Rillington Place is a grim, biological crime drama about one of the UK’s most prolific serial killers of the 20th century and a gross miscarriage of justice. Here are five things we learned from this series, which is currently airing on BBC First.
1. Samantha Morton is a brilliant actress. Some readers will be familiar with her work from the film Control where she played the wife of the late Ian Curtis, the lead singer of the band, Joy Division. In this series she also plays the role of tormented wife, this time as the significant other to serial killer John “Reg” Christie (Tim Roth.) Episode one tells things from her perspective while the second one is told from Timothy Evans’ (Nico Mirallegro) perspective. He is the man falsely accused of two of Christie’s crimes while the final episode is from John’s own point of view.
2. This series only touches on some of John Christie’s crimes. It is unknown exactly how many women John Christie murdered. There are reports that he kept trophies from each of his victims and in some cases pubic hair was found that was unable to be matched to known victims.
3. John Christie is a chilling character and Tim Roth does a good job in portraying this complicated man. There is no doubt that Christie is a silent killer. Remember what your mother used to tell you about the quiet ones?
4. This story will send shivers down your spine. The series begins with Timothy and Beryl Evans (Jodie Comer) moving in next door to the Christies. You almost want to shout at them to warn them about what will happen, as they soon fall victim to the wicked ways of this psychopath.
5. Timothy Evans is found guilty of murdering his baby daughter, Geraldine. In a gross miscarriage of justice he is hanged in 1950 for this crime that he did not commit. This event contributed towards the eventual abolition of capital punishment in Britain in 1965.
Rillington Place airs Wednesdays at 8.30pm on BBC First.
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