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.

i think you mean Ben, the perp, in the care home with the elderly confused resident.
the real recording is even worse, it's in the channel 4 documentary.

I still can't find the ch 4

What is is called and will try ch4 demand

I watched a documentary once where they studied the brains and childhoods of 3 murderers. All three had had abusive childhoods/abandonment but also, all three had been injured on the head. They found a gap where the empathy part of the brain should be.
One of them said his mum hit him really hard on the head with a rolling pin and "everything changed." (His behaviour changed after that.)
Don't know if any of that applies to Ben, but thought I'd throw it in.

The channel 4 programme is called Catching a Killer - Diary from beyond the grave.

Found or. Thanks @notanicepersonapparently

It's s1 e5 on all 4

I remember seeing a programme about serial killers on death row and one of them said he didn't feel anything about the people he killed. He first killed his neighbour and then carried on killing people. So scary.

Have also watched the documentary. The actors were spot on I thought.

Have just finished watching on Catch up. So well written and acted. I liked that it was focussed on the victims and their families rather than the killer.
Also a positive portrayal of the Police for a change.
I don't recall this being in the press at the time.
Will definitely look for the documentary

Thank you @Blondeshavemorefun

I've just watched the first two episodes and am LOVING it. Absolutely chilling.

Wait till the end .....

I've just finished binge-watching the whole thing. It was excellent and very sympathetically done, with such a great cast. I like how it focused on the victims and their families - didn't even show Ben's picture at the end 👍
One thing, however, and I suspect others will disagree. Martyn was a pathetic little pussy and I don't think he deserved to go completely unpunished. Yes, I know he was manipulated too. But he must have had an inkling of what was going on. I had no sympathy whatsoever for him.

You wait till the last one ☝️ brilliant edge of seat tv

I've watched it all now! Like, properly loved it.

Yes I agree about Martyn. He should have been convicted as well.

Yes he must have known something wasn't right

And was trying to get landlord to sign /change will over

Phew, thanks! I wasn't sure if I'd been too harsh there. But he infuriated me. At worst, he had a very good inkling. At best, he didn't and is therefore thick as shit.

I think Martyn would have been convicted if the charge had been attempted defrauding of elderly people by coercing or tricking them into changing their wills. But it was a murder charge. And I don't think there's evidence he was actively involved in a murder plot in a calculated way. He came over as a mixture of gullible, spineless and a bit dodgy but not malign.

He wasn't really completely unpunished. It looks like he was remanded in custody, which is never a picnic for anyone, and had to go through all the stress of a trial. Plus he will have to deal with the fact that this will follow him wherever he goes.

Have you watched the channel 4 documentary on the police investigation? Ben had many people completely fooled. It’s possible Martin didn’t know the full truth.

I haven't, to be fair. But I can't imagine on what planet I'd see a friend enter a relationship with two aging people - and with possibly a third in the pipeline - and not have my suspicions aroused when they both die. I mean, it just wouldn't happen.

That assumes you don't just blithely assume all anyone over say 65 does is die. Harold Shipman got away with it for so long because so many were willing to believe that people even in the GP waiting room could just keel over because Pensioner.

Martyn at the trial was also known to have referred to both (known) victims in derogatory terms

At the beginning of the thread a PP said Martyn was her best man.

I would feel a bit differently about him after reading this thread and following the links. He was lucky to have been charged with murder, if it had been a charge of “a nasty prick who takes advantage of vulnerable people” he’d have been convicted.

It's the one thing I don't think the TV series did very well - making it a bit clearer what Martyn's role was, and how much he was involved or just taken in, like Ben's victims.

The way he was played, by Conor MacNeill, suggested that he was too trusting and a bit dense (albeit bright enough to be at university!) - a very different character from the one he played in Industry.

I haven’t seen the last two episodes but I just read that Martyn knew about the writing Field did on Anne’s mirror. He was also a beneficiary of Peter’s will;

https://inews.co.uk/news/ben-field-martyn-smith-what-happened-peter-farquhar-murder-trial-where-now-2501399

I can imagine a weak person – bit gullible, bit lacking in social skill, too easily impressed and ready to be a sheeple – going along with the idea that it's a good plan to befriend old people and hope they leave you some money in their wills. It's greedy and unpleasant but it's not wicked. He seemed to genuinely like the old people he lived with - both Farquar and Zettl. He may well have wanted money from them too. I've met predatory types who ingratiate themselves around old and sick wealthy people, never with the intention of doing them harm, but hoping to be remembered in their wills.

And bluntly, you don't have to be intelligent to get into Buckingham Uni! I have worked at a similar uni and many English faculty students were sub-literate.