Bad Nanny is a jaw-dropping two-part RTÉ documentary that unravels the astonishing true story of Samantha Cookes - serial scammer, master manipulator, and at one point, a trusted nanny - watch both parts of Bad Nanny now via RTÉ Player.
Below, Bad Nanny director Alan Bradley introduces a wild true tale you really couldn't make up...
I first came across Samantha Cooke’s story in a small article in the Irish Independent. The headline alone stopped me in my tracks - a woman accused of faking a terminal illness to defraud people. It felt too outrageous to be true. But the more I read, the more astonishing the story became. This wasn’t a one-off con; it was a sprawling, years-long web of deception stretching across Ireland and the UK. The scale of it was staggering. It read like a thriller - except it was all real.
What struck me early on was how many people had been affected. Through some online digging, I found Lynn, one of Samantha’s victims based in Dublin. She introduced me to an extraordinary group - a loose collective of Samantha’s victims, many of them mothers, who had connected online and become a kind of informal investigation unit. Through WhatsApp chats and TikTok threads, they had spent years piecing together Samantha’s movements, aliases, and scams. They had quietly become the keepers of the truth, determined to stop others from falling into the same trap.
Beyond the twists and turns of the story, what stayed with me most was what it revealed about us as a society.
Despite their efforts, they felt largely ignored and dismissed, by authorities, and by the media. I knew instantly this was a story that deserved more attention. Not because it was lurid, but because of what it revealed about the cracks in our systems, and the resilience of ordinary people who refused to be silenced.
At the time we began filming, Samantha had vanished. Given the coverage her story had already received, I assumed she had left Ireland. But then, in February 2024, we discovered she had in fact been living under a new identity as a nanny in Celbridge. With that came another wave of revelations, more victims, more lies, more lives upended. With every layer we uncovered, another seemed to emerge.
how many people had been affected.'
Structuring the documentary was one of the biggest creative challenges. Samantha operated under multiple aliases over a decade, spinning a different persona each time -a nanny/ au pair, a psychologist, a terminally ill author, a play therapist. Her backstories often contradicted one another and determining the actual truth required some real focus! We had to find a clear, coherent way through the chaos so that viewers could follow along. Central to this was giving the narrative back to those she deceived. I wanted them to tell the story in their own words, not just as victims, but as the people who ultimately exposed her.
Many contributors were understandably nervous. Some still feared Samantha, others were deeply affected by their experiences. Creating a space where they felt safe and supported to share their story was paramount. It was a long process, but one I felt was essential to doing justice to their voices.
As we were filming, RTÉ’s The Real Carrie Jade podcast began releasing episodes weekly, sparking a new wave of public interest in the case. It was surreal to watch people react in real-time to a story we were still actively investigating. I’m hugely grateful to producers of the podcast Liam O’Brien and Ronan Kelly, who generously shared new tips and leads as they came in from listeners. In many ways, making the documentary evolved into a live investigation, one that kept unfolding until the very end.
But beyond the twists and turns of the story, what stayed with me most was what it revealed about us as a society. Samantha found her opportunities by targeting the gaps, families of children with additional needs struggling to access support, parents desperate for childcare, the disabled community. She presented herself as a psychologist, a role not protected by law in Ireland. In doing so, she exploited the very people already navigating the most difficult circumstances.
Ireland is, at its best, a place built on trust and community. But that very trust can leave us exposed when someone with bad intentions gains a foothold. Samantha’s story is not just one of deceit, it’s a lens on the vulnerabilities within our systems, and how easily someone can exploit them.
And yet, this project didn’t leave me cynical. Far from it. The people affected by Samantha, those who appear in the series, are some of the most resilient, thoughtful, and generous individuals I’ve met. They didn’t come forward out of revenge. They simply wanted others to be protected. As Lorraine says in Episode 2, "I still trust people. You’ll only ever meet one Samantha Cookes."
Making this series reminded me that even in the face of deception, kindness and solidarity endure. And that sometimes, the most powerful stories aren’t just about what happened, but about the people who refused to stay silent.
The two-part documentary series Bad Nanny starts Monday 12th May at 9.35pm on RTÉ One, with Part two on Monday 19th May at 9.25pm.
Both episodes available now via RTÉ Player.
