Becoming DENNIS NILSEN
How Des, starring David Tennant as serial killer Dennis Nilsen, could be the ultimate true-crime drama
David Tennant has been thinking about serial killer Dennis Nilsen for a long time. The 49-year-old actor, most famous for playing the tenth incarnation of The Doctor in Doctor Who, read a book called Killing
For Company years ago. Published in 1985, a mere two years after Nilsen’s arrest, the book was subtitled The Case Of Dennis Nilsen, and was written by respected biographer Brian Masters. “I thought it might be a good part for me,” Tennant tells us on the set of Des, the upcoming drama that sees him take up that very role. “Then, eventually, the project just kind of evolved into being.”
Now the finished series, a three-parter based on Masters’ book, which tells the story of Nilsen – known as “Des” to friends and colleagues – is
about to arrive on ITV, and is quite unlike any true-crime drama you’ve seen before.
THE CAST
The drama is intriguingly refracted through the prism of three very different men’s viewpoints: Nilsen himself;
DCI Peter Jay, the detective who led the investigation into his crimes, and Brian Masters, the aforementioned writer who ended up telling Nilsen’s story. Wisely avoiding any kind of recreation of the horrendous murders, the series begins with the police being called to 23 Cranley Gardens in north London, where Nilsen lived, on 9 February 1983, after neighbours complained of blocked drains, clogged with what turned out to be human flesh. DCI Jay (Daniel Mays) and his team soon arrest Nilsen, who almost instantly confesses to the murder of a number of young men between 1978 and 1983.
“This isn’t a thriller,” explains Tennant, who looks uncannily like the real Nilsen. “It’s not about a serial killer in the way Silence Of The Lambs is – great as that film is. This is about what actually happened with these people, so you have to respect that and be as honest as possible.” Jason Watkins, who plays Masters, agrees. “It’s a very grown-up drama, from a very smart young writer, Luke Neal, and young director, Lewis Arnold. They’ve brought a freshness and energy to it, while making sure our interest in these crimes isn’t salacious.”
THE RESEARCH
“I reread the book Killing For Company, I watched every documentary I could find, and I met various people who knew him,” says Tennant, taking us through the research he did to play Dennis Nilsen. But he couldn’t meet Nilsen himself, because the killer died two years ago, before this project was finally green-lit by ITV. Tennant thinks it was probably for the best that he couldn’t speak to him, “Because from what I know about him, his narcissism would have been fed hungrily by this project, and I don’t know how healthy or morally justifiable it would have been”.
Brian Masters, who becomes a key figure in the drama when he earns Nilsen’s trust, and whose book forms the basis for the series, is very much still with us, and Jason Watkins did meet him as part of his meticulous preparation for the role. “He’s a fascinating person from a humble background,” says Watkins. “Who, through his sheer writing
ability, got himself published and changed his class – he went from the Old Kent Road to the Garrick Club. And he’s gay – which, on one level, is the least interesting thing about him, but I think it was important in this piece because the murders were of young gay men, committed by a gay man.”
THE TONE
The series is clear-eyed and sober, but also riveting, as we watch the investigation into Nilsen unfold. It becomes clear that he murdered at least 12 boys and young men, possibly as many as 15 (Nilsen changed his story repeatedly), meeting them in bars or just befriending them on the street before luring them back to his flat in London, where he would kill them by strangulation or drowning. He would then live and interact with the corpses, sometimes for days on end. Brian Masters and Peter Jay unearth these grim details, and Nilsen explains what he’s done in an extraordinarily matter-of-fact way. “Nilsen was a sociopath,” observes Watkins. “But beyond that, he was a very bland civil servant – seemingly unaware of the severity of his crimes. There’s a blankness to him.” Tennant says, “What is defining about him was his mundanity – and that’s what is so surprising about him. He was a bloke who nobody suspected of anything – he was liked at the job centre where he worked, and he was a trade unionist who helped people out. That’s hard to reconcile with the man who strangled strangers with the very tie he wore to work.”
THE GENRE
Both Watkins and Tennant are aware of how this drama is part of the current true-crime trend. “The timing is perfect,” says Watkins. “Because the explosion in true crime is astonishing, and there are so many brilliant documentaries and dramas around – and some less good ones. Brian’s book looked at why we’re so fascinated by these crimes. These stories reflect the complexity of human experience – and, maybe if we try to understand sociopathic actions, we can prevent them happening again.” Tennant agrees. “I’m as fascinated by this stuff as anyone. It’s that sense of ‘there but for the grace of God go us’. We all have secret lives and hidden thoughts. We’re all a little bit nervous about how far any one of us might go… What if you acted on the dark thoughts you have? We want to understand what’s different about this human being from ourselves”.
The astonishing achievement of Des is that it might just help us do that. n
Des will air on ITV later this month
‘I’m fascinated by this stuff’ David Tennant