Des: Trailer, certificate and where to watch
David Tennant plays against type as the serial killer Dennis Nilsen in this gripping three-part true crime drama
Year: 2020
Certificate: 15
This chilling three-part true crime drama gets straight to its strongest suit - David Tennant's eerily calm performance as the Muswell Hill Murderer, Dennis Nilsen, who killed at least 12 people between 1978 and 1983.
Tennant's Nilsen is chatty and detached in interviews after his arrest, interested in why he committed the murders and impatient for progress in the search for the bodies. 'I want these people identified and laid to rest as much as you,' he tells DCI Peter Jay (Daniel Mays), as if the police were the ones in the wrong.
The drama digs into Nilsen's character through interview scenes, and has some chillingly graphic language. The script is based on the book Killing For Company: The Story Of A Man Addicted To Murder by Brian Masters. Masters spoke intensively to Nilsen, who liked to be called Des, while he was in prison and is played here by Jason Watkins. (Three episodes)
