THE SERPENT BBC1, 9pm
THIS cracking new eight-part drama is based on a true story, although it’s one that had passed us by until now.
It’s the extraordinary tale of the capture of the man who became Interpol’s most wanted, Charles Sobhraj.
In the 1970s, while posing as a gem dealer, charismatic Charles and his girlfriend Marie-Andree Leclerc travelled across Thailand, India and Nepal carrying out a spree of crimes, and were the chief
suspects in the murders of several young Western travellers.
As the first episode starts, we see Sobhraj (played by Tahar Rahim) being interviewed on American
TV in 1997, describing how the courts found him not guilty.
But it quickly becomes clear he and his glamorous girlfriend (Jenna Coleman) were anything but innocent.
Things start to come to light when a junior diplomat at the Dutch Embassy in Bangkok investigates the disappearance of two backpackers and finds links to other crimes.