When is Rillington Place on BBC1, who plays serial killer John Christie and who else is in the cast?
BBC drama will explore the true events that took place in Rillington Place in London
A NEW BBC drama will explore the life of English serial killer, John Christie.
Told in three parts from three different perspectives, three characters’ lives tragically converge at 10 Rillington Place, in Notting Hill, west London.
Here is everything you need to know about the thriller.
When is Rillington Place on BBC One?
Rillington Place begins tonight at 9pm on BBC One.
The next episodes will be shown over the following two Tuesday evenings, and each episode is an hour long.
The thriller opens with John Christie and his estranged wife Ethel reuniting after a nine-year separation, and moving into 10 Rillington Place, in 1938.
What's the show about?
The three-part thriller will explore the crimes of John Christie and the subsequent tragic miscarriage of justice in 1940s and 50s London.
Rillington Place focuses on the true stories of murderer John Christie, his wife Ethel, and their neighbour Timothy Evans, who all lived at the infamous address
Each episode will be told from their perspective.
Christie served in the First World War, where a mustard gas attack resulted in him forming a speech impediment
After serving in the war Christie embarked upon a life of theft, being convicted of stealing postal orders when he worked as a postman for which he served three months in prison.
A series of further theft and assault convictions saw him serve several stretches in jail, including six month's hard labour for assaulting a prostitute with a cricket bat.
He married Ethel Simpson shortly after he returned from the war, but she left him after four years, only returning after his final release from prison in 1933.
In 1937 they moved the the upstairs flat at 10 Rillington Place, before moving to the downstairs flat the following year.
Between 1943 and 1953 Christie murdered eight women.
The vile killer would gas, strangle and sexually assault the women he lured to his home on Rillington Place.
Some of his victims were buried in number 10’s garden, whilst others were hidden in a papered-over alcove in his kitchen.
He was arrested when he moved out of the building and several bodies were discovered. He was hanged in 1953, at the age of 54.
Tim Evans was wrongfully arrested and hanged for the murder of his daughter, whom Christie later admitted killing.
This exceptional case and its colossal repercussions helped change British society forever; the case contributed to the suspension of capital punishment for murder in 1965.
The writers of the show went to to extraordinary lengths to be able to show how Tim Evans was framed.
Ed Whitmore and Tracey Malone went through trial reports and evidence, talked to a relative of the executed man, then showed their story to an FBI profiler.
They said: “We then took it to an American ex-FBI profiler for his independent thoughts. They absolutely chimed with ours, that it was a tragic miscarriage of justice.”
Tim even accused Christie of the murders while in court, but the idea never took hold.
Christie portrayed himself as a decent, educated man, a decorated serviceman and ex-policeman.
The writers told the : "He didn’t have the appearance of a monster, the only other place to look was at Tim. Tim was an easy target, uneducated, a compulsive storyteller — the odds were stacked against him even when there were gaps and inconsistencies."
Who plays John Christie and who else is in the cast?
Pulp Fiction star Tim Roth will be taking the role of the notorious serial killer.
Samantha Morton, who starred in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, will play his wife Ethel.
His tenants Tim and Beryl Evans will be played by Hollyoaks' Nico Mirallegro and Jodie Comer from My Mad Fat Diary.
Is there a trailer for Rillington Place?
Ahead of broadcast, BBC has released two sneak peaks of the show.
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