Inside the mind of a serial killer
ITV, 9pm
CREEPY and tense from the off, this true-crime mini-series stars David Tennant as infamous serial killer Dennis Nilsen.
Known as the “kindly killer”, Nilsen was a civil servant and ex-cop who spent five years from 1978 murdering boys and young men he met on the streets of London’s Soho.
He befriended his victims, who often needed food or lodgings, lured them back to his north London flat and then strangled them.
As this begins, Detective Chief Inspector Peter Jay, played by Daniel Mays, is called to an address where the drains have been clogged up with human remains.
When Nilsen – a nerdy-looking man in pullover and glasses – arrives home, he remains unmoved as cops discover a body in a cupboard in his hallway.
“So are we talking about one body or two?” asks an officer. “Fifteen or 16, I think,” he says, matter-of-factly.
Tennant is brilliantly chilling as the psychopath who courts attention and begins game-playing with the police, failing to remember any of his victims’ names.
He does however give every grisly detail about the murders and how he committed them.
“I took no pleasure in cutting up people or boiling heads or burning bodies – I did it because I had to,” he says.
The story is told through Nilsen, and Jay and Nilsen’s biographer Brian Masters, played by Jason Watkins.
As the police begin a massive investigation to identify Nilsen’s victims, Masters tries to delve into the mind of a serial killer.
The result is a gripping, occasionally stomach-churning, piece of drama about a shocking real-life case.
Continues tomorrow.