By Abby Robinson

Published: Tuesday, 07 December 2021 at 12:00 am

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*Spoilers for Landscapers follow*

From Des to Mindhunter, The Serpent to The Act, the true crime (or rather true murder) mill shows no signs of slowing down as audiences continue to lap up the dark and the depraved, and now we have a new offering in the form of Landscapers.

The four-part Sky/HBO co-production charts the story of Susan and Christopher Edwards, a married couple who were found guilty of killing Susan’s parents back in 2014.

They denied the charge of murder for the deaths of Patricia and William Wycherley, aged 63 and 85, who were both shot twice at their 2 Blenheim Close home in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, in May 1998. Incredibly, their bodies weren’t discovered by the police until October 2013.

Instead, Susan, 56, and Christopher, 57, admitted the lesser charge of manslaughter.

In their account, they said that Patricia had shot her husband during an altercation – their unhappy marriage is highlighted in Landscapers. They then claimed that Patricia began to mock and taunt Susan, claiming that she was having an affair with Christopher, which prompted Susan to point the gun at her mother. Susan also alleged that her father had sexually abused her when she was 11, which her mother knew but did nothing about, which is also tackled in the drama.

According to their version of events, Susan had acted alone, telling Christopher a week later when the pair returned from their council flat in Dagenham to Patricia and William’s house. The bodies were buried in the back garden in the early hours of the morning. The evening prior to that, Susan and Christopher had enjoyed a dinner of haddock and chips and watched Eurovision.

The next working day, Susan drained her parents’ bank account.

Christopher said that he helped his wife bury her parents rather than go to the police because he didn’t want to “throw her to the wolves”.

Reading the verdict, the judge said: “I have no doubt that you were acting together, you Susan Edwards encouraging Christopher Edwards at the scene and assisting him later in concealing the bodies… You are each as responsible as the other for these crimes and I see no reason to distinguish between you on sentence.”

The Edwards were sentenced to a minimum of 25 years behind bars, disposing of the bodies and helping themselves to Patricia and William’s savings after selling their home and stealing their pensions – some reports say £245,000, others quote £285,286.

The Edwards spent a significant chunk of that money on Hollywood and Old Western memorabilia, which is a central focus in Landscapers.

Prior to the discovery of the Wycherleys’ bodies, those who knew the couple believed that they were very much alive while they were, in fact, buried beneath their own back garden. On one occasion, Susan told a relative that William was on holiday in Ireland. She had also informed various neighbours that her parents were in Blackpool and Morecambe, and had sent Christmas cards to several people to bolster the fiction.

In 2012, the Department for Work and Pensions sent a letter to William, then long dead, to discuss his benefits. He had also reportedly received letters from Buckingham Palace regarding his upcoming 100th birthday. Following that, Susan and Christopher, rattled by the possibility of their crime being uncovered, relocated to France. It was there that Christopher called his step-mother, admitting that he was struggling to secure a job and was dangerously low on cash, before he told her their version of events.

Christopher’s step-mother contacted the authorities with the information that he had given her and the police promptly asked Susan and her husband to come in for questioning. After multiple letters and emails, Christopher replied with the subject line: ‘Surrender’, according to The Guardian, and the pair returned to England to face the consequences of their actions.

In 2015, Susan lost an appeal against her sentence. Her lawyers asserted that the minimum term was “too long”, and the fact that she was allegedly abused by her father had not been taken fully into account. Her legal representatives also said that she is unlikely to receive any visitors during her time under lock and key as the only person she really had in her life was her husband, who was sent to a different prison.

Christopher also lost his own appeal and the couple remain behind bars.

“You are going to spend most, if not all, of the rest of your lives in prison,” said the judge. ” I accept that prison has been very difficult for both of you.  Susan Edwards, I accept that you are particularly isolated and will remain so throughout your sentence.”

Landscapers creator and writer Ed Sinclair recently told RadioTimes.com and other press that Susan and Christopher “are still together and still very much in love, as far as you can be when you’re in two different prisons for 25 years”.

Landscapers is available to watch now on Sky Atlantic and NOW. Looking for something else to watch? Check out the rest of our Drama coverage or take a look at our TV guide.

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