See No Evil: The Moors Murders
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| See No Evil: The Moors Murders | |
|---|---|
| Genre | True crime |
| Running time | 140 min. |
| Written by | Neil McKay |
| Directed by | Christopher Menaul |
| Produced by | Lisa Gilchrist Andy Harries Paul Munn |
| Starring | Sean Harris Maxine Peake Joanne Froggatt Matthew McNulty |
| Music by | John Lunn |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Original channel | ITV |
| Original run | 14 – 15 May 2006 |
| No. of episodes | 2 |
| IMDb profile | |
See No Evil: The Moors Murders is a British two-part television serial broadcast on ITV during May 2006. It tells the story of the Moors Murders, which were committed during the 1960s by Myra Hindley and Ian Brady, from the view of Hindley's sister Maureen Smith.
The film is the first known dramatisation of one of the most notorious killing sprees in British history and was made to mark the fortieth anniversary of Myra Hindley and Ian Brady's trial. It was made with the full backing of the victims' families, and was based on two years research, including interviews with detectives, relatives of the murdered children, and Hindley's brother-in-law David Smith.
See No Evil won the British Academy Television Award for Best Drama Serial at the 2007 ceremony.
According to the Amazon website, a DVD release has been set for April 29.
Contents |
[edit] Cast
- Sean Harris as Ian Brady
- Maxine Peake as Myra Hindley
- Joanne Froggatt as Maureen Smith, Myra's sister
- Michael McNulty (also known as Matthew McNulty) as David Smith, Maureen's husband
[edit] Plot
The story begins in 1964. Married teenagers David and Maureen Smith have recently become parents to a baby girl called Angela. When their child dies of cot-death at the age of six months, Maureen turns to her older sister, Myra Hindley, for comfort, and David finds friendship in Myra's boyfriend, Ian Brady. David and Maureen know nothing about the secrets harboured by Brady and Hindley.
Shortly after the tragedy, Hindley and Brady move with Hindley's grandmother Ellen Maybury, to a new council house; 16 Wardle Brook Avenue, on the Hattersley estate near Hyde.
On the evening of 6 October 1965, David Smith witnesses a horrific murder at Brady and Hindley's house; the victim is a seventeen-year-old boy, Edward Evans. After the murder, David is forced to help clean up the mess and stay at the house until the early hours of the morning. When he returns home and tells Maureen about the crime, she finds his story hard to believe. In the morning, however, the couple go to the police, and Brady is arrested. Brady admits to murdering Edward Evans but insists that David Smith was a willing accomplice.
Police recover a suitcase full of incriminating evidence from a locker at Manchester Central Station, and quickly suspect that Edward Evans may not have been their only victim. Smith is soon taken in by police for questioning, as both Brady and Hindley have tried to shift the blame upon him, but the police soon determine that Smith did not take part in any murders.
While questioning Brady and Hindley, the police read out the names of other missing children who have recently vanished in and around Manchester. To most of the names, Brady and Hindley respond "Never heard of him/her", with the exception of one: Pauline Reade, who had been Myra's neighbour in Gorton. The evidence against the couple continues to mount; the most shocking comes in the form of pornographic photographs of a missing ten-year-old girl, Lesley Ann Downey, and a tape recording of the child's pleas for her life (these cries are not actually heard when the tape is played). Meanwhile, the police find the bodies of both Lesley Ann Downey and John Kilbride buried in shallow graves on Saddleworth Moor. David Smith is questioned about the murders and Hindley and Brady try to convince the police that he was also involved, but he is soon released after no evidence is found to implicate him.
On 21 April 1966, Brady and Hindley go on trial at Chester Crown Court, where they are greeted by a crowd of vigilantes. David Smith is the main prosecution witness, and Maureen, pregnant again, agrees to testify. During the trial, Lesley Ann Downey's mother, Ann West, and stepfather, Alan, barge into David and Maureen's apartment and attack them, believing that they were involved in Lesley Ann's murder. Fortunately, David and Maureen's unborn child is unharmed, while Mr. and Mrs. West are cautioned by the police.
Brady and Hindley are convicted of the murders of Edward Evans and Lesley Ann Downey. Brady is also convicted of the murder of John Kilbride, and Hindley is found guilty for being an accessory to the murder. Brady is sentenced to three concurrent terms of life imprisonment, while Hindley receives two life sentences and a seven-year fixed sentence.
The birth of their second child does nothing to alleviate public hostility towards David and Maureen. In fact, they find "Hindley Bitch" painted on their front door.
Five years later, Maureen lives alone in a different apartment while David has served a prison sentence for wounding a man who provoked him in a pub. David and Maureen have had two other children. Following some persuasion from her mother, Nellie, Maureen agrees to visit Myra, who has been locked up in Holloway Prison, while Brady (who the trial judge felt had influenced Hindley into committing murder) has been imprisoned elsewhere. When Maureen goes to Holloway, she comes face-to-face with a different Myra - a woman whose bleached-blonde hair has turned brown by this stage and who tells Maureen of the guilt she feels for the pain the she has inflicted upon the victims' families. By now having rediscovered her faith in Roman Catholicism, Myra tells Maureen that she has discovered her true self, that she's going to confess to the murders, and that she has severed all ties with Ian Brady. Myra also tells Maureen about how their father used to beat her, and Maureen admits that he used to beat her, too. Myra gives Maureen some of Ian Brady's photos, including one almost identical to the one taken on the grave of John Kilbride, and says that she never wants to see them again.
David isn't pleased when he learns that Maureen has been to see Myra, but Maureen argues that Myra has changed. David and Maureen then turn their thoughts to their children and agree to patch up their differences for the children's sake. In the last scene, Maureen leaves the house.
An epilogue follows, revealing the fates of Maureen, David, Ian Brady, and Myra Hindley.
Maureen died in 1980, aged 34, after suffering a brain haemorrhage.
David re-married and had a daughter with his second wife. He now lives in Ireland.
Ian Brady is currently imprisoned at Ashworth Mental Hospital on Merseyside.
Myra Hindley died in prison in November 2002, at the age of 60, having suffered a heart attack.
The epilogue also reveals that it wasn't until 1986 that Brady and Hindley confessed to the murders of Pauline Reade and Keith Bennett. The two killers were taken back to Saddleworth Moor separately to help locate the bodies. Pauline Reade's body was eventually exhumed and buried in a proper grave, but Keith Bennett's body has yet to be found. The drama ends with a tribute to the victims.
[edit] Trivia
- Joanne Froggatt talked about having nightmares during filming, but met with Keith Bennett's mother, Winnie Johnson.
- During the first fortnight of filming, a series of bizarre events led the crew to think the ghost of Myra Hindley was haunting the set; tools and a laptop disappeared; there were a few power failures; a make-up girl broke her ankle after applying make-up to Maxine Peake; Sean Harris sliced three fingers on broken glass; and another actor cut his face in a fall. The Sun ran the story entitled "Hindley Spooks ITV Crew".
