Revealed: Who will play Black Hands’ David Bain

TVNZ has chosen a newcomer to portray David Bain in the upcoming Black Hands, a show based on Stuff’s award-winning podcast of the same name.

Toi Whakaari/The New Zealand Drama School graduate Richard Crouchley will play Bain, who was first found guilty of the murder of his parents and three siblings in 1995, then acquitted in a 2009 retrial after a campaign spearheaded by former All Black Joe Karam.

Bain’s parents Robin Bain and Margaret Cullen will be played by Westside and Sons of Anarchy actor Joel Tobeck and The Strip star Luanne Gordon.

Lucy Currey (Black Christmas) will portray the elder Bain daughter Arawa, while newcomers Amelia Elliott and Angus Stevens will play the younger Bain siblings, Laniet and Stephen.

Black Hands will extend its source material, Stuff journalist Martin van Beynen’s recordbreaking podcast, looking back over the years before the murders on June 20, 1994, through the eyes of the victims and the accused. It will aim to let viewers make up their own minds about who was the most likely killer.

At Bain’s first trial, the defence argued that his father Robin was responsible for the deaths of his wife and three youngest children in a murder-suicide.

Van Beynen is a script adviser on the TV production. He spent years researching, writing and recording the 10-part podcast series, which was downloaded more than four million times and topped the podcast charts in New Zealand, Australia, Britain and Ireland.

Producer Robin Scholes said she hoped the show would bring a new angle to the murders, one of New Zealand’s most notorious crimes.

‘‘When you begin to read about the Bain family the emphasis is on who murdered them, as opposed to who they were. We want to remember a loving talented family, who had a lot to look forward to when their lives were taken.’’

TVNZ commissioner of drama and scripted comedy Steve Barr said: ‘‘We’re thrilled to see some talented newcomers cast alongside Kiwi acting stalwarts tackling these complex characters.’’

The five-part Black Hands series will air on TVNZ 1 later this year.

Main cast of Black Hands (left to right): Lucy Currey as Arawa Bain, Richard Crouchley as David Bain, Luanne Gordon as Margaret Cullen, Joel Tobeck as Robin Bain, Amelia Elliott as Laniet Bain and Angus Stevens as Stephen Bain.