London-based journalist and non-fiction crime author
In 2021, BBC One showed a compelling drama about real-life serial killer, conman and gem dealer Charles Sobhraj. Starring Tahar Rahim as Sobhraj, with Jenna Coleman as his girlfriend, it chillingly recounted how ‘The Serpent’ – as the series was called – hung out on the hippie trail in 1970s’…
Katherine Kelly as Emily Jackson (C) ITV Plc ITV’s searing new drama The Long Shadow looks at how one man’s depraved murder campaign in late 1970s’ Britain devastated so many lives. The fallout from those crimes are the focus here. And they have continued long after Peter Sutcliffe was arrested in January…
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Talking about the Hammersmith murders of 1964-65 and my book The Hunt for the 60s’ Ripper on Shaun Attwood’s show last week, I was suddenly asked about Harold Shipman. Shaun has a lot of followers in the US, so I was attempting to outline who the chilling Shipman was. This…
Coming to BBC iPlayer this evening is this new four-part series. It uses contemporary experts to reinvestigate notorious cold cases to unearth possible clues to the killers’ identities. I am a contributor to one of the films, which explores the murder of showgirl Mamie Shotton, who went missing in 1920….
I wrote a feature for the Mirror‘s We Love TV mag this week and wanted to flag up this series. It’s a three-part look at the appalling Harold Shipman case made by filmmaker Chris Wilson for BBC Two. It is 20 years since this family doctor was exposed as probably…
As the second wave of coronavirus lockdown looms, we all need cheering, so ITV’s three nights devoted to a drama about serial killer Dennis Nilsen this week may be approached with trepidation. Nilsen was found guilty of murdering 15 boys and young men between 1978 and 1983. The case still…
Michelle McNamara, who died in 2016, wrote one of the most fascinating true-crime books of the last 10 years. I’ll Be Gone in the Dark charted her obsession with a case about an unknown perpetrator she called the Golden State Killer. The crimes graduated from burglaries to rapes and then…
Anyone who doubts the value of bobbies on the beat in these days of major police cuts should consider the case of Michael Downes in Blackpool in the 1970s and 80s. Two years after the cruel murder of 64-year-old widow Catherine Weaver in 1978, another woman, Hilda Keefe, 64, spotted…
ITV has just announced a new three-part drama about murderer Dennis Nilsen. Called Des – Nilsen’s nickname – it has top-quality talents involved, including David Tennant (a long way from Doctor Who here), Daniel Mays (Line of Duty) and Jason Watkins (The Crown). It is also based on Brian Masters’…