I’d dreams that Dennis Nilsen tried to kill me
Actor left haunted by plot of new TV drama
Laura Connor
Line of Duty star Daniel Mays has told how playing the policeman who nailed Scots serial killer Dennis Nilsen gave him sleepless nights.
Nilsen, who is portrayed by David Tennant in an ITV mini-series that starts tomorrow night, murdered at least 12 young men and boys during his sick killing spree.
Mays, 42, was so haunted by the storyline he even dreamed Nilsen tried to kill him.
He said: “One night I had a terrible nightmare that I was somehow locked in an attic with Dennis Nilsen.
“My wife was waking me up, I was proper shaking.
“And then it happened again. I had two nightmares about it.
“God only knows what the police and the families of the victims were going through, because it certainly is a subject matter that really gets under your skin.
“And it is completely and utterly mind-boggling how on earth someone can actually do anything like that.”
Ni lsen, who grew up in Aberdeenshire, committed his crimes at two addresses in north London between 1978 and documentary, The Real ‘Des’: The Dennis Nilsen Story, narrated by Tennant, will be aired on STV on Thursday.
Mays, who lives in north London with his make-up artist wife Louise Burton and their two children, said while the drama doesn’t depict the murders, Tennant’s uncanny portrayal of the sadistic serial killer made the experience unsettling.
He added: “Even in the readthrough, he was channelling something eerie – and then when we saw him in costume, it was chilling.”
The cast playing the police let off steam by going to the pub at the end of a tough day’s filming. But Mays said: “David certainly kept himself well away from all of that, he kept himself private from the rest of us.
“I think that’s definitely what he needed and instinctively, as a group of actors playing the police, we knew that was the way he was going to approach it and we completely respected that.”
In order to research his role, Mays read Nilsen’s biography written by Brian Masters, who is played by Jason Watkins in the drama.
He also went for lunch with DCI Jay’s widow, Linda, and son, Simon.
Mays said: “It was such a lovely lunch. I really got closer to Peter after that and realised what a brilliant policeman he was.
“He was quite good at not bringing all that turmoil home to the family.
“I think with other cases he was able to switch off, but with the Nilsen thing, it plagued him because he left the force two years after the case.
“It left him somewhat bruised. He also probably thought he was never going to top that case, because it was such an infamous moment in history.
“They were very open and honest about how he was as a person. He sounded like a very decent individual – I got the sense after the lunch that I would have got on with him like a house on fire.”
Fans have most recently seen Mays as loveable loafer DJ Marcus Ward in Netflix hit White Lies.
But his portrayal of DCI Jay is the latest in a line of police roles.
Raised in Essex by his electrician dad and bank cashier mum, Mays first found fame in Mike Leigh films All Or Nothing and Vera Drake.
He also starred in f i lms Fisherman’s Friends and 1917, and received critical acclaim for his role as Sergeant Danny Waldron in Line of Duty.
Mays said : “I ’ ve played countless coppers now.
“When I saw the Des role I did think, ‘ Oh God, it’s another copper’, but then you realise it’s the Dennis Nilsen stor y with Jason Watk ins and David Tennant – and Lewi s A rnold, who directed it – is phenomenal. It’s an amazing opportunity and an amazing thing to be
part of.”