This is a grim reconstruction of the case of John Christie, who murdered seven people between 1944 and 1952 in his dingy North London home. Richard Attenborough sinks himself frighteningly well into this role, but he is more than matched by the splendid John Hurt, whose pathetic Timothy Evans, convicted of two of the murders committed by Christie, compels total sympathy. The case itself is brought to life with harrowing authenticity, sparing little of the horrifying and gruesome detail involved, and never sensationalising its subject. The result is a thoroughly engrossing and fluid version of one of the most compellingly nasty cases of mass murder on record.

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