Steve Coogan portrays Jimmy Savile in the new BBC mini-series The Reckoning. This much anticipated and debated show is the most recent – and perhaps most contentious – in a long line of programmes “based on real events”, that focus on harrowing stories of abuse or murder.
In recent years alone, David Tennant played Scottish serial killer Dennis Nilsen in the ITV series Des (2020); Stephen Merchant played British serial killer and rapist Stephen Port in the BBC drama Four Lives (2022) and Olivia Colman and David Thewlis portrayed the convicted murderers Christopher and Susan Edwards in the BBC series Landscapers (2021).
