The Sixth Commandment - BBC 1 9pm -mon 17 and Tue 18th and week after - tv pace. No spoilers

[Blondeshavemorefun]

This is a 4 part factual drama

on Monday 17 and Tue 18 , then mon 24 and Tue 25th

all will be on iPlayer but this is tv paced !!!!

The BBC has released first-look images for The Sixth Commandment, a brand new four-part true crime drama which explores the deaths of Peter Farquhar and Ann Moore-Martin in the village of Maids Moreton, Buckinghamshire, and the extraordinary events that unfolded over the following years.

The images show Timothy Spall as Peter Farquhar, Anne Reid as Ann Moore-Martin, Éanna Hardwicke as Ben Field and Annabel Scholey as Ann’s niece, Ann-Marie Blake, alongside Sheila Hancock as Liz Zettl and Ben Bailey Smith as Simon Blake.

The Sixth Commandment tells the story of how the meeting of an inspirational teacher, Peter Farquhar (Timothy Spall), and a charismatic student, Ben Field (Éanna Hardwicke), set the stage for one of the most complex and confounding criminal cases in recent memory.

It also focuses on how suspicions around Field’s relationship with Ann Moore-Martin (Anne Reid), Peter’s deeply religious neighbour, unlocked a series of chilling revelations.

The Sixth Commandment explores the way in which both Peter and Ann were manipulated by Field, capturing the extreme gaslighting, the gripping police investigation and the high-profile trial, while poignantly highlighting the devastating effect of isolation and loneliness, as Field closed in on them.

It also celebrates both Peter and Ann’s lives as cherished mentors, much loved relatives and adored friends.

The stuff he did in the care home where he taunted the patients is real, by the way. They found his videos on his computer/laptop

My MIL had Alzheimer’s and she went through a very paranoid phase when she wouldn’t let us help her, so was relying on neighbours for help. One lot are fine but there was one I wouldn’t trust an inch, it was a very worrying time.

It must have been very worryIng. At that stage people are so vulnerable and so easy to exploit. My DB and SIL have a neighbour they’ve lived near for about 30 years. She now has early dementia, and she comes round a lot to ask them for help because she’s increasingly struggling with everyday tasks. DB changes lightbulbs, resets the heating, looks over energy bills etc. They check on her to make sure she’s ok as her family don’t live near. Luckily DB and SIL haven’t got a bad bone in their body and are very caring and patient, but it would be so incredibly easy to exploit someone in that position. It must happen a lot

Lalgarh. I’d not reached that point but he is the stuff of nightmares . Truly evil

He was/is a sick bastard.

'I’ve just finished the first episode but was so sad and terrified for Peter I can’t face the rest'

I found the first episode so upsetting that I almost stopped watching. I'm glad I stuck with it though

Lotta. I might try #2 but I can’t bear to see such abuse. Especially knowing it’s what actually happened.

In the end it was his arrogance that got him caught . He thought he was way smarter than anyone else - too smart to be rumbled . He kept a record of what his was planning and didn't destroy it . Because he was so sure in his mind he wouldn't be caught .

Just finished watching it all. It is such a hard watch to see such cruelty. It made me wonder what he may have got away with previously.

Awful to see that poor old lady try to leave and he wouldn't allow her. I just wonder what creates such a cruel person.

Watched all of this over the weekend, and then watched the documentary. Then I had a nightmare last night!

Timothy Spall is such an awesome actor and was brilliant. On watching the documentary you see how true to real life some of the scenes in the drama were and how much the actors look like the real life people. The whole thing is sad from start to finish. Well done to everyone who stopped him including the niece and the solicitor. The drama was done very sensitively I thought.

Just so. I think he assumed nothing could ever be proved against him. Being suspected and getting away with it might even have added to the thrill. Along with being able to take in two such intelligent, educated and independent people, both former teachers.

Real, utterly cold-hearted evil.

One of my NI colleagues once took umbrage at being called Irish. “I’m NOT Irish. I’m Protestant!”

By the way, I find Irish first names a bit of a minefield. For example, I’ve heard Caoimhe pronounced by one Irish person as “Kweeva” and by another as “Keeva”.

I know that if I say the wrong one, I won’t be seen as using the pronunciation from another part of Ireland. I’ll be seen as an ignorant English person who couldn’t be bothered to learn the correct pronunciation.

So do I. I am a little obsessed by it. I keep an eye on this thread in case anyone has uncovered any details of his upbringing. Can someone really have a nice, normal childhood with a loving family, filled with warmth and security and then turn out like that? Something must have gone wrong for him to be so very evil and manipulative.

I wonder if his parents were authoritarian Christians. Or if some teacher tormented him. He seems to have a deep hatred of teachers and people in authority. His schoolmates say he was always sneering at the teachers and imagining himself cleverer than them.

I don't know anything about Ben Field's childhood, but I watched a program years ago about how psychopaths are created. Very broadly, you may have the generic propensity for psychopathy, but it's your childhood experiences that will determine whether or not your behaviour becomes problematic/ malevolent.

One of the lead researchers in the program took a psychopathy test and scored extremely highly! However, because he had an extremely loving childhood that was full of responsive care, his behaviour never became dangerous or overly problematic. I think the worst of it was that his family said he was quite self-absorbed and could be thoughtless. He also admitted that while he had learned social rules like being on time for meetings, he actually didn't much care about the impact of his behaviour (like lateness) on other people
It was pretty fascinating

@Lottapianos - I saw that too. It was very odd when he discovered his own high level of psychopathy/ But he seemed perfectly socialised and pleasant enough.

That suggests Field's childhood was a lot more troubled than has been made out.

'It was very odd when he discovered his own high level of psychopathy/ But he seemed perfectly socialised and pleasant enough.'

I remember that he was very shocked by how high his score was, but his family weren't!

I can't seem to find the documentary. Think it was on ch 4

Was the psychopath documentary by Jon Ronson? I know he wrote the book The Psychopath Test and I think he found out he was technically on the spectrum as it were, but might be misremembering!

The person I am thinking of was the neuroscientist James Fallon who did a documentary about his research into psychopaths and during it found out he was one himself. If you Google James Fallon psychopath there are lots of short documentaries and Ted talks etc but not the full length one I thought I'd seen. But maybe he featured in Ronson's longer documentary.

'The person I am thinking of was the neuroscientist James Fallon'

Yes, that's him. He's definitely quite odd but an entertaining speaker. He describes himself as a pro-social psychopath

I think this as well re Ben, it would be truly terrifying if he was just born like that.

It's the whole nature/nurture debate.

Im assuming he had a genetic or personality that was geared towards being a psychopath but something bad also happened to him for him to actually act on it.

I don’t know, I think psychopathy is basically like a disability, or a trait like being tall, rather than a nurture thing. You can’t help being born dyslexic or ginger, for example. Not everything is because of upbringing.

@Wanttomove3000 Fallon says that he is socialised because he had such a loving, kind upbringing. So he never had cause to be vicious. He studied murderers, but never had the desire to be one afaik. He seems to think that while psychopathy is nature, the degree to which a psychopath is wicked is due to nurture. Lots of socialised psychos are CEOs and world leaders. they have the ruthlessness and the unemotional mindset that leaders require at times. But they are not wicked. The wickedness is triggered by upbringing, he suggests.

Such a hard watch. I didn’t understand how BF wasn’t found guilty of attempted murder of Anne. Evil evil man.