National treasures make this true crime drama all the more chilling: CHRISTOPHER STEVENS reviews last night’s TV

The Sixth Commandment

Judgement:

Why sharks attack

Judgement:

There’s an extra layer of chill about The Sixth Commandment (BBC1). Somehow it’s made even more creepy by the fact that each of his victims is so instantly recognizable.

Bad enough to kill Timothy Spall, a much-admired actor since the days of Auf Wiedersehen, Pet. It is far worse to target the magnificent Anne Reid, whose credentials stretch all the way back to Hancock’s Half Hour and the beginnings of Coronation Street.

But now the clerical killer in this true crime drama has Sheila Hancock, grande dame of the English stage, in her sights. Is nobody safe? Can someone please stop by and check on Dame Judi Dench?

With this caliber of stars and an exceptional supporting cast, Ben Field’s cold-hearted plotting and manipulation are all the more shocking because we feel we know his victims so well – we’re personally involved.

Each of the first two episodes of this week focused on one death. In the first, Spall, as retired English teacher and amateur novelist Peter Farquhar, sailed right on this side of the caricature, enjoying the typical eccentricities and pomposity of a public schoolmaster.

He was picky, repressed, vain and self-centered, but Spall kept him from being ridiculed by constantly revealing the man’s inner sadness. He was desperately lonely, and always had been, but with age approaching he could no longer hide it.

The love of his brother Ian and his wife (Adrian Rawlins and Amanda Root) only emphasized what he didn’t have: a partner.

When Field (Eanna Hardwicke) befriended, declared his love and moved in with him, Peter’s self-deception was forgivable, even understandable.

Part of me was irrationally happy for the old dude, to see him snatch some good luck.

So far, the story, set in the Buckinghamshire village of Maids Moreton and meticulously faithful to the real events, has had echoes of an Agatha Christie. Perhaps it was this that attracted screenwriter Sarah Phelps, who has adapted several Christies for television.

But Field’s machinations shifted to the horror movie stuff in the second installment. Reid played another retired teacher, Ann Moore-Martin, who was just as eager to believe that this young man was in love with her… unaware that he had broken into her house and gone through her papers, looking for evidence of wealth .

Both Peter and Ann were churchgoers, a trait Field exploited ruthlessly. We knew the plots were being executed in the same way because the camera gave us visual cues: a hand giddily clutching at a balustrade, dark dregs in a teacup.

But the method wasn’t made explicit until Ann chirped to her niece, “Ben made me a smoothie — banana, yogurt, and blueberries.” It was delicious.’ Who would have thought a smoothie recipe could sound so ominous?

By the end of the second hour, we, like Ann’s cousin, saw Field as satanic. Hardwicke captured the man’s weirdness, making puns in a funeral speech, and couldn’t hide his excitement at the thought of murder.

The killing machines in Why Sharks Attack (BBC1) seemed almost benign by comparison, as scientists explained that when humans become prey, the motive is desperation or mistake.

Phone video footage of two dead in the water at beach resorts was alarmingly graphic for a documentary that aired at 8 p.m. So was the gory film of an attack on a young woman in Florida, who only survived because her brother fought the shark.

We were repeatedly told that death from a shark is rare – not much comfort to the vacationer turned fish food.