Crime & Investigation HD
The vast majority of killers prey on their victims alone and undercover, but in a tiny number of cases, two people are drawn together to form a deadly duo. And when they do, they’re usually even more brutal and sadistic than those who murder alone.
So how do two people come to share an appetite for rape, torture – and why would they risk life and liberty to share that secret with a second person?
Internationally best-selling crime novelist Mark Billingham has made a career out of creating fictional murderers – but in Killer Couples he explores the real-life phenomenon, examining the crimes and motivations of four very different partners in crime.
Each episode sees Mark embark on a journey to get inside the minds of a different pair of killers, including Moors Murderers Myra Hindley and Ian Brady, John Duffy and David Mulcahy – the Railway Killers, Roy Hall and Michael Kitto - the Butler and his apprentice, and the wannabe Bonnie and Clyde, Lee Whiteley and Deborah Taylor.
He meets the friends who knew them, the detectives who caught them, and the psychologists and criminologists who have tried to understand them.
All the time Mark is building a picture for the viewer of not only what took place, but how and why? He tries to answer key questions posed by these appalling crimes, like how and why did two people come to hatch a plot to kill as a pair – and if they hadn’t met, would they have killed alone?
Filmed and delivered in rich HDCAM, this is a fresh, pacy and contemporary examination of four unique and mind-boggling cases.
The series, commissioned by Louise Dillon, Crime & Investigation Network’s Senior Manager, Programme Content, is the first series to be commissioned specifically for the channel’s HD relaunch.