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 agree @DaisyThistle. Ingratiating yourself with older wealthy people hoping to be left something in a will is a long long way from what Ben did.

Ultimately, the evidence just wasn’t there to convict Martyn, although you can certainly see why he was charged. Did he get away with stuff? Possibly. It certainly looked like he might have at least been aware of what Ben was up to. But in the end, Martyn was acquitted in court and so the makers of the TV series couldn’t really suggest he was actually guilty (in case he sued them or something). Which is why they fudged it a bit, I think.

So murder no fraud yes

The article in inews linked to above states that Martyn was charged with multiple counts of fraud as well as murder and he was found not guilty on all charges

I wonder what attracted Peter to Ben? Companionship? I mean Peter was an older, highly educated, intelligent teacher.
What did he see in Ben?

Companionship, affection, and quite frankly, sex (or the promise of sex).

Ben knew he was lonely and desperate for affection. He loved bombed Peter . No different to lonely older women who get manipulated by toy boys abroad. This is what loneliness does to people. It skews their thinking and makes them vulnerable.

In the drama he didn't want sex just closeness, touching.

In the drama, which does seem quite true to life) Ben also shows a lot of interest in English literature. This is a subject that Peter had taught and his pupils were greatly inspired by him and kept in touch over the years, as shown by the documentary. Ben was enabling him to continue that mentoring role post retirement. I thin perhaps with retirement Peter was bored/lost his role in life despite the University teaching. I think that was what got Peters attention to start with and then he was kept engaged by the sexual /romantic relationship.

I just remembered where Ive seen the actor playing Peters brother. He was James Potter, Harry Potters dad.
And in Soldier,Soldier, I’ve been watching some of the old repeats.

The beauty of youth.

Anyone can have their head turned. No matter how intelligent.

Psychopathic people can be very charismatic because they shapeshift into whatever they perceive their target wants. They have no fixed social personality. So with Peter, at first, he presented as a vibrant, scholarly Christian, passionate about English literature, serving the church and God, caring for his elders and teaching at the uni.

Peter probably felt he had found the soul mate he had longed for since he was young. I think a lot of people who didn't have fulfilling romantic lives in their youth can fall deeply for younger people as it's a way of having that youth again. And that was certainly true of him.

Fuck I know him.
Went to school with him!
Reeling right now.

I saw the case in the news at the time. But didn't connect the two.
Really struggling to connect the two - the person who I knew and the monster!

Fuck

I'm a long term user but have naturally named changed for this.

@needtonamechangeforthis1 I would love to know what he was like in school.

Wow what was he like at school?

He was pretty normal!
He was tall! He was probably one of the tallest in the year.
He was naturally quite intelligent and one of those slightly irritatingly don't seem to need to work too hard to get the grades type.
He was like able and generally seemed to steer clear of trouble. I do vaguely remember there being one incident which he was involved in but I dont honestly remember the specifics. It was 15 odd years ago!

He was one to have quite a lot of conversations with the teaching staff and be quite an active participant in classes. And I would imagine he was quite liked by the staff.

I'm fairly sure he was musical and I did GCSE music with him. And he was part of the Christian union. The school was a C of E selective school.

Some of my friends were in his form. That's going to be an interesting conversation to have in time!

Bloody Hell

If I had to rank the lads in my year as to the most likely to end up in prison he wouldn't have made the long list let alone the short!

What a brilliant programme. Utterly chilling performance and really great acting from all. Timothy Spall was especially good. I felt sorry for the wretched friend, who I saw as a weak creature who was completely manipulated by Ben.

Yes I said earlier he was Harrys
dad

So he did t show any tendencies to be a physopath

@Blondeshavemorefun not that remember no.

It was all so sad. I’m pleased that Ben was found out and I do wonder if Peter wasn’t the first.

Ben told Martyn he was going on manoeuvres, was that explained? Did he tell Martyn what those manoeuvres entailed?
I find it very hard to believe that Martyn couldn’t see at least some of the cruelty Ben was inflicting , he was benefiting so perhaps it was easy for him to be in denial. He spoke about the victims in derogatory terms, he was one of Bens victims too but not totally innocent.

I think the Manoeuvres referred to going to stay at his girlfriends. She was interviewed by the police in the documentary. She had no idea what he was up to, and thought he was Peters lodger. She was told Peter would not approve of their relationship (sex outside marriage) because he was religious so she her went over there.

Never went over there.

Sorry to de rail the thread slightly. I think Timothy Spall is a great actor.
Ive been racking my brains about this and wondered if anyone could help me.

It was on tv probably over twenty years ago,Timothy Spall was a character in it. He had a beard and spoke with a London accent, not posh or anything.

Any ideas what it could have been?

@Paul2023 , was it Dicken's Our Mutual Friend in 1998? You need to get the IMDB app, it's addictive!
Goggle Mr Venus Our Mutual Friend T Spall for an image.