THE murder of Huddersfield backpacker Peter Falconio and the attempted abduction of his girlfriend, Joanne Lees, has kept the world enthralled since the case exploded in 2001.

Now, the story of the murder in the Australian Outback and the ensuing courtroom proceedings is to be told in a new TV reality drama.

The two-hour programme, starring Joanne Froggatt as Miss Lees and Bryan Brown as prosecutor Rex Wild, will be screened on Sunday.

A drifter called Bradley James Murdoch, 47, was eventually convicted of Mr Falconio's death and sentenced to life imprisonment.

But it was not before Miss Lees's own innocence was questioned and many people became sceptical of her explanations.

But there was never any doubt in the mind of Joanne Froggatt, who has been praised for nailing the part of Miss Lees with authenticity.

The 28-year-old actress from near Whitby explains how she followed the story in the press at the time.

"I remember Joanne saying she had moved her hands from the back to the front of her and everyone saying: "Oh, that's impossible".

"I can remember thinking 'why is that difficult?' because I can do that. I thought everyone else could. And that made me think 'I don't understand why no-one believes her'.

"I know she didn't always come across particularly well in interviews, but I believed her and I didn't quite understand why she was getting such a hard time."

The actress has never met Miss Lees - who refused to have anything to do with the film - but studied unedited footage of a Martin Bashir TV interview with her.

It helped her to capture the former Almondbury woman's traits and body language.

"She did find it very difficult to talk about Pete. You could almost see her physically recoil when she was talking about him.

"She had certain mannerisms, too, like clearing her throat and flicking her hair.

"She also has quite an inflection to her voice, I think because she had been out in Australia so long. She doesn't have the accent, but has the inflection at the end of each sentence.

"I've tried to incorporate as many of those mannerisms as I can into my portrayal of her."

She hopes that Miss Lees thinks she has done a good job.

Joanne Froggatt came away from the role with the utmost respect and admiration for her subject. "She must be such a strong girl to have survived the entire experience.

"Not only did she experience the attack - which is your worst nightmare or like something from a horror film - but then to have all that bad press attention as well. You must feel like the whole world is against you."

It is not in the film, but Miss Lees's mother was ill at the time and died a year after Mr Falconio.

Joanne Froggatt says: "To lose the two people who were most important in your life and then have the whole world almost branding you a murderer doesn't bear thinking about. I'd have probably sat in the corner and cried and not come out. But she did.

"I think what people sometimes see as her hardness is what got her through. If she wasn't the sort of person who was guarded and controlled her emotions in public she might not have come through the other side.

"I think it was that dignity and strength of character which ultimately got her through.

"We need to put it in perspective. She was a young girl, away from her family and friends on the other side of the world. She's got this whole new self that she's found.

"And then everything fell apart. To go through all of that and to get through the other side, I think she deserves a medal."

* Murder in the Outback will be on ITV1 on Sunday at 9pm.