Olivia swaps The Crown for a cornet in her killer new drama
GOING from Queen to killer is quite a leap for an actor – but if anyone can do the job, it’s Olivia Colman.
Clutching an ice cream, the star of The Crown is seen here in character for the first time as Susan Edwards, who became notorious in 2014 after she was convicted of murdering her parents.
Sharing the seafront scene with Miss Colman, 47, is Harry Potter star David Thewlis, 58, as Edwards’ husband and accomplice Christopher.
The production is a family affair as the four-part drama, called Landscapes, is the first television screenplay written by Miss Colman’s husband Ed Sinclair. Susan and Christopher Edwards were jailed for life after shooting her parents in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, in 1998 and burying them in the garden, where they lay undiscovered for 15 years.
The couple pretended their victims were still alive while looting £250,000 of their savings and pensions to buy Hollywood memorabilia – especially Gary Cooper’s autographs. Friends assumed the slain couple had gone travelling and never returned, with their killers forging Christmas cards to keep up the pretence. They gave themselves in after the bodies were found in 2013.
The drama – described as ‘ blackly comic’ – is said to draw viewers into ‘the surreal fantasy world that Susan and Christopher created by casting themselves as their Hollywood heroes in stories of their own invention’.
Oscar-winner Miss Colman said: ‘I love Ed’s scripts... just as well as he cooks many of my meals. It’s rare to be desperate to play a part on the first reading of a script, but that was the case here.’