Tennant is very, very good.

and Daniel Mays (another Mike Leigh protege) in a much harder part. I first saw him playing Vera Drake's son; he was superb.

and Jason Watkins one of my favourite actors.

First episode; excellent. What an extraordinary story.

David Tennant and David Wilson interviewed below. David Wilson, who apparently met Nilsen several times as a prison governor (and thinks Nilsen fancied him ), thinks the police were slow to investigate because gay men were involved, and says this happened more recently in the Stephen Port case.

They weren't just gay but homeless and down and outs as well. If their families don't know their whereabouts before the poor souls were murdered what leads would police have ?

I have worked in both straight bars and gay bars for decades. Both places can be very seedy, I have seen a lot of creepy people whom have offered a sofa or a bed for a night.

I have been chatted up by creepy homo's in the past.

Surprisingly watchable. No mumbling speech or slow motion shots, it was filmed and presented properly. I was very surprised.

I watched the first episode last night agree it is excellent. I also remember reading the book "Killing for Company". A friend of mine at college leant it to me - one from his vast and troubling collection of books on serial killers. He is an IT support person now; so my worst fears for him probably weren't realised...

GM I think what is so scary about Des is that he wouldn't have come across as one of the creepy ones....

I know David Wilson. Second episode equally good; Tennant is really quite extraordinary. One review said the best thing about this is Nilson would have hated it.

Well I thought it was terrific; more like a great BBC show than an ITV one; avoiding all sensationalism; the story was far more chilling unadorned by that. Tennant was superb; avoiding every single "actor" trick. Mays and Watkins showed that they deserve the praise gained during their careers. Two of our finest actors.

I thoroughly enjoyed it. I especially liked that it was so understated.
I suppose with decent actors, that is all you need.

Plus good script and direction; I think it needs to be all three. And don't forget makeup and clothing (stunning and accurate). Sets. Television at its best - without, I suspect, a big budget.

The only thing is, I think I might have gone off David Tennant a little bit after this, in the same way Anthony Hopkins gives me the creeps since Silence of the lambs. Too real!


I am fascinated by Carl Stottor's story. That could be a whole other series.

I know what you mean Honey but funnily enough Tennant was SO good I now like him (didn't like him much before - hated his Dr Who). This was HIS role. Like Daniel Mays in Vera Drake (brilliant) and Jason Watkins as Christopher Jeffries (fantastic).

I watched a documentary afterwards with home movies of Nilsen - Watkins got Brian Master's speech impediment perfectly and Tennant caught Nilsen's rambling delivery spot on. Very good, and I only realised afterwards that ITV did not resort at all to gratuitously showing him murdering and dismembering the victims which Netflix probably would have done.

Anybody else think Robert Peston could be Nilsen or even Tennant?

JK2006 wrote:
Anybody else think Robert Peston could be Nilsen or even Tennant?

No, because Nilsen could construct verbal sentences and Tennant can construct verbal sentences.

How on Earth did Peston land a job on national TV ?

Foz wrote:
I watched a documentary afterwards with home movies of Nilsen - Watkins got Brian Master's speech impediment perfectly and Tennant caught Nilsen's rambling delivery spot on. Very good, and I only realised afterwards that ITV did not resort at all to gratuitously showing him murdering and dismembering the victims which Netflix probably would have done.

I will be watching them all tonight on ITV Hub. I read the book Killing for Company years ago. It's an excellent and a very well written book.

I thought it was fucking boring. Liked Tennet.

No bodies, heads in pots etc. Boooring

Obviously Nielsen was as boring as batshit even though he was a serial killer.

hedda wrote:
I thought it was fucking boring. Liked Tennet.

No bodies, heads in pots etc. Boooring

Obviously Nielsen was as boring as batshit even though he was a serial killer.

I watched it again, it's very close to the book and not much artistic licence was used. Dennis being sacked from the police force for wanking in a morgue; I'm not sure is true. He did resign however maybe homophobia was an issue for him and he might of been sussed out.

Bullying in the workplace is cruel; I have sacked staff with immediate action in the past but they got some wages via cheque pinned with P45.

(We had it written in very long boring contracts about sackings)