As David Tennant’s Litvinenko lands on ITV1 after its first outing on ITVX, here’s a rundown of the top 10 true crime series coming up in 2023.
This year, we’ve already had some compelling dramatisations of real life horrors, including The Hunt for Raoul Moat on ITV1, and Steeltown Murders.
But there are some more promising series still to come – including the highly controversial The Reckoning.
Here’s everything you need to know!
True crime series 2023: Baby Reindeer on Netflix
Netflix is currently working on fascinating new drama Baby Reindeer, based on a truly shocking real life crime, which will air later in 2023.
The upcoming new series follows the true story of Richard Gadd and his persistent female stalker. The Scottish writer and comedian previously used his experiences as material for his 2019 play at Edinburgh Fringe.
The eight-part series follows Richard as he finally deals with the impact his stalker has had on him, and the deeply buried trauma he has hidden ever since.
The name of the show is based on the nickname Richard Gadd’s real-life stalker gave him. Richard Gadd first met the stalker, named Martha, when she walked into the bar where he worked. He flirted with her and offered her a drink. But this would prove a fatal mistake…
She began to contact him relentlessly, via messages and phone calls. She turned up at his shows and even tracked down his family. Martha made fake accounts to stalk him further, and eventually sent him 41,000 emails over three years.
When Richard reported her to the police, he had to prove she was a credible threat in order for the police to be able to charge her. The stalking went on for six years.
Actress Jessica Gunning plays the stalker, Martha. You might recognise her as Diane Pemberley from the comedy The Outlaws. TV fans will also recognise her from Fortitude, Trollied and MotherFatherSon.
Hunting Gary Glitter on Netflix
We’ve had documentaries on the sickening crimes of Jimmy Savile, and Rolf Harris. And now there’s a Gary Glitter one in the works. Netflix are due to stream the series Hunting Gary Glitter later this year.
A judge convicted the disgraced former pop star Gary Glitter of child sex abuse crimes in 2006. The three-part series will examine Gary Glitter’s life, fame and eventual conviction for a series of sexual offences.
The documentary comes from the makers of ITV’s Savile: Portrait of a Predator, and follows Netflix’s own docu-series on Jimmy Savile too.
The series will feature previously unseen photographs and archive footage. Journalists who pursued Gary Glitter (whose real name is Paul Francis Gadd) will also feature in the documentary. They’ll explain how he was found in South East Asia, where he was eventually arrested.
The doc will also feature conversations with some of Glitter’s victims. In 1997, police arrested Gary Glitter for possession of child pornography. A judge sentenced him to four months in prison in 1999.
A judge convicted Gary Glitter of child sexual abuse crimes in 2006. He was released in 2008. In 2015, he was again convicted and jailed for further sexual offences, including attempted rape and having sex with a girl under the age of 13.
In February 2023, authorities freed Gary Glitter from prison after he’d served half his sentence. He was later recalled to jail after breaking his parole terms.
True crime series 2023: The Sixth Commandment on BBC One
The Sixth Commandment on BBC One is a brand new four-part true crime drama which explores the deaths of Peter Farquhar and Ann Moore-Martin in the village of Maids Moreton, Buckinghamshire.
Timothy Spall stars as Peter Farquhar, the retired teacher who was targeted by money-hungry killer Ben Field (played by Éanna Hardwicke).
Anne Reid, Annabel Scholey, Sheila Hancock, and Ben Bailey Smith also star. And it’s set to air in the coming months.
The Sixth Commandment tells the story of how Ben Field met and manipulated his victim Peter Farquhar into becoming his lover. He eventually killed him, and made it look like an accident. Sickeningly, Ben then targeted Ann Moore-Martin, Peter’s deeply religious neighbour.
The Case Against Cosby on ITVX, streams from August 10, 2023
The Case Against Cosby airs on ITVX from August 10, 2023. Its focus is the persistent sexual abuse by comedian and actor Bill Cosby.
Of the sixty-three women who have come forward to accuse Bill Cosby of sexual assault, only one was able to gain a conviction. This is her story.
With intimate access to Andrea Constand and her family, Cosby’s prosecutors, journalists in the courtroom, and experts on predation, paedophilia, and trauma, this is a journey that will leave viewers shocked, informed, and deeply changed.
Woven throughout the legal story are the first-person accounts of five Cosby survivors as they confront the impact of sexual trauma with world-renowned physician and best-selling author Gabor Maté.
A judge convicted Bill Cosby of drugging and sexual assault in 2018.
True crime series 2023: Delia Balmer on ITV1 and ITVX
ITV will bring us true crime drama series Delia Balmer later this year. Motherland star Anna Maxwell Martin and Endeavour’s Shaun Evans will lead the cast of the new ITV true story drama.
The drama is based on the real Delia Balmer’s book Living With A Serial Killer, which tells the true story of her relationship with murderer John Sweeney.
Delia was in a relationship with killer John Sweeney, and the drama will show the traumatic journey through the criminal justice system as they attempt to prosecute him for his crimes.
In 1991, Delia was working as an agency nurse in London when she met fellow free-spirit John Sweeney. But, as their relationship developed, John Sweeney’s artistic, anti-establishment persona began to show a darker side.
He began a series of violent attacks against Delia. Including one where he told her he had killed his former girlfriend and disposed of her body in an Amsterdam canal. He was ultimately arrested but was shockingly granted bail.
He pursued Delia and subjected her to a horrific, near-fatal attack which she narrowly survived. Sweeney evaded capture and disappeared before returning seven years later and finally being arrested for the murder of another girlfriend in North London.
ITV says of the four-part dramatisation: “This is the story of one woman’s astonishing will to survive through physical and emotional torment, despite the failings of the institutions which were meant to protect her.”
The Reckoning, BBC One
The Reckoning tackles the horrific and extensive crimes of disgraced TV presenter Jimmy Savile. The dramatisation has already caused some controversy, and has reportedly already been pushed back from airing.
Steve Coogan will portray Jimmy Savile in the series, which will explore the entertainer’s rise to fame and monstrous sex offences.
Executive producer Jeff Pope worked on the drama about the disgraced entertainer, who was exposed as a paedophile after his death in 2011.
Jeff said in a statement: “I think this is a story that has to be told. We must understand why a man like Jimmy Savile seemed to remain immune for so long to proper scrutiny and criminal investigation.”
BBC Drama Controller Piers Wenger commented: “The story of Jimmy Savile is one of the most emotive and troubling of our times. We do not intend to sensationalise these crimes but to give voice to his victims.”
The four-part drama is due to air on the BBC in Autumn 2023.
True crime series 2023: The Woman in the Wall, BBC One
His Dark Materials actress Ruth Wilson will star in this Gothic thriller telling the terrible history of Ireland’s Magdalene Laundries.
Ruth plays Lorna, a former inmate of these barbaric institutions, who awakes one day to find the body of a stranger in her house, and no idea how it got there. During the subsequent investigation for murder, Lorna meets the elusive Detective Akande (Peaky Blinder star Daryl McCormack) who is determined to solve a crime that’s seemingly unrelated to the dead woman.
The Magdalene Laundries in Ireland, also known as Magdalene asylums, were institutions usually run by Roman Catholic orders. They operated from the 18th to the late 20th centuries. They were run ostensibly to house “fallen women”, an estimated 30,000 of whom were confined in these institutions in Ireland.
In 1993, unmarked graves of 155 women were uncovered in the convent grounds of one of the laundries.
The Woman in the Wall will arrive on BBC One in late 2023.
The Long Shadow, ITV
An ITV series about the horrifying murders of Peter Sutcliffe is currently being filmed, and the Yorkshire Ripper drama is called The Long Shadow.
The Long Shadow is an ITV drama retelling the heinous crimes of serial killer Peter Sutcliffe, and the subsequent police manhunt to find him.
The manhunt involved more than 1,000 police officers over the course of five years. ITV’s series will focus on the police’s desperate cat-and-mouse hunt for Peter Sutcliffe – who killed 13 and attempted to kill seven others.
The dramatisation will also focus on the lives of his victims – much like the recent BBC series Four Lives.
ITV series The Long Shadow will focus on the lives of the Sutcliffe’s victims, the loved ones they left behind, and the everlasting toll the investigation took on the detectives who led the investigation.
The Yorkshire Ripper drama comes from the makers of Des and White House Farm.
ITV drama boss Polly Hill said: “This promises to be a definitive look at this infamous case.”
Katherine Kelly stars as Peter Sutcliffe’s second victim Emily Jackson. Meanwhile, fellow soap star Charley Webb has also been cast in the series.
The Long Shadow is based upon Michael Bilton’s book, Wicked Beyond Belief: The Hunt for the Yorkshire Ripper.
Screenwriter George Kay has adapted the book for TV. It will be a six-part series.
True crime series 2023: Love & Death on ITVX
Limited series Love & Death tells the notorious true-crime tale of Candy Montgomery. She murdered her friend Betty Gore with an axe 40 years ago. The HBO show will cover the events that led to Gore’s tragic death, Montgomery’s arrest, and a subsequent trial that exonerated her of the murder.
The series will explore the journey of Candy Montgomery from being a charismatic neighbour to a potential axe-wielding murderer, and the story of the affair that kickstarted it all.
Elizabeth Olsen will play the lead role of Montgomery whom Jessica Biel once portrayed in the 2022 Hulu true crime series, Candy. Along with Olsen, Love & Death also stars Lily Rabe, Tom Pelphrey, and Jesse Plemons.
Viewers can watch the limited series on ITVX later this year.
Tokyo Crime Squad: The Lucie Blackman Case on Netflix
Tokyo Crime Squad: The Lucie Blackman Case tells the sad true story of the young hostess who disappeared in Tokyo in July 2000.
The British woman had been working as a hostess at a bar in Tokyo at the time. Her family flew to Japan and started a public campaign to help find her. Tragically, six months later, her remains were found just outside the city.
Police arrested the main suspect, a Korean-Japanese national named Joji Obara, later that year. They charged him with drugging, raping and killing Lucie Blackman.
Police also charged him with the rape and manslaughter of Australian woman Carita Ridgway, and the rape of eight other women.
However, Joji Obara was acquitted of Lucie Blackman’s rape and murder while he was jailed for life on the other charges in 2007. This was because of a lack of direct evidence.
The series will explore how despite the “overwhelming amount of evidence of his shocking crimes”, the judicial system of Japan almost failed Lucie Blackman and the many hundreds of victims of Obara’s crimes.
It will stream on Netflix later this year.
Read more: Jimmy Savile survivors to ‘meet Steve Coogan in character’ on set of BBC drama The Reckoning
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