It’s been a while since I’ve posted any TV reviews so I thought it was about time we had a catch-up. Consider me your own personal iplayer. So the best thing on TV at the moment – in fact the best thing for a long time – is The Sixth Commandment starring Timothy Spall, Anne Reid and Eanna Hardwicke, an Irish actor I hadn’t heard of (and don’t know how to pronounce now that I do, but don’t get me started.) I had to think for a moment about which is the sixth commandment – it’s Thou Shalt Not Kill, and this is a true-crime drama centred around a small village and its church. The true-crime genre is a rapidly expanding one and the usual format is to focus on the perpetrator while leaving the victims in the background. Not so this one. Made with the blessing of the victim’s families, it puts them front and centre in the story. Episode one concerns Peter Farquhar (a name nobody ever smirks at, though I almost did) who is just retiring from his job as Head of English at a school in Stowe, Buckinghamshire. Peter is loved and respected but lonely; we understand that he is gay but that as a devout Christian struggles to accept this. His spiritual advisor, a remarkably humane priest, tells him not to be so hard on himself, but Peter cannot believe anyone could love him. He plans to spend his retirement writing a novel and teaching a course at Buckingham University.
Enter Ben. A student at the University, he breezes in late to Peter’s lecture on the Romantic poets and charms him by his enthusiasm for the subject. They become friends and pretty soon Peter decides that it’s time he took in lodgers once more. He gives a room to Martyn Smith, another student, and in short order Ben moves in too. He makes himself indispensable, doing odd jobs in the house and garden, and shortly confesses to Peter that he is in love with him. Peter is of course ecstatic; he announces this thrilling news to his stunned brother and sister-in-law but they don’t get to meet Ben as he suddenly has to pop off for something, a pattern that is set to repeat. The sorry saga unfolds quickly; Peter is persuaded to alter his will in favour of Ben, after which he becomes mysteriously ill, experiencing hallucinations and collapsing. At this point Ben turns up the gaslight, telling Peter that he became drunk, assaulted him and defecated on the floor. All untrue. He also tells Peter’s relatives that Peter has an alcohol habit – another lie – thus laying the groundwork for the murder, which he will try to pass off as alcohol poisoning. Peter dies, apparently of alcoholic poisoning as an empty Scotch bottle is found on the floor, and is buried – whereupon Ben turns his attention to his next victim, Peter’s neighbour Ann Moore-Martin. It seems that Ben has already poisoned her dog, and he uses the pretext of sympathy to get close to Ann. He chooses his victims well; Peter, isolated and vulnerable because of his sexuality and Ann, lonely and with no immediate family save a niece. The same story unfolds; he moves his stuff into her garage, telling her that Peter’s family have forced him to leave Peter’s house (not true) and sets about making himself indispensable to her. Just as with Peter, he tells her he’s fallen in love (‘I don’t see age’) and she believes him. In the same way he poisons and gaslights her, going to the extreme lengths of writing messages on her mirrors which she believes to be from God. Like Peter she changes her will in favour of Ben; like Peter she collapses and nearly dies, but recovers only to die in hospital later. The alarm is raised by Ann’s niece, her only relative, who has had concerns about Ben from the start. Suspecting foul play, she alerts the police who begin to investigate and find a disturbing pattern of behaviour.
The unfolding story is more shocking than the viewer expects; like the Young Poisoner (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0115033/) Ben has a notebook in which he details all his thoughts and plans, saying at one point that he could kill fifty people. All this time he has been training for the priesthood and seems outwardly the perfect pattern of a Christian disciple. Religion features heavily in this series, which is remarkable for the respect it shows to people of faith. At no point is religion mocked, undermined or satirised, nor are people of faith shown to be fools who should have known better. Likewise there is tenderness and respect shown to the victims; they are intelligent, thoughtful people who have led interesting lives and who simply had the misfortune to run into Ben Field. I won’t go into the investigation and the trial – you can watch it yourselves – but it had us on the edge of our seats; in fact we did something we very rarely do, which was to binge-watch the whole series. Highly recommended. (There’s a documentary about it too on Channel 4 as part of a series called Catching a Killer.)
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0fvlpf9
Apart from that, we have finished watching The Marvellous Mrs Maisel on Prime, an excellent series though it lost its way somewhat after the fourth series, and have moved on to Daisy and the Six. In its way this is quite compelling; it’s a biopic of a fictional pop group who strongly resemble Fleetwood Mac; the ups and downs, the drug-taking and the relationships. The problem with having a fictional group is that the music has to be specially written and is never as good as, say, a film about the actual Fleetwood Mac would be. Still, there are good performances from the main actors as Daisy and Billy who closely resemble Stevie Nicks and Lindsay Buckingham, though in the series they aren’t married. It doesn’t quite come off but it’s close enough to be enjoyable, so I’d say it’s worth a watch. https://www.primevideo.com/detail/Daisy-Jones-and-The-Six/0PTTLRQF3LB1X2N0OTNY32CH6S
And I’m realising I hardly ever say anything about the radio. Have you been listening to the Archers? What about Helen, eh? She should never have gone anywhere near Rob, if you ask me – but then they never do.
Now, what sort of motorbike should I get?
Kirk out
Sarada Gray 