The dawn ofInstagram brought with it the rise ofsocial influencerswith their picture-perfect lives and guides on how to achieve it.

One of the most infamous wasAustralian Belle Gibson, who claimed to have kept her brain cancer at bay through diet, exercise, natural and alternative therapies.

Her rise and fall from wellness guru to convicted scammer is the inspiration for the new Netflix dramaApple Cider Vinegar.

Starring Kaitlyn Dever as Gibson, we see her build awellness empire on the foundation of a lie and then watch it turn sour as she falls foul of the media spotlight she enjoyed.

The mini-series has been created by award-winningAustralian writer Samantha Strauss, who was living in Melbourne at the time of Gibson’s success in the early 2010s.

It is a fictionalised version of real-life events but the message is still the same – if something appears too good to be true then it almost certainly is.

What is Apple Cider Vinegar about?

Set at the birth of Instagram in 2010, the story follows two young women who appear to be curing their life-threatening illnesses through health and wellness, influencing their global online communities along the way.

Gibson claims to have kept her terminal brain cancer at bay through health and wellness and has built a wellness empire on the back of it with a successful cookbook and mobile app.

She is competing with Milla Blake (Alycia Debnam-Carey), a young woman who is also building a platform promoting the “power” of food to fight cancer.

Show creator Strauss said: “It’s really interesting to look at how media uses food as a weapon against us and how much we crave the nourishment, but how much of a privilege and how expensive it is to try to be well.”

And caught up in it all are the real victims of this represented by the character Lucy, who is struggling with cancer and is drawn in by both Milla and Belle’s online lifestyles and advice.

The series is inspired by the 2017 book The Woman Who Fooled the World by journalists Beau Donelly and Nick Toscano. Strauss was first introduced to Gibson’s story through their reporting inThe Age, a Melbourne newspaper.

Who is in the Apple Cider Vinegar cast?

Kaitlyn Dever

Dever leads the cast as wellness guru and influencer Belle Gibson. The American actress adopted an Australian accent to take on the role.

She said: “I love accent work in general, but there’s something about this accent in particular and how it allowed me to dive deep into someone else. It was really helpful for me to separate myself from the character.” 

She added that she “didn’t want to let Australia down”.

The 28-year-old played Loretta McCready inJustified and Eve Baxter inLast Man Standing, and earned Golden Globe Award nominations for her roles in Unbelievable and Dopesick. She has also appeared in the filmsDear Evan Hansen,Ticket to Paradise andNo One Will Save You.

Alycia Debnam-Carey

Debnam-Carey stars as Milla Blake, a fellow wellness guru who has built a social media platform. The Australian actress, 31, is best known as Alicia Clark in TV seriesFear the Walking Dead. She has also played Lexa in the US sci-fi seriesThe 100 and Alice Hart inThe Lost Flowers of Alice Hart.

Aisha Dee

Aisha Dee portrays Chanelle in the series, a friend of Milla, who meets Belle at an event and begins working with her on her growing business. Dee, 31, is an Australian actress who rose to fame playing Christine in the Australian-British show Dead Gorgeous. She portrayed Elizabeth Kingston in US dramaChasing Life and Kat Edison in the American comedy dramaThe Bold Typeand

Tilda Cobham-Hervey

Tilda Cobham-Hervey stars as Lucy, a woman struggling with cancer who is taken in by the claims of both Belle and Milla on social media.

The 30-year-old actress has worked on stage, film and television. She appeared in the 2018 film Hotel Mumbai and starred as Helen Reddy inI Am Woman. She is also known for playing Eliza Grayson inThe Kettering Incident and Agnes Hart inThe Lost Flowers of Alice Hart.

Apple Cider Vinegar’scast also includes:

• Mark Coles Smith as Justin (Mystery Road: Origin, The Clearing)
• Ashley Zukerman as Clive (Succession, The Lost Symbol)
• Susie Porter as Tamara (Irreverent, Wentworth)
• Matt Nable as Joe (Transfusion, Last King of the Cross)
• Phoenix Raei as Hek (The Night Agent, The Heights)
• Chai Hansen as Arlo (Night Sky, The New Legends of Monkey)
• Richard Davies as Sean (Offspring, Tidelands)
• Essie Davis as Natalie (The Babadook, Game of Thrones)
• Catherine McClements as Julie (Return to Paradise, Ms Fisher’s Modern Murder Mysteries)

How many episodes are there?

Apple Cider Vinegar is a six-part mini-series.

When is Apple Cider Vinegar on TV?

The show lands onNetflixtoday,Wednesday 6 February. It will be available in the UK from8am. Viewers will need to subscribe to the streaming service to watch it, at a price of from £4.99 a month.