Our First Look at 'The Hack' Sees David Tennant and Robert Carlyle on the Case

Sometimes, the truth can be a whole lot stranger than fiction. Such is the case with The Hack, the upcoming ITV series that aims to dramatize a true crime story that's so bizarre, it seems impossible that it's real. And yet, The Hack is inspired by a true story, one whose fallout we're still seeing all around us in the media ecosystem of today

Much like last year's ITV hit Mr Bates vs the Post Office, The Hack aims to tell a story that many (likely most) Americans will be completely unfamiliar with: The News of the World scandal. To sum up a saga that spans decades and multiple lawsuits, it's this: In the early 2000s, an investigation revealed employees of Rupert Murdoch's now-defunct tabloid News of the World regularly engaged in hacking the mobile phones of newsworthy members of the public, listening to private voicemails and turning their contents into stories. (There was also allegedly some police bribery and "exercising improper influence in the pursuit of stories".) The hacks reportedly targeted everyone from celebrities, politicians, and members of the British royal family, to relatives of deceased British soldiers, victims of the July 2005 London bombings, and more. (Prince Harry is one of the more famous figures who sued over this.)

Investigative journalist Nick Davies and several of his Guardian colleagues spent two years investigating Murdoch's tabloid, and the resulting inquiry and court case ultimately led to the closure of News of the World and the imprisonment of its ex-editor Andy Coulson. Davies went on to write an award-winning book on the topic, Hack Attack: How the Truth Caught Up with Rupert Murdoch, and the story grabbed fresh headlines earlier this year when Murdoch's News Group Newspapers (NGN) apologizd to Prince Harry, settled with him, and, for the first time, addmited to “unlawful activities carried out by private investigators working for The Sun".