Alex Batty recounts abduction, six years on the run in BBC film

Alex Batty is revisiting the years he spent off-grid after his mother took him from England at 11, in a BBC film that follows the now-20-year-old back across Spain and France and into the unresolved question of whether he can reconnect with her.

Kidnapped by My Mum airs on BBC Three at 9:00 PM on Wednesday, May 13, 2026. The film tracks Batty as he retraces the route that began on September 30, 2017, when he left the UK on a pre-arranged family holiday to Marbella with his mother, Melanie Batty, and his grandfather, David Batty. Police said Melanie Batty did not have parental guardianship. Alex Batty was due back in England on October 8, 2017, but never returned.

The disappearance became a cross-border search that lasted years. Batty was finally found walking alone in southwestern France on December 13, 2023, after trekking for four days through the Pyrenees. He was taken to a police station before returning to the UK and reuniting with his grandmother, Susan Caruana, who was his legal guardian.

The documentary shifts the story away from the mechanics of the search and toward the harder aftermath: how a child who spent most of his adolescence outside normal schooling, family life and routine makes sense of what happened to him. Batty is shown confronting his feelings about Melanie Batty and considering whether speaking to his mother again is possible. Earlier reporting noted that he did not want his mother or grandfather to go to jail over his disappearance, a position that underlines the complicated mix of loyalty, coercion and dependence that often follows parental abduction cases long after the missing-person headlines fade.

The legal case has also ended without prosecution. Greater Manchester Police closed the criminal investigation in January 2025, saying the family had withdrawn support for a prosecution and there was no realistic chance of one. Melanie Batty declined to comment on the documentary, and David Batty did not respond to the BBC request for comment.

Reporting around the film says Batty also revisits locations across Europe and North Africa, and alleges there were two chances for French authorities to rescue him that were missed during the years he was missing. For Batty, the central issue is no longer where he was taken, but how a child carried through years of secrecy rebuilds identity and trust after returning home.