Despite being based on a true story, Sarah Phelps believes her new BBC drama has a dark fairy tale quality to it. <\/p>
New BBC drama The Sixth Commandment<\/a> has landed on the broadcaster, introducing viewers to the key figures of the true crime<\/a> that rocked a sleepy Buckinghamshire village back in 2015.<\/p>\n The series stars Timothy Spall and Anne Reid as Peter Farquhar and Ann Moore-Martin, a pair of religious elderly neighbours who fell prey to the much younger Ben Field\u2019s manipulative schemes.<\/p>\n Farquhar would ultimately be murdered by Field, who is played by \u00c9anna Hardwicke in the BBC dramatisation.<\/p>\n Despite being based on true events, writer Sarah Phelps (A Very British Scandal, Dublin Murders) has spoken about the \u201cfairy tale quality\u201d of the tragic story.<\/p> \u201cI started out thinking that this was a really twisted, sad story which had a fairy tale quality to it,\u201d she explained.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s about an English village into which walks somebody who is entirely predatory but who quickly becomes absorbed into the life of the village \u2013 the university, the church \u2013 and he was so good at camouflage that nobody saw the wolf\u2019s clothing.\u201d<\/p>\n She added: \u201cIt felt like one of those Hans Christian Andersen or The Brothers Grimm fairy tales which everybody thinks are really cute but they\u2019re not \u2013 they\u2019re terrifying.<\/p>\n \u201cI felt that there was something quintessentially English in this dark, dark fairy tale in the sense that you could live in this ordinary place, where everybody knows you, you\u2019re surrounded by good neighbours, and yet you could slowly die in front of them and nobody would know what was happening or say anything.<\/p>\n \u201cThat seemed to me to be the story, that tension between public respectability and private yearning, a sexual desire that you can\u2019t speak about that\u2019s at war with your religious beliefs. All those elements drew me to the project.\u201d<\/p>\n Read more:<\/strong><\/p>\n Phelps was also vocal about the importance of centring the victims when it comes to true crime.<\/p>\n \u201cI think the victim is always the most important element. One thing I didn\u2019t want to do was to glamorise the killer.<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of TV programmes give you the sense that you\u2019re falling under the spell of the killer, who\u2019s incredibly intelligent, with some grand plan, but I wanted to understand and honour the victims, to give them life and dignity,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n The series will continue airing tonight (Tuesday 18th July), though all episodes are currently available on BBC iPlayer.<\/p>