{"id":50331,"date":"2024-04-26T15:15:49","date_gmt":"2024-04-26T13:15:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/?p=2032088"},"modified":"2024-04-26T16:25:42","modified_gmt":"2024-04-26T14:25:42","slug":"the-sixth-commandment-writer-on-strange-feeling-of-bafta-nods-from-real-pain","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/rss_feed\/the-sixth-commandment-writer-on-strange-feeling-of-bafta-nods-from-real-pain\/","title":{"rendered":"The Sixth Commandment writer on \u201cstrange feeling\u201d of BAFTA nods from real \u201cpain\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sarah Phelps spoke to RadioTimes.com ahead of Sunday’s BAFTA Television Craft Awards. <\/p>

By David Craig\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Friday, 26 April 2024 at 13:15 PM<\/p>

\n\n

The Sixth Commandment screenwriter Sarah Phelps has revealed that a \u201cstrange feeling\u201d accompanies her nomination at this year\u2019s BAFTA Craft Awards for her work on the BBC\u2019s heart-wrenching true crime drama.<\/p>\n

The four-part series chronicled how Ben Field<\/a> (\u00c9anna Hardwicke) infiltrated the lives of vulnerable older people Peter Farquhar<\/a> (Timothy Spall) and Ann Moore-Martin (Anne Reid) under the pretence of romance.<\/p>\n

The tragic true story unfolded between 2014 and 2019, with the dramatisation \u2013 written by Phelps (A Very British Scandal<\/a>) and directed by Saul Dibb (The Salisbury Poisonings<\/a>) \u2013 airing on BBC One and iPlayer last summer.<\/p>\n

Phelps is nominated in the Writer: Drama category at Sunday\u2019s BAFTA Television Craft Awards<\/a> in London, which celebrate the best off-screen talent behind programmes that aired in 2023.<\/p>\n

Speaking to RadioTimes.com<\/a> ahead of the ceremony, she revealed that the show\u2019s enormous popularity came as a surprise to her, but acknowledged the difficulty of enjoying its success while remembering the real \u201cpain\u201d that inspired it.<\/p>

\u201cI didn\u2019t imagine it would be such a talking point,\u201d explained Phelps. \u201cI always hoped it would get people in the heart \u2013 and it really got a lot of people in the heart, so that\u2019s fantastic.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut there is also\u2026 it\u2019s a strange feeling that this is a true story about a terrible, terrible crime. And there\u2019s the ruthless cruelty and malice that was brought to Peter and Ann\u2019s lives. And it feels quite a weird thing to be going \u2018and here\u2019s a shiny thing!\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

She continued: \u201cSo, for me, it\u2019s a huge acknowledgement and I\u2019m really proud of it, but at the same time you kind of go \u2018shiny things, shiny things\u2019 \u2013 and yet there was all this pain.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut bringing that story into focus and having that focus be acknowledged with this is, I think, an achievement. Especially when you think that true crime is very noisy, very popular at the moment.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I did think that The Sixth commandment brought a slightly different angle to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Ann