What is the difference between Alex Dahl's Playdate book and Disney's The Stolen Girl series? Details explored

The mini-series The Stolen Girl premiered on the Freeform channel on April 16, 2025, in the United States of America. It consists of five episodes, with a new episode set to be released every Wednesday. It will be made available on the Hulu app the next day. The series is directed by Eva Husson, and the screenplay was written by Catherine Moulton.

The story begins with Elisa Blix, an air hostess and a mother, letting her daughter Lucia go on a playdate with her new friend, Josephine, also known as Josie. What begins as a normal playdate turns into a nightmare for the Blixs after their daughter is kidnapped by Josie's mother, Rebecca. Elisa and her husband, Fred, reach out to the police to begin a manhunt, but everything is not as it seems.

The Stolen Girl is an adaptation of the novel titled Playdate by Alex Dahl. Although the series remains faithful to the novel, a few changes were made to appeal to a broader audience. As per The Daily Mirror in April 2025, there's a difference in setting between Alex Dahl's novel and Disney's The Stolen Girl.

Alex stuck to his Norwegian roots in the novel and set it mostly in his home country. The manhunt takes the reader across a few locations in Europe and the French Pyrenees. However, the series was mostly shot and set in Manchester and a few other parts of the UK, with France serving as a key location for a few scenes.

As per Rotten Tomatoes, The Stolen Girl mini-series has received a positive approval rating of 90%, with an average rating of 6.4/10, based on 10 reviews. The series is produced by Quay Street Productions (part of ITV Studios) with Brightstar.

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The change in setting for the mini-series The Stolen Girl

The mini-series takes a different setting from the novel it is based on.

As aforementioned, the series is mainly set in Manchester, whereas in the novel, Alex Dahl chose to set the story in his home country, Norway, staying true to his roots. The setting also spreads across various locations in Europe, including the French Pyrenees.

For The Stolen Girl, the setting was changed to Manchester. The Glass House in Liverpool’s Fulwood Park, Blackpool Airport, and the port in Dover were also used as shoot locations for various scenes.

The locations manager, Kevin Jackson, and actor Holliday Grainger spoke to Radio Times, a British magazine, on April 16, 2025, to discuss filming the series. Kevin said that he was given a lot of freedom by the crew to choose the locations for the shoot.

"You might get a director saying to you, 'I don't know what I'm looking for, but I'll know it when I see it,' and that's great because it gives you the freedom to go and find different things. It's nice to have a brief, but it's also nice to get creative," he said.

The actress Holliday Grainger, who stars as Rebecca, the woman who kidnaps Lucia, revealed she spent most of the shoot days in France.

"For most of the time, we were at this amazing, beautiful bastide - this huge house that was so gorgeous and perfect for a bohemian family home. The idea of...the life she [her character] was expecting made so much sense in the house with this beautiful artwork and the kids' rooms with murals," she said.

She also added that she has grown fond of the country, and spoke about shooting scenes in France.

"Walking through the town to a French bakery for fresh bread and pastries for the kids. When you're there, you kind of fall into that world. It was lovely," she noted.

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What is The Stolen Girl all about?

The Stolen Girl follows the story of Elisa Blix (played by Denise Gough), who allows her daughter, Lucia, to go on a playdate with her new classmate, Josie. Josie's mother, Rebecca, not only convinces Elisa to let her daughter visit a stranger's home but also to allow the children to have a sleepover.

Elisa soon begins to suspect something is wrong when Rebecca fails to return Lucia the next morning.

After Elisa and her husband, Fred, register a complaint with the police, a manhunt begins for Rebecca, who kidnapped her daughter. As the investigation unfolds, a journalist named Selma (played by Ambika Mod) takes a keen interest in the case.

However, as the story develops, it becomes clear that the kidnapping is related to the secrets of the parents.

The Stolen Girl premiered on April 16, 2025, on Freeform in the United States of America, and was made available the next day on the Hulu app. The next episode is scheduled to be released on April 23, 2025, on Freeform at 10 pm ET.

All five episodes are exclusively available on the Disney+ app.

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