It is a challenge to play someone psychopathic
Tim Roth tells MARION McMULLEN about getting away with murder and putting himself in a killer’s shoes
THE CHILLING world of real-life multiple murderer John Christie shocked the nation when it was revealed how he had hidden in plain sight while he preyed on women.
Christie carried out his deadly deeds at Rillington Place in Notting Hill in London in the 1940s and 1950s and a subsequent tragic miscarriage of justice led to neighbour Timothy Evans being hanged for a crime he did not commit.
The case was so shocking it contributed towards the abolition of capital punishment in Britain.
Tim Roth, of Reservoir Dogs and The Hateful Eight fame, says playing Christie in the BBC’s new drama was a real challenge.
“I’ve never played anything like this before. It is especially a challenge when someone is so deceitful in a psychopathic way,” says the 55-year-old.
“He deceived the public and he deceived people close to him. He murdered with virtual impunity. He used and abused his power and was allowed to go about his merry way. His circle was quite small but he operated within it well. I can’t believe he got away with hiding the truth in the court room.”
Murder drama 10 Rillington Place uses each episode to present the facts from a different viewpoint... including Christie’s own.
The drama also draws on original source material from the National Archives, alongside new interviews with surviving relatives. It retraces the steps that led Timothy Evans being wrongly accused of the murder of his wife Beryl while Christie went unchallenged until his arrest in 1953.
Richard Attenborough played Christie in the 1971 movie with John Hurt as Evans.
Tim says: “I’d seen the film when I was a kid but I haven’t seen it since, and John Hurt had talked about it when I worked with him.
“Of course, the case itself we knew about when we were kids. I was born in 1961 so it was recent history and the death penalty was outlawed not long after, with the case and the possibility of Evans’ innocence put forward as one of the reasons. Bogeymen were a thing of kids’ stories at that point and that’s who Christie was.”
The unassuming serial killer lived in the ground floor flat at Rillington Place with his wife Ethel. Christie
claimed to have medical experience and would lure unsuspecting women to the apartment and then dispose of the bodies of his victims in or near the property.
Tim says he believes Rillington Place itself proved Christie’s downfall. “I kind of think it worked against him,” he says. “There is a certain kind of seclusion but I think in the end it defeated him.
“They lived in two and a half rooms in pretty grim, box-like conditions and he ran out of space. Once he went to walk about, it was only a matter of time before the police would come in and something would be discovered.”
Tim says he did know some facts about Christie, but trying to understand his character was not easy. “Up to a point, you can peel away the layers but you hit stone after a while. You can’t get to the core of him. But the fact of not being able to get at the inner workings of the man actually says a lot about him.
“He developed a character, a performance, that was very warm and comforting to people around him, to his neighbours, his peers and people at work. Although his downfall seemed to be that he really loved power and he couldn’t stop himself.”
Director Craig Viveiros is full of praise for Tim’s performance and says: “Rillington Place is one of the most famous miscarriages of justice in British history. The cast have been amazing, starting off with, of course, the dark heart of the story, John Christie, played by Tim – who I think has given one of his career best performances to date. He’s done an absolutely amazing job in bringing this character to life and preserving the truth of Christie and the understated simmering horror and presence.”
The cast also includes Samantha Morton as Christie’s wife Ethel.
“I’ve always wanted to work with Sam, and when I heard that she was up for the role, it was part of the reason I said yes. Sam’s phenomenal,” says Tim.
He also thinks it is important to revisit the story. “People are intrigued, and always have been since the time of Shakespeare, with the devils that are within us. That kind of stuff is always going to be part of human nature.
“The question then becomes, how do we give justice and respect to the people who died at his hands? If you have a woman who, like Ethel, is quite obviously abused on a psychological and physical level, we have to give her her voice. You can do that in your performance, as Sam does with Ethel. It’s a difficult line that she has to dance around but you owe that to the victims.”
He adds: “It will hopefully spark some interest in that case again which, remembering that there’s a whole new generation who will have no idea who Christie and Evans are, I think will be a good thing.
“The life of Evans before this event is fascinating. That would make an interesting film in itself. If you go back and look at the police work, it’s shoddy. They missed so much as they weren’t looking in the right direction. There was an inherent classism that was at play because they would believe this man and they would never really believe Evans.”
10 Rillington Place, is on BBC1, Tuesday at 9pm