Des

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Watched the first episode of this last night. It was absolutely compelling. Gets straight to the point - the opening scene is the discovery of the evidence of Dennis Nielsen's crimes - and after that, the whole thing hangs on David Tennant's utterly chilling performance as the matter-of-fact, unemotional serial killer. "Where's the rest of the body?" "Oh, in that cupboard there. Most of it". The last line of the opening episode is Nielsen under interrogation - "Why did you do it?" "I was hoping you'd be able to tell me".

I lived in Muswell Hill for a few years in the 90s and even then, people still talked about the Nielsen murders. Especially when they found out you were a young single civil servant.

[colchestersid]

I haven't watched much TV this year but this was very well done.

It really captured the grime and squalor of London in the 80s (you could almost smell the decay and filth) and explained clearly how Nilsen went unnoticed for so long.

Also effective in presenting Nilsen at the outset as almost being a sympathetic character before slowly revealing over the three episodes the extent of his manipulation and evil

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

The worst thing was when he tried to get Countdown production moved from Leeds to London.

[Satchmo Distel]

One of my earliest memories, aged 8 in 1975, was the finding of Lesley Whittle's body in "a well."* It seemed to be the first story on the ITN early evening news for weeks. I think it was my first awareness of evil in daily life rather than in the Bible or fairy tales. It's still the murder that gives me the greatest feeling of nausea, because 8 is too young to process it but not too young to be deeply affected. She looked like one of my aunts in her college photos.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kidnap...Lesley_Whittle

The name "Black Panther" seemed to glorify the atrocity, as did Yorkshire Ripper. Even at aged 8, I knew it felt wrong.

*actually an underground drainage shaft

[colchestersid]

Satchmo and I are the same age and the Black Panther case left an impression on me as well.

On our road was one of those big houses where the garden and trees were so overgrown you couldn't see it from the road. We knew that was where the Black Panther was - it seemed obvious to us.

Also around same time was Moorgate - I think that as well was the first news story which was just horrible

[jwdd27]

Watched it tonight and thought it was very good, Daniel Mays is always excellent and Tennant, who I am not a big fan of, was good.

I'm very familiar with the Brian Masters source material, and I thought his portrayal here was good in that it was not entirely uncritical of him and his motives.

Minor gripes were a mention of "KFC" in the script of the opening episode, I think people would have still said "Kentucky Fried Chicken" in 1983. And it wasn't a great programme for someone cutting back on smoking, as I am. Sure, back then more people smoked, often at work, but not everyone, constantly. It's slightly lazy shorthand for a pre-1990s workplace, programmes such as Endeavour also overdo it on the ashtrays.

[Balderdasha]

I'm attempting to watch this. Feeling a bit crap so curled up in bed. But the itv player is absolutely shite. How can anyone put up with this many adverts and glitches and the sound cutting in and out?

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

Just wondering from Satchmo’s post above whether he realised the tv drama Des, thread topic, is about Dennis Nilsen not Donald Nielsen? (Edit: Rogin’s spelling of the surname in the OP may not have helped.)
edit 2: and Rogin may have intended the correct spelling - I had to go back and edit out autocorrect fuckups of both sodding names. Christ I fucking hate autocorrect.

[Satchmo Distel]

Ah, fair enough, I have conflated them.

[Jumbo McGinnis]

I watched this and thought it was very good. As people have said, compelling yet truly disturbing viewing. I then watched a documentary that had some home video footage of Nielsen and beyond looking like him, Tennant absolutely nailed his mannerisms and speech.

As an aside, my Dad has seen the pan he used to boil heads.

[Nocturnal Submission]

I watched this and thought it was very good. As people have said, compelling yet truly disturbing viewing. I then watched a documentary that had some home video footage of Nielsen and beyond looking like him, Tennant absolutely nailed his mannerisms and speech.

As an aside, my Dad has seen the pan he used to boil heads.

Is your old man a copper then? It's in the Yard's Black Museum, isn't it?

I watched this too. I wasn't blown away by it but perhaps that's partly because I knew the facts of the case so well and also because the incessant smoking got on my wick.

[slackster]

This was excellent TV. Both Mays and Tennant were good as the leads. Just hope the number of tabs they all sparked up for early 80s authenticity doesn’t do them any harm.

And as Balders said, the ads on itv hub are really grating. The same bloody ones every break, too. Luckily, I don’t find much I want to watch on itv, thank God.

[Jumbo McGinnis]

Is your old man a copper then? It's in the Yard's Black Museum, isn't it?

I watched this too. I wasn't blown away by it but perhaps that's partly because I knew the facts of the case so well and also because the incessant smoking got on my wick.

Not anymore but he was. He casually dropped it (the museum, not what he did as a job) into conversation over the weekend and I never knew there was such a museum. I believe it was in the Black Museum but I don’t know if they have a museum in the New ‘New Scotland Yard‘.

[Nocturnal Submission]

Not anymore but he was. He casually dropped it (the museum, not what he did as a job) into conversation over the weekend and I never knew there was such a museum. I believe it was in the Black Museum but I don’t know if they have a museum in the New ‘New Scotland Yard‘.

Yup, it's been moved to the new gaff: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_Museum

[Nocturnal Submission]

The Nilsen murders, memorably appalling in their own right as they were, intersected with my life on three occasions, albeit not to any great extent.

Firstly, the news of the discoveries broke on the day that I found myself heading to Paris on a university field trip with a stinking cold. Sitting in the coach and listening to the radio in my enfeebled state, the whole thing just felt desperately grim. Then the next year when I started in my first job, I was chatting to a guy who had just started there too. He said that he knew Paul Nobbs, one of the men who were attacked by Nilsen but survived and testified against him in the court case. Finally, my best mate lived in Muswell Hill in the next road to Cranley Gardens, which I'd walk down every time I went to visit him. Well after Nilsen's time there though.