Killing spree that shocked in the 1950s

In the 1950s, Peter Manuel embarked on a two-year killing spree, claiming eight lives in the close knit communities of South Lanarkshire.

The case was unlike anything the local police had encountered before-inaner a in which most people were unfamiliar with the concept of serial killers, the hunt for a murderer who chose his victims seemingly at random and attacked without motive was particularly difficult.

It’s a story that Douglas Henshall was familiar with, even before he signed up to the three-part drama In Plain Sight (Wednesday, ITV, 9pm) and the role of Sergeant William Muncie, them an who fought to bring Manuel to justice.

The actor, who previous credits include the crime series Shetland, says :“I mainly knew about it through my mum because she was about 17, 18, when Peter Manuel was notorious. My mum died a good while ago but I remember her talking about how nervous and frightened people were.

“We’re from Barrhead which is not that far from Birkenshaw and Uddingston but it’s far enough to be able to realise that my mum and her friends probably weren’t in any danger at all. But it proves the way fear reaches out. Especially when you haven’t caught somebody and you are reading these terrible things in the newspapers.

“It’s an astonishing story and surprising it hasn’ t been told in a TV drama before.”

In the opening episode, the story begins with Muncie celebrating his 40 th birthday, when he receives a birthday card signed by Peter Thomas Manuel( Martin Compston), who the detective arrested for the sexual assault of three women in 1946. Now, Manuel is out of prison and back on the copper’s patch.

As Douglas points out, it’s an unnerving gesture. “Today’s generation will understand the idea of online abuse and trolling. But back then it wasn’t some invisible person. You have actually got that person coming to your house. So you can imagine how much more frightening that is. Because then it’s not some anonymous person writing terrible things to you. It’s somebody who lives in the same area and comes personally to your house to deliver the message.”

But Manuel doesn’t stick to sending cards as he attacks a young woman named Mary McLauchlan (Jenny Hulse) and keeps her with him in an open field for most of the night. Mary goes to the police and identifies her attacker in a line-up, but Manuel insists that while he was at the crime scene, he was there as a poacher.

Muncie warns his team that the suspect is a threat to women in the area, yet when the case comes to trial, Manuel mounts his own defence - and manages to secure a not proven verdict.

Mary is distraught and after receiving another sinister card, Muncie worries that the next time the predator strikes, he won’t leave a witness. It appears his fears have been realised when the brutally beaten body of a young woman is found on the local golf course...