His victims were vulnerable, often homeless, and the London police had no idea he existed until a plumber found bones and flesh in the drain of his apartment building. We accept, in the end, that there is no answer — Masters, in his book, cites the “essential unknowability” of the mind, and Tennant has called playing the role an effort to “illuminate the unilluminatable.”. ITV's much-anticipated new true crime drama Des starts tonight (Monday 14 September) at 9pm, starring David Tennant as serial killer Dennis Nilsen. This was then upgraded to a whole-life tariff. The real life Nilsen died on 12 May 2018, aged 72, and was a serial killer and necrophile believed to have brutally murdered at least 12 young men and boys between 1978 and 1983. In “Des,” David Tennant stars as the Scottish serial killer Dennis Nilsen, a predatory monster wrapped in a banal exterior. David Tennant, Actor: Doctor Who. He reportedly told police: "It's a long story; it goes back a long time. In keeping with the overall tenor of the production, Tennant keeps things under wraps. The drama also stars Line of Duty's Daniel Mays as Detective Chief Inspector Peter Jay, while The Crown's Jason Watkins plays Nilsen's biographer Brian Masters. This is partly, maybe largely, a function of the script, which in its determination not to be sensationalistic errs on the side of vagueness. "The series will not only highlight the police investigation and trial but also the effect of the media coverage on public perceptions of the victims at the time, raising questions of just how far have we really come since then?". Kim Varvell, Executive Producer for New Pictures added: “Dennis Nilsen’s crimes shocked the nation in the early 1980s. Enjoying “Des” — well, appreciating “Des” — has to do with its details, which include the seamless, highly capable ensemble work among Mays, Watkins, Tennant and Barry Ward (as Jay’s right-hand man) and the appropriately musty evocation of the period by the production designer Anna Higginson and the cinematographer Mark Wolf. "I'll tell you everything. These threads, however, along with the elements of standard police-procedural work and courtroom drama, are all secondary to the psychological puzzle at the center of “Des.” Masters, the biographer, and Jay, the cop, offer various tentative answers: Nilsen’s needs for attention and control, a Freudian link in his youth between love and death. The first thing you notice about David Tennant in “Des” is the hair, a helmet-like thatch armoring his forehead. They begin with the plumber, and they don’t flash back. However he was investigated and ultimately came clean to officers after initially feigning surprise - according to Laura Foreman's Serial Killers. The police are strapped for funds, and Jay can’t get his hands on a word processor, let alone the personnel he needs to track down leads on missing persons. Nilsen reportedly told Cattran when confronted with the discovery : "It looks to me like someone has been flushing down their Kentucky Fried Chicken.". Like this article? Last updated 7:33 AM, Monday September 14 2020 GMT+1. David Tennant has divided opinion online with his Aberdonian accent in Des - with critics insisting they're 'not entirely convinced', while others have claimed 'it's spot on'. The show takes place largely inside police stations, jails and courtrooms, with occasional side trips to collect evidence or conduct interviews. The three-part series focuses on one of the most infamous cases in UK criminal history. "Told through the prism of three men – Dennis Nilsen played by David Tennant (Good Omens, Broadchurch), Detective Chief Inspector Peter Jay played by Daniel Mays (Line of Duty, Temple) and biographer Brian Masters played by Jason Watkins (The Crown, The Lost Honour of Christopher Jefferies) – the series will explore the personal and professional consequences of coming into contact with a man like Nilsen," ITV said. The abiding question is “Why?,” not “How?,” and the search for an explanation for Nilsen’s actions is carried out by a pair of audience surrogates: Peter Jay (Daniel Mays of “Line of Duty”), the lead detective in the case, and the writer Brian Masters (Jason Watkins of “The Crown”), whose study of Nilsen, “Killing for Company,” is the screenplay’s source. There are also the cigarettes, an omnipresent prop and indicator of something — Nilsen’s edginess, or emptiness, or his need to connect with the interrogators and jailhouse visitors he cadges smokes from. David Tennant is going to be brilliant as Dennis Nilsen and with Daniel Mays as Jay and Jason Watkins as Brian, this has an incredible cast to bring this story to screen and we are delighted to be making this with New Pictures for ITV.”. Of the new drama, ITV's Head of Drama, Polly Hill, said: "David Tennant is going to be brilliant as Dennis Nilsen and with Daniel Mays as Jay and Jason Watkins as Brian, this has an incredible cast to bring this story to screen and we are delighted to be making this with New Pictures for ITV.". But “Des” needs to give us something, and for all of its intelligence, superior craftsmanship and conscientious performances, it doesn’t really deliver. He died in May 2018. At the end of the show’s two and a quarter hours, Nilsen remains as opaque as he is when the police first knock on his door. When Nilsen opts for a diminished-capacity defense at his trial, his gayness subtly complicates the government’s effort to prove that he’s sane. He is of Scottish and Ulster-Scots descent. ITV has announced the commission of Des, a three-part drama which follows the arrest and trial of serial killer Dennis Nilsen, known as Des. Often considered one of Scotland's greatest actors, David Tennant was born David John McDonald in West Lothian, Scotland, to Essdale Helen (McLeod) and Sandy McDonald, who was a Presbyterian minister. He was undetected for five years but eventually arrested and convicted at the Old Bailey of six counts of murder and two of attempted murder. The creators of “Des,” Lewis Arnold (who directed) and Luke Neal (who wrote two episodes), avoid that route entirely. Speaking about the series, ITV’s Head of Drama Polly Hill said: “This drama starts with Nilsen’s arrest and is looking at him through the eyes of the police officer trying to identify those he killed and deliver justice for them and the biographer he chose to tell his story. The actor has remained a regular on TV screens, in spite of Covid lockdown: he's also narrated BBC nature show Spy in the Wild this year, as well as appearing in Staged- a six-part comedy that was set during lockdown and used video conference technology. He was sentenced to life imprisonment, which was replaced by a whole life tariff in 1994. Makers of Des on the different kind of true crime, Why everyone is losing it over David Tennant, You NEED to see David Beckham’s newest tattoo…, Meet the BBC's all star cast of lockdown teachers. The three-part series will air nightly until 16 September and tells the story of Dennis Nilsen, one of Britain's most infamous murderers. ‘Des’ Review: Depravity, Brought to You by David Tennant. Not here - at the police station.". David Tennant ‘Dennis Nilsen preyed on those who fell through the cracks’: David Tennant on playing the serial killer The actor portrays the notorious murderer in a new drama, Des. (Tenants — including Nilsen — had complained about the plumbing.). Which brings us back to Tennant, and the hair and glasses and cigs. Sign up to our newsletter to get more articles like this delivered straight to your inbox. As well as Tennant, Mays and Watkins the cast includes Ron Cook, Faye McKeever, Chanel Cresswell, Barry Ward, Tony Way, Bronagh Waugh, Laurie Kynaston, Ross Anderson, Ben Bailey Smith, Jay Simpson, Silas Carson, Stuart McQuarrie, Jamie Parker, Lex Shrapnel, Gerard Horan, Joel Morris, Jonathan Coy, Amy Booth-Steel, Ken Bones, Andrew Woodall and Amaka Okafor. (If the point is that Nilsen was just an empty shell, it’s not made in a way that I found very compelling or particularly chilling.). He was convicted on six counts of murder and two of attempted murder, with a recommendation he serve at least 25 years behind bars. Tennant’s gift, from “Doctor Who” to Shakespeare, is for cerebral theatricality, not the nuanced banality of the Dennis Nilsen that “Des” presents. One of the central dramatic tensions is his push to identify all of the victims before the higher-ups shut down the investigation to save money. Nilsen murdered boys and young men in his flat from 1978 to 1983. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io, See Madeira in all its glory with TV's Adam Frost, Strictly's JJ Chalmers taught to Waltz before bomb, Jamie posts sweet throwback photo with Jools, Alison Hammond and Amanda Holden join new BBC show, His Dark Materials season 2: What you need to know, The Crown season 4: What you need to know, Strictly's Clara reveals mum's wardrobe rules, Good Housekeeping, Part of the Hearst UK Fashion & Beauty Network. For Tennant, the role follows his performance in Channel 4 mini-series Deadwater Fell, about a doctor whose family are murdered in a fire. This new show, though, looks like he'll making a return to the gritty dramas that he has become revered for. The case plays out against the backdrop of the Margaret Thatcher years in Britain, and the series weaves in connections. Good Housekeeping participates in various affiliate marketing programs, which means we may get paid commissions on editorially chosen products purchased through our links to retailer sites. Those aren’t the only ways in which “Des,” a three-part British mini-series that begins Thursday on the streaming service Sundance Now, tries to fill in its picture of Nilsen.

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