It’s been a bit of a week, but I managed to squeeze in Des, a creepy and disturbing three-part miniseries about real life Scottish serial killer, Dennis Nilsen. After being shown an add for this show countless times (they know me so well) and my recent watch of David Tennant in Camping, I felt like I had to give this short series a go. It was well worth the watch, and just like any other serial killer you’ve heard about, their gruesome acts are still endlessly fascinating.
The series starts off more or less with Nilsen fessing up to the crime! He had recently filed a complaint about his drains being clogged, so when a company came to clear it out they found human remains. While in the show it was just bones that were found, apparently in real life they also found chunks of flesh. Police went up to Des’ apartment and were immediately hit with the scent of rot and decay. After Detective Chief Inspector Peter Jay told him not to mess around and tell him where the rest of the body was, Nilsen gave it up straight away.
Now, to me, if a person’s got a dead body I would pretty much assume they did it, but the police could only hold him in custody while they tried to figure out who the remains belonged to. During his time in custody, Des claimed he wanted to be as helpful as possible because this boy, along with fourteen others, demanded respect for what had happened to them by his hand. I think I was as shocked as the police were with how willing he was to cooperate, but as time went on you could just tell he wasn’t being totally forthright. Small details he would leave out that the police would eventually uncover, or the agonizingly slow thought it seemed to take Nilsen to remember a name. By the series end it was clear he was a master manipulator.
Unfortunately for Nilsen, the crimes were too many and too gruesome for his charms to save him. All in all, only eight of his fifteen victims were ever identified, but at the time of his trial, he was only being charged for six. By today’s standards, Nilsen’s appearance just screams serial killer, but I suppose back in the 70s his look was the norm. He also had the advantage of being in London, which at that time had a very large homeless population. That’s what a lot of his victims were. That, or they were just looking for hospitality, which Nilsen gave in spades. Once he got them well and drunk he would either strangle or drown them, or both if necessary. There is one instance where he resuscitated one of his victims and just let him go! It’s a shame that homophobia stopped him and a few others who escaped from reporting Nilsen.
All in all, this was a very interesting story about a real life serial killer who just died a few years ago. Aside from the sheer number of men he killed, it’s fascinating how it’s never really determined what motivates him to kill. The show itself explores loneliness as the reason, but for him allegedly not remembering any of their names, I sort of doubt that was the real reason. I also looked up the real Dennis Nilsen, and sadly for David Tennant, he’s a dead ringer! Some superb acting for such a short series.