Clunes v The Night Stalker
Actor reprises his role in true crime drama
Martin Clunes stars as the former London Metropolitan Police Detective Chief Inspector Colin Sutton in a sequel to the critically acclaimed drama Manhunt. Manhunt The Night Stalker, a four part drama, is the real life story of the police pursuit of a notorious serial burglar and rapist, whose 17 year reign of terror left thousands of elderly people in south east London living in fear. It is based on the diaries of Colin Sutton.
BAFTA award winning actor Martin Clunes will again take the role of DCI Sutton, the detective he portrayed in the first series of Manhunt tenaciously pursuing serial killer Levi Bellfield.
The ‘Night Stalker’, a notorious serial burglar and rapist active in South-East London, first offended in 1992 and is still continuing his reign of terror in 2009. His attacks are unique and bear similar hallmarks – light bulbs taken out to ensure darkness, entire panes of glass removed from windows. Dressed entirely in black, and masked by a balaclava, he targets elderly victims and subjects them to terrifying ordeals, whilst also robbing them.
Detective Chief Superintendent Hamish Campbell (Guy Williams) is tasked by the newly appointed Metropolitan Police Commissioner, to carry out a review as to why a lengthy and expensive enquiry, Operation Minstead, has failed to catch the Night Stalker, causing fear and panic in the public.
DCS Campbell calls on Detective Chief Inspector Colin Sutton (Martin Clunes) to take a look at the case to see if there are any avenues of investigation that have been missed over the years.
There is a worry from Colin’s old team, voiced by DS Clive Grace (Stephen Wight), that Colin is being given a poisoned chalice with this unsolvable case. Initially Colin meets with some resistance from the existing enquiry team in Lewisham where Operation Minstead is based. They have spent years focusing on the DNA evidence to try to find who the Night Stalker, or Minstead Man as they call him, could be.
Colin gets to grips with the case with his customary quiet determination. He meets with Minstead’s SIO, Detective Superintendent Simon Morgan (Matt Bardock), DI Nathan Eason (Matthew Gravelle) and tries to catch up on this longrunning and multi-faceted investigation.
When he goes to his first Minstead crime scene it bears all the familiar signatures of a Night Stalker case. But the elderly victim has dementia, so is not able to give them a complete account of what happened.
Colin tries to get a feel for the perpetrator, by getting to know his territory, but realises that what he thought might be an early break in the case proves to be just a coincidence.