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 can almost understand violent and impulsive murder but this is just horrific. To take advantage of someone who is so vulnerable and open and trusting. I wonder what Ben Field's background is like and what caused him to be like this

Dd and I talked about this last night, there is evidence around there being a window of opportunity for empathy to develop in a babies brain and if, for whatever reason, it doesn't develop that's it - no empathy.

The Why Love Matters book talks about this a lot.

Lack of empathy in itself doesn't mean you'll turn into a monster but for some it clearly does.

The scene in the NH really upset me, I'm a nurse and work in nursing and residential homes frequently, it's just so cruel and makes me want to be even more vigilant for signs of abuse.

I really hope he stays in prison, he's a dangerous man and I can't imagine he'd change at all.

Watching it now I can't understand how they caught him- there doesn't seem to have been any suspicion raised at Peter's death. In fact that part is passed over.

Suspicions were probably raised as Ben Field moved in with the elderly woman only a few doors away from Peter , then she died too , and her niece wasn't happy about the circumstances of her death .

I wonder if Ben could have got Peter cremated he would have done ? Thereby taking away any evidence of poisoning. I think his brother was next of kin though and so the final say was his .

Did Martin just go back to his life afterward then? I’m the same area? You’d think you would have to move away, hard to live near where you made all the mistakes about spotting somrhing so awful.

I'm assuming tonight and tomorow will show what happened before /after with them all

Good to see how the detectives gathered evidence

The way they showed Ben listening rap music and pumping iron then to church music

And visiting and gas lighting the poor old lady in the home

Then not letting her get up from the chair

Chilling

Drank his self to death. Does that mean Ben literally poured the drink down his throats and suffocated him 🥲

Surely one bottle
Of whiskey wouldn't kill so suddenly

Tho guess the hair samples will show he didn't drink much and that he had been drugged for months

How the hell did Ben get to charm so many old people. 🥲

Watching now, it's so desperately sad. I remember the case when it happened and it almost seems to soon for a program like this but obviously the family have approved. Just makes you realise how vulnerable the elderly are and they can so easily be forgotten.

Yes, the last thing I saw him play was David Irving, who could hardly have been more different from Peter Farquhar. Spall's acting range is incredible.

Agree that Spall's acting range is wide, but he will still always ALWAYS be Aubrey in Life is Sweet for me.

Didn't he also play a rat in Harry Potter? That's a good indication of an actor's versatility

One of his very best performances. I remember an interview he did when that film came out and he described that character as having no personality. So to play that brilliantly is quite a feat.

Life is sweet is so funny and TS is brilliant in it.
It's a typical Mike Leigh look at life
The one playing Ben in this is chilling

Life is Sweet is my fav Leigh film. So often his heavily praised improvisation techniques just seemed to produce crude class stereotypes. But LIS's characters have such a wonderful idiosyncratic warmth. Plus, in the case of the anorexic girl a really interesting and frightening cold vulnerability.

Tonight's will show Ben going dooooooooown !!

Ooh Rick Warden

I get the impression Field enjoys the notoriaty

I noticed that in court he didn't swear on the Bible but made an affirmation. I wonder why he did this.

It must have been so hard for Ann not to get justice for her aunt

So martyn was trying to con the woman he was living with. I said that at the end of e1

When Ben knocked on the door and said about curry. She would be next

Yet he said he didn't know about Peter , relationships , drugging etx

Was he stupid , or blindsided by Ben or really part of it

Least Ben said martin knew nothing

Least Ben admitted it
To Peter

But he didn't admit to drugging ann

Active fantasy via internet. Taking photos. What crap.

Surprised in court the judge didn't say quiet or contempt to the brother

Ben lied about long hours and drugging Peter at care home but that job was after he moved in

Bens rap while running

Chilling again

Why did Peter trust a drink made by Ben on his final night

If he hasn't it would have been so different

So he totally drugged him and tipped whiskey down peters throat 🥲🥲🥲

Shame
Martyn's didn't get in court for changing the will of the lady he lives with

Life but serving at least 36yrs. In 2019 so he's served nearly 4yrs

32 to go That isn't life. Ben will be out when he is 64

So I will be 82 ish when he is released. I'm 50 now

On another note. I didn't reliese the actor who played ian his brother also played Harry potters dad in the films

Yes tho lesst she made a recovery in the care home

But what did she die of. They say natural causes but sure the poisoning didn't help

Surprised in court the judge didn't say quiet or contempt to the brother
He was just imagining doing that, he actually went outside instead

www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-50069706

www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/killer-church-warden-ben-field-24581812

Couple of articles about the case

I wondered about that. I thought maybe it was because he had so obviously faked Christianity for his own ends. And his parents were in court. But it really stood out.