TV review: The Pembrokeshire Murders
True crime dramas can be truly awful. Too many force actual events into cheap clones of the classic film Seven, with little regard for the real people and victims involved.
Despite having a Hollywood star in the lead role, this three-part miniseries - now showing on BBC First (StarHub Ch 502) and BBC Player - about Wales' most notorious serial killer is quite different.
The focus is on the 2006 investigation led by Detective Superintendent Steve Wilkins (Luke Evans), when he reopens a nearly 20-year-old cold case.
Far from his usual scenery-chewing roles, this more muted Evans fits the tone of the drama.
While quiet, the series is not without pace, and Wilkins soon links the main suspect John Cooper (Keith Allen) to other murders.
The original case set a new standard for cold case murder investigations, and the star here is the forensic police work.
You are in no doubt that Cooper - coming to the end of an unrelated prison term - is the culprit but can it be proved?
The Pembrokeshire Murders becomes a race against time - a tense game of cat and mouse, not between detective and criminal, but investigation and evidence.
THE PEMBROKESHIRE MURDERS (M18)
SCORE: 3.5/5
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