How Bullseye killer gave the game away
Luke Evans stars in true crime drama about how a TV show helped snare a murderer
Expectations will be high for new ITV true crime drama, The Pembrokeshire Murders, from the makers of smash hits Line Of Duty and Bodyguard.
Luke Evans plays Steve Wilkins, who co-wrote the book on which the drama is based.
In 2006, as a recently promoted detective superintendant, he decided to reopen the cases of two double murders from the 1980s, which had defeated the Dyfed-Powys police force. Could pioneering developments like DNA help Wilkins now solve the cases?
Forensic evidence soon linked the murders with a number of burglaries from the 80s and 90s. But the perpetrator of those crimes was about to be released. So Steve and his team faced a race against time in a bid to charge their suspect before he was free to potentially kill again.
The investigation was named Operation Ottawa, and the criminal in question was John William Cooper, played here by Keith Allen.
The book Wilkins later wrote with a TV journalist threw up a bizarre fact about Cooper – just a month before he murdered tourists Peter and Gwenda Dixon, he’d appeared on the game show Bullseye.
And footage from that show proved that Cooper bore a strong likeness to the only existing image of the killer.
Luke admits that the story wasn’t familiar to him. But when he was sent an outline for the drama he was immediately gripped.
He said: “I was in Montreal in a trailer between scenes and I went straight to Google because I couldn’t believe it was a true story.
“It shows you how people come together and when the truth is there, as deeply as it was buried, if people have a passion and want to find the truth, they’ll find it. “It’s a story of one man’s hunch and a team’s trust and belief in him, that they will find the killer. A true story of success in the face of darkness and evil, which I believe we all could do with right now.” And while the Welsh actor’s career has taken him to Hollywood for projects such as Beauty
And The Beast, he was delighted to have a role that brought him home.
He said: “It’s actually my first time working on a project in Wales, so for me it’s very poignant, and also that it’s a Welsh story.
“I got to visit some incredibly beautiful parts of Wales as well, which was special.
“It was a joy to come to set and listen to all these beautiful Welsh accents every day. I’ve missed it very much.”
Having met the real Steve Wilkins, Luke felt strongly that the series needed to honour him.
He said: “When you play somebody real, the actual gift of being able to meet that person, the fact that they’re still around, is a wonderful thing. Steve had an incredibly interesting career and was involved in some very interesting and serious crimes throughout his career.
“I just like the guy, he’s got an energy. There’s a fire inside Steve Wilkins.”
But just as important for Luke was to create a programme that sensitively handled the stories of the four people Cooper killed.
He said: “There’s definitely a sense of responsibility and of being a voice to these people who lost their lives so tragically. I hope we’ve done it justice.”
The PembrokeshireMurders is on Mon to Weds, ITV, 9pm.
Keith absolutely inhabited Cooper. He brings the menace while being charming. It will go down as one of his great roles. David Fynn