Can I Tell You a Secret?

What Is the Series About?

Can I Tell You a Secret? is a Netflix true-crime documentary miniseries about Matthew Hardy, a British cyberstalker described by Netflix and major media coverage as one of the most prolific online harassers ever prosecuted in the United Kingdom. Directed by Liza Williams and released on 21 February 2024, the two-episode limited series follows three of Hardy's many victims — Zoe Jade Hallam (also referred to as Jade Hall), Abby Furness, and Lia Marie Hambly — as they recount the terror of being targeted, and traces the police investigation that ultimately led to Hardy's conviction and a record-breaking prison sentence.

The series is adapted from journalist Sirin Kale's original Guardian reporting and a subsequent six-part Guardian podcast that helped bring the case to national prominence in 2022.

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The Case

Matthew Hardy operated in the shadows of social media, infiltrating the online lives of women across the UK with a calculated and relentless campaign of harassment. His methods included impersonating his victims, creating fake profiles, contacting their friends, family members, and employers, and systematically dismantling the personal and professional lives of those he targeted. According to Netflix's own description of the series, the three women featured in the documentary represent only a fraction of his total number of victims.

The three women whose stories anchor the documentary each experienced Hardy's intrusions in deeply personal ways. Zoe Jade Hallam, Abby Furness, and Lia Marie Hambly all describe how Hardy's harassment bled from the digital world into their physical lives, affecting their relationships, mental health, and sense of safety. A recurring and damning theme in the documentary — and in wider coverage of the case — is the repeated failure of authorities to intervene early enough, despite multiple reports made to police.

Hardy was ultimately brought to justice and sentenced in early 2022. According to Forbes, he received an eight-year custodial sentence, while The Guardian's coverage cites nine years — a discrepancy likely reflecting different reporting conventions. Both sources agree that the sentence was the longest ever handed down in British legal history for online stalking, a landmark outcome that underscored both the severity of Hardy's crimes and the growing legal recognition of cyberstalking as a serious criminal offence.

The documentary traces the full arc of the case: how Hardy selected and targeted his victims, how those victims fought to be believed and to get authorities to act, and how the investigation finally gathered enough momentum to result in prosecution.

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Production

Can I Tell You a Secret? was directed by Liza Williams and is presented as a two-episode limited series on Netflix. The production draws directly from the groundbreaking journalism of Sirin Kale, whose original long-form reporting for The Guardian and subsequent six-part podcast in 2022 were among the first pieces of mainstream journalism to document the full scale of Hardy's crimes and the institutional failures that allowed him to continue for so long.

The series gives significant screen time to the victims themselves, allowing Hallam, Furness, and Hambly to speak in their own voices about the impact of Hardy's harassment. This victim-centred approach is consistent with the framing established in Kale's original reporting, which prioritised the lived experiences of the women Hardy targeted over a straightforward procedural account of law enforcement. The Netflix Tudum explainer describes the series as an effort to show how cyberstalking operates in practice and why it can be so difficult for victims to get institutional support.

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Reception

Critical reception to Can I Tell You a Secret? was mixed but leaned positive, with particular praise directed at the documentary's handling of its subject matter and its victims.

The Guardian offered the most enthusiastic assessment, calling it a "superb documentary" that "perfectly evokes the horror of cyberstalking" — notable praise given that the series grew directly out of the newspaper's own podcast.

Heaven of Horror highlighted the series as a stark examination of how the UK's most prolific known stalker was able to operate for so long, emphasising the systemic failures of authorities to protect victims who repeatedly reported Hardy to police.

The Indian Express offered a more measured verdict, describing the series as "terrifying" in its subject matter but also "well-intentioned but wafer thin" in its execution — a criticism that echoed a broader concern among some reviewers that two episodes may not have been sufficient to fully explore the scope of Hardy's crimes and the broader questions the case raises about online safety and law enforcement.

LADbible reported that the series quickly became one of the most talked-about Netflix titles in the UK following its release, noting considerable audience engagement with the two-episode format.

On IMDb, the series holds a rating of 5.4/10 (ID: tt31035015), reflecting a divide between viewers who found the documentary powerful and those who felt it did not dig deeply enough into the systemic issues the case exposed.

The most persistent point of controversy surrounding the series is not the documentary itself but the underlying case: the repeated instances in which victims reported Hardy to police and were not taken seriously, and the question of how many people might have been spared had authorities acted earlier.

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The Case Today

Matthew Hardy was sentenced in early 2022. Available sources confirm that he received a record custodial sentence for online stalking in British legal history, but do not provide information about his current incarceration status or any confirmed release date.

The broader legacy of the case continues to shape conversations about cyberstalking legislation and victim support in the UK. The documentary arrives at a moment of growing public and legislative attention to online harassment, and the three women at its centre have become prominent voices in that debate. Whether the case will prompt concrete changes to how UK law enforcement handles cyberstalking complaints remains an open question — but Can I Tell You a Secret? has ensured that it remains part of the national conversation.