Details

Release year: 2016

Storyline

Follows Detective Superintendent William Muncie and his quest to bring notorious killer Peter Manuel to justice in 1950s Lanarkshire.

Top credits

Cast

Douglas Henshall — DS William Muncie
Martin Compston — Peter Manuel
Joanne Thomson — Iris Laird
Shauna Macdonald — Agnes Muncie

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Did you know

• The programme is set in the 1950s, but the characters' story began in 1943 when Muncie first arrested 16-year-old Manuel for housebreaking and multiple sexual assaults. He served nine years in Peterhead Prison in Aberdeen before being released.

• Both Martin Compston and Douglas Henshall spent time researching their parts and the characters they would be playing. Compston admitted to being scared stiff in one scene and said that he had driven around to Peter Manuel's old house after filming and parked up, "just to sit outside". Henshall talked about his part with William Muncie's daughter and was determined to bring the character to life, who, by Henshall's estimation, was single-minded in catching Manuel but also the only one who took to the notion of him being a serial killer.

• Peter Manuel, who was born in the United States, was known as "The Beast of Birkenshaw" (as he lived in Birkenshaw, Uddingston). He taunted his pursuer with messages and even sent him birthday and Christmas cards.