James Nesbitt, who stars in Netflix series, The Secret, has revealed a too-close-for-comfort connection with the killer he portrays in the show.
Dentist Colin Howell and nursery teacher Hazel Stewart murdered their spouses during a rampant affair in 1991 and made the deaths look like a joint suicide.
And now the Ballymena-born actor has revealed his sister was a regular visitor in Powell’s home for coffee mornings with murder victim Lesley, and two of his close circle of trusted friends were patients of the driller killer.
He said: “My sister used to go to Lesley’s coffee mornings and two of my best friends were patients of Colin’s.”
The 51-year-old also recalls a scene in the four-part series, in which his character Howell runs past his parents’ house following the killings.
Nesbitt said: “To see that is quite chilling. For all intents and purposes, this was a community that was law-abiding and well-respected. It’s quite easy to imagine that Baptist community as an odd and cultish world, but it wasn’t at all.
“They’re certainly a close community, but I knew a lot of these people, and they’re charitable people that will go out of their way to help you.
“It was interesting to be given an opportunity to explore the dark side and, indeed, see how wickedness and evil can flourish under the cover of religion.”
The drama traces the initial meeting between Howell, now 57, when he was married to nurse Lesley, 31, and 53-year-old Stewart when she was married to police officer Trevor Buchanan, 32.
The storyline lays clear how they carried out Howell’s plan to kill Lesley and Trevor and the inquest which failed to trigger a police investigation when RUC colleagues of Trevor presumed an affair had ended in a joint suicide.
The series jumps 18 years to Howell’s shock murder confession to church elders and the subsequent murder trials in which mum-of-two Stewart admitted involvement but pleaded not guilty to murder, claiming she had been under the powerful influence of the dentist.
Nesbitt said: “Everyone now has an opinion on Colin, particularly in Northern Ireland, where there’s almost a frenzy about this series coming out.
“A lot of people would say, ‘Oh yes, I knew there was something strange about him’, but that’s in retrospect, and the retrospect is influenced by the fact he was convicted.”
In preparation for the part, Nesbitt spoke to veteran reporter Deric Henderson, former Ireland Editor of the Press Association who wrote Let This Be Our Secret, on which the drama is based.
The actor, who has two daughters with wife Sonia Forbes-Adam, told the Gloucester Citizen: “I knew about the notion of a film a long time ago because Deric told me he was writing a book and said it would make a great film. The research was there, so I didn’t need to journalistically talk to people.
“Colin Howell clearly had a certain level of charm. He was a very forceful person whose religion meant a lot to him, but I think we all agree that for him, God was made in his own image, and he was supremely controlling.
“This control and self-belief put him in a position where he felt that rules didn’t apply to him.”
Nesbitt admitted he didn’t meet Howell but said: “I wouldn’t mind sitting down with him for a while.
“I would have asked him why he confessed... Something I’ve always thought is that I wonder if after a couple of days after confessing, Colin went: ‘Oh f**k'.
“I think there’s a level of psychopathy in there. There has to be. But I don’t know what motivated the murders.
“From a religious side, divorce wasn’t permitted in the Baptist church, and Colin was certainly aware of banishment.
“That membership and the position he held there tied along with his need for power, and banishment would have been humiliating for him.”
Series director Nick Murphy, who previously worked with Nesbitt on 2009’s Occupation is excited about revealing on screen the details the true story of dentist Colin Howell Hazel Stewart, played by Genevieve O’Reilly.
He said: “We do know that the drama is factual and that these murder scenes are arranged as per the forensic photographs, not just us guessing. The police interviews and courtroom hearings are transcripts verbatim to what was actually said. I haven’t allowed anyone to change anything at all.”
Retired reporter Deric Henderson revealed that Howell spent almost two years preparing for the court case and had rehearsed his lines knowing he was going to have a captive audience.
Nesbitt said: “It’s for that very reason the opportunity to re-enact his court testimony was fantastic - because he had planned it so well. He had written it so articulately, with the sophisticated argument he put forward. To perform that was wonderful.”
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