A new four-part crime series the Sixth Commandment, is coming to the BBC. It’s centred around the deaths of Peter Farquhar and Ann Moore-Martin in the village of Maids Moreton, Buckinghamshire, in 2015 and 2017.
The Sixth Commandment airs on July 17, and will highlight “the devastating effect of isolation and loneliness”.
What is the Sixth Commandment about?
The drama is written by Sarah Phelps, and stars Mr Turner and Spencer actor Timothy Spall as Peter Farquhar, “an inspirational teacher” who was manipulated into a relationship with Ben Field, his killer. Sanditon’s Anne Reid stars as the second murder vicitim, Ann Moore-Martin. Also in the cast are:
- Éanna Hardwicke (Lakelands, Normal People)
- Annabel Scholey (The Split, The Salisbury Poisonings)
- Sheila Hancock (Unforgotten, A Discovery of Witches, Great Canal Journeys)
- Ben Bailey Smith (The Split, Andor)
- Conor MacNeill (Industry)
- Adrian Rawlins (Baptiste, Chernobyl)
- Amanda Root (Summerland, Unforgotten)
So what can we expect from the plot? The show tells the story of “how the meeting of an inspirational teacher, Peter Farquhar (Timothy Spall) and a charismatic student, Ben Field (Éanna Hardwicke), set the stage for one of the most complex and confounding criminal cases in recent memory.
“The Sixth Commandment explores the way in which both Peter and Ann were manipulated by Field, capturing the extreme gaslighting, the gripping police investigation, and the high-profile trial, while poignantly highlighting the devastating effect of isolation and loneliness, as Field closed in on them.
“It also celebrates both Peter and Ann’s lives as cherished mentors, much-loved relatives, and adored friends.”
The Sixth Commandment is airing across four episodes — each lasts an hour and is being broadcast on BBC One at 9pm. Episodes one and two were on Monday and Tuesday, with episodes three and four on next Monday and Tuesday, but you can catch up on iPlayer if you missed the first two.
What is the true story behind the Maids Moreton murders?
The real crimes that the series is based on began less than a decade ago, and concerns the deaths of English lecturer and novelist Peter Farquhar and his neighbour, Ann Moore-Martin, a retired primary school headteacher.
Farquhar and Moore-Martin lived three doors down from each other in Maids Moreton, Buckinghamshire, and died two years apart in mysterious circumstances.
They were both religious — Farquhar was an evangelical Christian and had considered becoming a minister before starting in education, and Moore-Martin was a devout Catholic.
Both Farquhar and Moore-Martin found themselves the target of PhD student and churchwarden Ben Field, who set out to scam them both.
Farquhar lectured at Buckingham University, where Field studied. Field started a relationship with the older man and, as the pair grew closer, Farquhar wrote Field into his will in 2013; they moved in together two months later. But during their relationship, Field had a string of girlfriends, and later started a sexual relationship with Farquhar’s neighbour, Moore-Martin, who was 57 years Field’s senior.
Over two years, Field topped up Mr Farquhar’s drinks with bioethanol, gin, and poteen (Poitín), a high-strength Irish alcohol, and laced his food with drugs.
Field also deleted numbers from Mr Farquhar’s phone, which led him to believe he had done so himself but had forgotten. The lecturer even sought the help of specialist brain doctors but no-one could find out what was wrong with him.
Farquhar died in October 2015. When the case came to court, jurors were told that Field “suffocated” Farquhar when he was too weak to resist. Field had left a half-empty bottle of whisky in Farquhar’s room to create a narrative that he had drunk himself to death and killed himself, puzzling friends who didn’t know Farquhar as a drinker.
In court, the murderer admitted to drugging Farquhar in order to inherit his house and money. He showed no remorse, and told the jury “he did it for no other reason other than it was cruel, to upset and torment Peter — purely out of meanness”.
After Farquhar’s death, Field decided to move out of his lover’s home and went to live with Moore-Martin, who lived three doors away.
Moore-Martin had expressed a desire to live with her family, elsewhere in the country. However, as Field’s manipulation grew stronger, she began to have less contact with her relatives. Field pressured Moore-Martin to change her will, gaslighting her and writing “messages from God” on her mirrors.
Field claimed he needed money for a dialysis machine for his brother, among other ruses that led to Moore-Martin handing over more than £30,000 to the young man. Then her health began to deteriorate and she was hospitalised after a seizure.
Police were contacted by a family member with concerns about Field, whose links to Moore-Martin and Mr Farquhar were subsequently uncovered.
Moore-Martin died of natural causes; Field was accused of plotting to kill her, but was found not guilty.
However, in October 2019 he was jailed for life with a minimum term of 36 years, for Farquhar’s murder and for defrauding Moore-Martin, who had fortunately cut him out of her will before she died. His attempt to overturn his conviction was unsuccessful.
