Rebecca is harmless and nice, which is why she feels able to leave Lucia with her,’ says Gough, 45. "But when Elisa discovers Lucia is missing, she’s devastated and feels unbearably guilty. As the life she created starts to unravel, she feels totally out of her depth.

"Elisa is very put together from the outside, but she has a past that she hasn’t really dealt with. She gets single-focused about getting her daughter back, though. It’s animalistic. I hope it’s a gripping ride for viewers. I don’t want you to know whose side to be on at any stage.

"I think it’s important to remember this is a TV thriller rather than a docuseries or a true story so essentially, I want the audience to be entertained. I would like of course for them to feel empathy, but I hope it is a gripping ride for them and I hope they leave each episode wanting more. I’d like their loyalties to be switching constantly. I don’t want them to know whose side to be on at any stage!|

She stars as Dedra Meero in the Star Wars spin-off series Andor and played Emily Hill in Titanic: Blood and Steel. Denise has also starred in Who Is Erin Carter?, Too Close, The Good Traitor, Under The Banner of Heaven, Paula and Guerilla.

Holliday Grainger on playing Rebecca

In The Stolen Girl, Holliday Grainger plays Rebecca, who kidnaps Elisa’s child.

"Rebecca’s actions are huge, outlandish and life-altering, but when you discover the extent of her damage and pain, you can understand them,’ says Grainger, 37. "She’s not out for revenge: she’s out for her own survival, and she has to create this construct of her own reality otherwise the truth is too difficult to cope with.

"The story is about the strength and passion of motherhood, protecting your own, and the emotional fallout when you’re unable to do that. It’s a whodunit, howdunit and whydunit thriller, and some of the big emotional scenes sometimes felt like prepping for a fight. But there’s so much trauma on all levels that no one really wins.

"You can't play a character you think is flat out crazy, you've got to find the psychological realism in there, so I did speak to a psychotherapist to make sense of every act Nina does. In my mind, it went from being quite out there and 'how am I going to find the truth in this?' to, 'oh my god, this actually could be...' I'm not going to talk in labels, but I did find a truth in that reality that really helped me make the choices I did. The series could be read as a revenge thriller but I really don't think it is. Nina is not out for revenge - she's out for her own survival. She has to create this construct of her own reality otherwise the truth is too difficult to cope with."

* Holliday Grainger is best known for her role as Robin Ellacott in the series Strike. Holliday starred in The Capture and has also been in Where the Heart Is, Cinderella, Waterloo Road, The Borgias and the 2015 film Lady Chatterley’s Lover.

Jim Sturgess on playing Fred Blix

Jim Sturgess is playing Elisa’s husband, Fred, in The Stolen Girl. Jim says: "I think when you read any script, you're looking for some kind of reaction whether that be joy or laughter; something that warms your heart or breaks your heart. I had a very visceral reaction to this. I am a dad of a three-year-old, so parenthood is at the forefront of my life experience at the moment. Had I not been a dad I don't know whether I would have reacted in the same way, but it really was a deep, painful reaction to the script because it is, of course, every parent's worst nightmare. I can't think of anything worse. There have been times with my own boy where I've lost him just for a moment and you feel it in your whole stomach. Being a dad, I could bring something to this character and connect to it in a way you don't with every character. So, it was like a weird investigation into something that you wouldn't dare imagine in your own life.

"I remember really liking him. I saw a man who prioritised family and obviously worked very hard in his career and having a seemingly perfect life seems important to him. Fred and Elisa enjoy nice things and have a beautiful home and cars. They're both career driven. It's hard to juggle work and family life but it seems important to him, as well as keeping that fire going with his partner. As anyone who has had kids knows, it's hard to see each other in the same way. You're there, but you're not there."

* Jim Sturgess previously starred in last year’s Paramount Plus movie Apartment 7A and has also had roles in Home Before Dark, Close to the Enemy, The Other Boleyn Girl, Cloud Atlas and The Other Me.

Ambika Mod on playing Selma

Ambika Mod, who is playing Selma, says: "Selma is an investigative journalist for an outlet called Dash Voice. She is extremely intelligent and excels at her job. But on the flip side she can also be really persistent, relentless, brash and stubborn in the way she follows a story, approaches her work and fulfils her ambitions.

"She attends the police conference shortly after Lucia goes missing. That's when she first comes into contact with the Blix family and almost immediately suspects that all is not as it seems with Elisa. That leads her down a rabbit hole and she becomes increasingly obsessed with finding out more about Elisa and unravelling the story because she thinks she's hiding something. I think Selma has an incredibly strong intuition and sees the potential in the story. For her, this story is one that could catapult her career to the next level. So she becomes intent on finding an angle on the story that nobody else has got."

* Ambika Mod shot to fame as Emma in the hit Netflix series One Day and as Shruti in BBC1 medical drama This Is Going to Hurt. She’s also starred in I Hate Suzie, Trying and The B@it.

Who else is starring in The Stolen Girl?

The Stolen Girl features The Suspect’s Bronagh Waugh who is playing DI Shona Sinclair while My Lady Jane’s Michael Workeye is Kaleb. Layo-Christina Akinlude, Forrest Bothwell, Jordan Baker and Lisa Bowerman also star.

Behind the scenes and more on The Stolen Girl

The Stolen Girl is executive produced by Nicola Shindler (Fool Me Once, Nolly, Missing You, It’s A Sin) for Quay Street Productions (part of ITV Studios), along with executive producers Tanya Seghatchian and John Woodward for Brightstar (The Power of the Dog, Cold War), and Alex Dahl, Eva Husson and Catherine Moulton also serve as executive producers. Hannah Scott serves as executive producer for Disney+.

For more on Stolen Girl and other shows out this week, listen to our Bingewatch Podcast.