David Tennant’s true crime drama Des continues in the UK on ITV tonight at 9pm. The three part series will conclude tomorrow at 9pm and on Thursday at 9pm David will be narrating the new documentary The Real Des: The Dennis Nilsen Story.
Des focuses on one of the most infamous criminal cases in UK history, Dennis Nilsen. Known as the ‘kindly killer’, Nilsen (David Tennant) was a local civil servant who spent five years murdering boys and young men he met on the streets of Soho from 1978 to 1983. He would meet and befriend these men before offering them food or lodgings for the evening back at his North London flat. His victims were often homeless or living off grid, having slipped through the cracks of 1980s society and were therefore welcoming of this stranger’s apparent generosity. When he was finally caught on 9 February 1983, Nilsen had murdered a total of fifteen men over a period of five years, making him Britain’s most prolific serial killer of the time.
After his arrest, Nilsen was astonishing in his honesty: admitting outright to all fifteen murders in the police car outside his flat. But infuriatingly for the investigating detectives, he couldn’t remember any of his victims’ names. With no apparent motive, inconclusive forensic evidence and most of Nilsen’s victims living off-grid, the police started the biggest manhunt investigation in UK history. This time not for the murderer, but for the murdered.
The story is told through the prism of three isolated men - a detective, a biographer, and Nilsen himself. While Detective Peter Jay (Daniel Mays) and the police investigation’s attempt to get justice for as many victims as possible provides the narrative and emotional spine, the relationship between Nilsen and his biographer Brian Masters (Jason Watkins) allows us to delve into the mind of one of the most emotionally elusive serial killers the world has ever seen. Can we ever really understand the mind of a psychopathic killer? And, if we try, what price do we pay?
Episode 2
With limited resources, Jay and the police continue to dig into Nilsen’s memories in an effort to identify and convict him for the murder of every one of his victims. But when Des suddenly withdraws his cooperation and stops talking to the police, Jay fears justice will be lost.
Meanwhile, Des confides increasingly in Brian, which proves a unique obstacle for Jay, who has never had to deal with a criminal biographer before. As Brian’s sessions give Des the opportunity to analyse and confront the possible reasons for his crimes, he considers the prospect that he may not be guilty of murder after all.
Through ingenious detective work, Jay’s team manage to identify six victims, yet Jay is deeply frustrated as Nilsen will escape justice for the majority of his crimes. At the pre-trial hearing, Nilsen shockingly pleads not guilty. Brian is dumbfounded that he might be partly responsible for this change of heart, while Jay is devastated that having feared he might not get justice for the nine victims they haven’t identified, now he might not even get justice for the six they have.
Watch a trailer below:
Comments
Post a Comment