BBC One has confirmed that Rillington Place, which tells the story of one of Britain’s most notorious killers, will air on 29 November.
Starring Tim Roth and Samantha Morton, the drama is based on John Christie’s real life killings which took place at the infamous Rillington Place in the late 1940s/early 1950s.
Christie is one of Britain’s most notorious killers and murdered at least eight women, including his wife Ethel, by strangling them in his flat at 10 Rillington Place, Notting Hill.
The victims’ bodies were discovered soon after he moved out of the property in March 1953.
Three were discovered hidden in an alcove in the kitchen while his wife’s body was found beneath the floorboards of the front room. Christie was arrested and convicted of his wife’s murder, for which he was hanged.
However Christie’s neighbour Timothy Evans had already been convicted and hanged for the killings of his own wife and child, one of the most high profile miscarriages of justice ever known in Britain.
Publicity around Christie’s deeds and the realisation that Evans was innocent shocked the public and helped contribute towards the abolition of capital punishment.
The tale of Christie’s deeds was first dramatised in the 1971 film 10 Rillington Place in which Richard Attenborough played the killer.
The BBC adaptation will focus on Christie, Ethel and Evans and will explore the relationships and individual actions which cost the innocent Evans his life.
Roth will take the role of Christie with Morton playing Ethel. They’re joined by Nico Mirallegro (The Village, Common) and Jodie Comer (Doctor Foster, Thirteen) as Timothy and Beryl Evans.
Writers Ed Whitmore and Tracey Malone say: “This is a story you just can’t look away from: an unlikely serial killer who orchestrated a devastating miscarriage of justice. It has drawn us in at every turn and has attracted an incredibly exciting level of talent who are as committed as we are to bringing it to life.”
Phillippa Giles, Executive Producer for Bandit Television, says: “This is an incredible cast. A tribute to the beautiful texture of the scripts and Craig Viveiros’s reputation as a director.”
