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Filthy Ritual: BBC's Ghosts Producers Set to Adapt Conwoman Podcast

Monumental Television, the producers behind BBC's Ghosts, are set to adapt Hannah Maguire & Suruthi Bala's Filthy Ritual podcast as a series.



Article Summary

  • Monumental Television to adapt 'Filthy Ritual' podcast into a TV series.
  • The story focuses on Juliette D’Souza, a fake shaman conwoman.
  • D’Souza, who swindled £1 million, might be released in 2024.
  • Ghosts producers aim for another hit following the popular BBC series.

Monumental Television, the UK production company that made the original hit BBC version of Ghosts, is developing Filthy Ritual, a TV version of a Global podcast series about one of the most prolific fraudsters in British history. The con woman posed as a fake shaman. For real.

Filthy Ritual: Conwoman Series Coming from Producers of BBC's Ghosts
Image: Global Player

The Ghosts producer has secured rights to Filthy Ritual, which is about Juliette D'Souza, who, at the turn of the century, wreaked havoc on a number of people's lives until a rag-tag team of her victims came together to fight for justice. Described by her neighbors as being like 'a knife in a velvet glove', D'Souza claimed to have a special connection to an ancient source of power and wisdom deep in the Amazonian jungle, and she is said to have made at least £1 million through extortion and manipulation.

D'Souza was sentenced to ten years in prison nine years ago, which means she might be released in 2024. Hilarity might ensue. We won't give her the oxygen of publicity by publishing her photo here. The ITV Studios-backed Monumental is riding high on the smash hit Ghosts getting adapted as a US sitcom for CBS, along with the likes of ITV's Maryland and UKTV's The Marlow Murder Club. As you probably know, the CBS version of Ghosts, which is not as good as the UK version, has been a big hit in the US as well, as far as a network TV show can be a big hit these days.

ghosts
"Ghosts", still from the superior BBC version: BBC Screencap

"We were absolutely gripped by the stranger-than-fiction true crime story of Filthy Ritual and fell in love with the quirky Hampstead community who came together to get justice," said Monumental Co-Founder Alison Owen. In an age where the podcast industry is dying due to advertisers dropping away and the gold rush is over, it's mildly heartening to see a production company want to make a TV series out of yet another True Crime podcast.  Monumental are obviously hoping they'll have a smash hit on the level of Ghosts with a series about a remorseless con woman who bilked people out of millions. Good luck with that.


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Adi TantimedhAbout Adi Tantimedh

Adi Tantimedh is a filmmaker, screenwriter and novelist. He wrote radio plays for the BBC Radio, “JLA: Age of Wonder” for DC Comics, “Blackshirt” for Moonstone Books, and “La Muse” for Big Head Press. Most recently, he wrote “Her Nightly Embrace”, “Her Beautiful Monster” and “Her Fugitive Heart”, a trilogy of novels featuring a British-Indian private eye published by Atria Books, a division Simon & Schuster.
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