Have we reached peak true crime? It’s a question we’ve been asking for some time now – but one Netflix seems wholly unperturbed by as the streamer continues to roll out grim documentary after grim documentary. The latest in that cortège is The Puppet Master: Hunting the Ultimate Conman, a new three-part series chronicling the decades-spanning story of Britain’s most notorious finagler.
Robert Hendy-Freegard is the man in question, a former car salesman who has routinely impersonated an MI5 agent to insert himself into the lives of numerous women and one man. He sets up camp in his victims’ physical and psychological space, cuts them off from the outside world and manipulates them into handing over astonishing sums of money.
