Their plan was to invade the star’s London home – subdue her husband with chloroform and use the couple’s young children as leverage. They intended to kidnap Holly, drive her to a remote location where she would be viciously sexually assaulted and ultimately, murdered.

When Holly learned of the plan, just hours before she was due to go on air, her life was changed forever. With little choice but to put her glittering career on hold, she withdrew from public life whilst the police built their case against Plumb.

Could Plumb’s disgusting plan ever have come to pass? He was housebound, morbidly obese and incapable of walking even short distances. Yet he spent years looking for an accomplice to help turn his obsession into a reality. Was Plumb a dangerous predatory stalker… or a sad and lonely fantasist, guilty of nothing more than a warped imagination?

Stalking Holly lifts the lid on the truth behind this shocking case, using Plumb’s own words to illustrate his horrific plan. Experts in criminal psychology and stalking behavior chart his pathological obsession, enabled by the dark underbelly of the internet and fueled by his hatred of women.

The Plot To Kill Holly Willoughby airs Thursday 1st May, 9pm on 5.