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Hunting Alice Bell ending explained: Who actually is the real Alice Bell?
Can the real Alice Bell please stand up.
Channel 4
- Morgan Cormack
Published: Thursday, 12 November 2026 at 1:34 pm
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*Warning: This article contains full spoilers for Hunting Alice Bell.*
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We've known from the drama's first episodes that the real Alice Bell is supposedly in the midst of the newfound group of women at the heart of Hunting Alice Bell – but of course, there's always the possibility that the vengeful serial killer wasn't telling the truth.
As the Channel 4 drama shows in its later episodes, the tensions for the group are at an all time high as fingers continue to be pointed and evidence gathered as they start turning inwards and accusing one another.
Things take a dark and sad turn for Charlotte – but what happens to the rest of the women in the group? And more importantly, just who is uncovered as the real Alice Bell?
Chatting exclusively to Radio Times about what she hopes people get from the series, series star Emily Barber said: "I hope people go on this thriller roller coaster and enjoy it first and foremost. But I also hope people take from it the idea that there are real people behind these things.
"Sometimes when things are online, it's very easy to forget that these are real people, and how quickly we can get behind a rumour, how quickly it can spread, and realise that they are real people with real lives."
But who is Alice Bell? Read on for a full breakdown of the final episode of Hunting Alice Bell, complete with full spoilers.
Hunting Alice Bell ending explained: Who actually is the real Alice Bell?
Hunting Alice Bell - From left: Amanda Abbington, Christina Bennington, Alexandra Roach, Emily Barber and Toni O’Rourke play women who become the focus of mob injustice. Channel 4
The day of Charlotte's (Christina Bennington) funeral gets underway and whilst the women are divided in terms of believing whether or not she actually was Alice Bell, they all attend and turn out to be the only people to.
Along with Fran's family and an angry mob outside the church, tensions are high as the women decide to carry Charlotte's coffin into the awaiting hearse themselves. The women confront Graham/TrueCrimeBuster (Ralf Little), who is live-streaming the whole thing to his angry online community but is soon carted away by police. Liam, Charlotte's stalker ex-boyfriend, confronts the women and tells them that they're the murderers and they effectively killed Charlotte, with Jay (Mason Dhokia) agreeing.
He explains to them that Charlotte trusted all of them and by throwing her out and turning their backs on her, their actions led to Charlotte taking her own life.
Darius (Aarian Mehrabani), one of Alice Bell's victims that survived, comes along after the funeral and is chatting to Fran. But outside the church, he whispers something in her ear that makes her look suspiciously at Julie (Amanda Abbington). Jay notices it and suddenly, the eye of suspicion is on Julie being Alice Bell as Jay details that after speaking to Liam about Charlotte's childhood, he's certain that it wasn't her.
The women agree to have one last meeting in the town hall so they can grieve together and chat things through. Jay's there to film and apologises for his earlier accusations but Julie later asks him to shut off his camera. Julie has a big outburst about how they should believe that Charlotte was Alice Bell, which in turn just makes her seem more suspicious.
Fran tries appealing to the group and tells them that they maybe need to rethink their hatred for Alice Bell and Charlotte if it was her, that she was just a woman that fell in love with the wrong person and made mistakes. She goes on to remind them of Alice's statement that she had read out by a lawyer on the news, which outlined that she "too deserves a home... peace... and to live my life without fear".
Outside, Julie walks out and Ros (Toni O'Rourke) follows her out. Ros reveals that she had initially planned to get close to all of the women but she "got stuck" on Julie as a lover and suspect. Ros tells Julie that she should tell her husband that she's gay and leave him, in order to live the life she deserves.
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Later that evening, Jay shows his dad Nick (Rudi Dharmalingam) the footage he recorded that day because as it turns out, when Julie told him to switch his camera off, he didn't. He captures all of the things said afterwards and Jay gets Nick to watch over the entirety of what he captured, in case of anymore Julie/Alice Bell clues.
In a montage, we see Nick and Fran attend Violet's (Aiyana Bartlett) recital, Vanessa (Emily Barber) visiting her father in prison, Julie leaving her husband and children, and Ros receiving a surprise message from Alice Bell about her mother. The messages are swiftly deleted but say that her mother didn't blame Ros for not being there before her operation – only something that someone within that group of women would know.
That evening, Nick is sat replaying the Cathy Newman news segment on their TV when Fran walks in. As we see, Alice Bell's statement got cut off due to a technical glitch and Nick tells Fran that she over-quoted when she was relaying the statement back to the women in the hall.
"The only person who could've known that was how Alice Bell finished her statement was the person who wrote it," he says.
Fran can't believe that Nick is accusing her and says he's wrong. But when it comes to explaining how she knew the entirety of the statement, she says she must've read it online somewhere. Nick says that he's actually been at Alice Bell's solicitors all day and she told him that the only time the statement had been put out publicly anywhere was when she never finished reading it on TV. Nick took a picture of it and as he shows it to Fran, she violently knocks the phone out of his hand and it smashes.
Nick starts recalling the early years of their relationship, how he met her right after his ex-wife died and needed Fran, how he dismissed any sneaking suspicions around Fran's lack of mentions about family or friends from when she was young.
Fran's expression notably changes and she suddenly makes a call on her phone, telling Nick that "they" won't be long to collect her to take her to a safe house.
That's right, Fran is Alice Bell.
What happens to the real Alice Bell?
Alexandra Roach as Fran in Hunting Alice Bell. Channel 4
Fran explains to Nick that she was in a coercive relationship with Dr Jason Nash (Simon Pegg) and that she did everything he told her.
She says that she changed his name to someone else's in the operating theatre log but explains that's "all I ever did wrong because I wanted to please him".
When Nick presses Fran as to who she actually is, she calmly walks upstairs to say goodbye to their baby and says that "when it's over, it's over – just walk away". Fran starts crying when she kisses her baby goodbye, aware that she can't take her with her. But she's overwhelmed as she tells Nick that despite rehearsing this exact moment a bunch of times, it's not as simple as she thought it would be because she doesn't want to leave Nick and their family.
Fran wants Nick to understand and to tell her that they can continue to be together. She tells Nick that she can call whoever was on the phone and tell them it was a false alarm but that Nick would have to forget everything they've spoken about.
Fran says she's not the monster that people are saying Alice Bell actually is, and reveals that, at the funeral, Darius wasn't talking about Julie and actually told Fran that he forgives her. Fran says that if Darius can then surely Nick can also.
Upon hearing a car pull up outside, Fran and Nick go to the window to look out at it. But we then see Jay's bedroom light come on and he too stands at his window, looking at the car.
Did he hear Fran and Nick's entire conversation on the landing? It's highly likely. The prospect of Fran going away and starting up a new life somewhere else with a new identity or staying with her family is effectively in Nick's hands – but alas, that's the cliffhanger things end on.
Alexandra Roach (Fran) / Rudi Dharmalingam (Nick) in Hunting Alice Bell. Channel 4
Speaking about the ending, series star Alexandra Roach told Radio Times: "I think what's great about how they've created the show is that as it goes on, you're thinking of so many different possibilities the whole time. Hopefully at the end, that is resolved for people."
On what she'd hope people take from the series, Roach shared: "I think it draws a line between information, an investigation and entertainment, the lines are really blurred there. We can see that in different cases that are in the public eye and out there in the media for us to consume. That is really drawn out in this where we see people's lives impacted and unraveling.
"I can't really control how a series like this is is portrayed and received, but I want people to enjoy it. The sort of the wild ride of it, because there's so many twists and turns. That feeling that I had when I first started reading it and I couldn't really stop, I hope that people have that appetite for it."
Similarly, Rudi Dharmalingam said: "Everyone will take away different elements of the story. It's completely subjective. But I think ultimately, on a big macro level, I would say that I like to think that people can appreciate how precious life is and how precious a family dynamic is. This is very specific and an online accusation, but whether it's a tragedy in the family or whatever. Things happen in our lives that can just turn everything upside down and you realise how lucky and how precious life and our families are."
When chatting to Radio Times about what he wants viewers to take from the series, Ralf Little also shared: "First and foremost, I hope people are entertained and think the show's gripping, entertaining and watchable but get something from it.
"It's really easy to – whether it's leave a mean comment or whatever – forget that there is somebody who will read those. That there is a human being that you are talking about and that they are complicated and flawed, like everybody else. In this show, particularly, these are real people's lives and none of them are perfect, but their lives have been turned upside down."
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Hunting Alice Bell continues on Thursday 12 November at 9pm on Channel 4.
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Authors
Morgan CormackDrama Writer
Morgan Cormack is a Drama Writer for Radio Times, covering everything drama-related on TV and streaming. She previously worked at Stylist as an Entertainment Writer. Alongside her past work in content marketing and as a freelancer, she possesses a BA in English Literature.
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