Angela Basset as Tina Turner, Sir Ben Kingsley as Gandhi, Jamie Foxx as Ray Charles and Val Kilmer as Jim Morrison… Dramas about real-life figures are, obviously, helped by incredible lead performances. What these particular examples also boast is that the actor bore an uncanny resemblance to the person they were playing. It’s something that can elevate the piece even more.
Auditions for Des, ITV’s three-part look at one of Britain’s most grimly fascinating serial killers and the fall-out from his macabre actions, couldn’t have taken long. There really is only one man that could have been considered for the role of Dennis ‘Des’ Nilsen. That man is David Tennant.
Still perhaps most famous for his manic interpretation of Doctor Who, recent years have shown us that the 49-year-old Scotsman is at his best when channeling darker souls: a man accused of murdering his own family in Deadwater Fell, the main villain of Netflix’s Jessica Jones, even a full-on demon in Amazon’s Good Omens. We know he can play evil, but can he play ‘real’ evil…? Well, yes he can.
Fans of true crime documentaries may have seen some of the home movies of ‘The Muswell Hill Murderer’ before. Tennant certainly has, only here in Des he perfectly apes the casual quickfire mumbling, frank honesty and haughty arrogance of the gangly killer. He’s not so much playing Dennis Nilsen here as being Dennis Nilsen. All in all, it makes for immersive, if slightly oddly uncomfortable, television.
As with most modern crime dramas based on real crimes, the point here is not titillation. There are no scenes of Nilsen stalking victims or dramatically strangling them in either of the North London flats he killed in. Des is, as ITV’s most recent similar success A Confession was, much more human in approach. It’s more interested in the victims, the police work and the impact of the crimes. Which is as it should be. Anything else would just feel schlocky.
We open with Daniel Mays’ Detective Chief Inspector Peter Jay investigating a call of a discovery of human remains. We know what’s to unfold here, but Mays’ Jay doesn’t. As the picture becomes clear, it seems as if we’re going to be made to wait for Nilsen’s arrival. But then, no rush, no panic – he saunters into view and gives himself up willingly and without fuss. From here on in, it’s pretty much a David Tennant one man show.
‘Are we talking about one body or two?’ Nilsen’s asked as he settles into the back of the police car. ’15 or 16,’ he chillingly replies.
As with a lot of 9pm TV crime dramas, the most entrancing scenes come during questioning – and so it goes here. This is no Line of Duty-style interrogation, though. There’s no verbal combat. Tennant’s Nilsen just casually offers up a full and frank confession in the most nonchalant way. There’s something about a man describing how he lured, strangled and dismembered teenage runaways while eating a sandwich that somehow ratchets up your disgust. Yet it’s mesmerising.
Alongside Tennant and Mays, completing an impressive main cast, is The Lost Honour of Christopher Jefferies’ Jason Watkins. The BAFTA winner is Brian Masters, the man whose book – Killing for Company – has been adapted for the screen here.
There’s an excellent line dropped in towards the end of a conversation between Nilsen and Masters here… ‘Everyone has skeletons rattling around their cupboards,’ Des sardonically says. Almost as if he was teeing his new biographer up for a punchline.
After Nilsen opens up the murders, DCI Jay’s team have to spring into life – they need to identify the remains and charge their man before the press inevitably catches hold of the story. When they do, the first, rather tetchy face-off with the media sees one reporter ask the question that’s at the very heart of this drama… ‘How could Nilsen kill for five years without the police noticing?’
It’s a question we’re hoping to have answered across the next two nights.
Another wonderful British show for all to enjoy! They often require a bit more attention due to the British English accents.