Backpacker mystery to be TV movie

Mr Falconio at his graduation with girlfriend Joanne Lees

The disappearance of backpacker Peter Falconio after an alleged ambush in Australia is being made into a TV film.

The 28-year-old from Huddersfield is said to have been killed by a man he stopped to help in the Outback in July 2001. His body has never been found.

His girlfriend Joanne Lees, who escaped, says they were attacked by a gunman. The man accused of the killing, Bradley Murdoch, 45, is awaiting trial.

The film will be based on the novel And Then The Darkness by Sue Williams.

The British-born journalist's book will be published in June and film production is expected to begin in the late autumn.

Australian-based production company Screentime has been commissioned to make the drama in collaboration with London-based international distributor Power Television, said a spokeswoman for Australia's Ten TV network.

People think that they could've been driving down a deserted road, and something like that could've happened to them Author Sue Williams

Power TV's director of content Ewa Radwanska said: "It will unravel the story behind one of Australia's most notorious crimes which finally comes to trial this year."

Author Sue Williams said that the mystery surrounding the missing Briton symbolised the dark side of Australia's unforgiving interior.

"People think that they could've been driving down a deserted road, and something like that could've happened to them," she told the BBC in Darwin.

The Falconio case is never far from the headlines in Australia and Sue Williams said the mystery had captivated the country.

"Two young people came to Australia and something terrible happened to them. We don't quite know what it was or whom it involved," she said.

"We've got the mystery of the huge Australian Outback, we've got so few witnesses and we really don't know what happened. That's why it's captured the imagination of an entire nation."