''The Sixth Commandment'' is a four-part British true crime television drama series, written by

Sarah Phelps Sarah Phelps is a British television screenwriter, radio writer, playwright and television producer. She is best known for her work on ''EastEnders'', a number of BBC serial adaptations including Agatha Christie's ''The Witness for the Prosecuti ...

and directed by

Saul Dibb Saul Dibb (born 18 August 1968) is an English director and screenwriter. His father is the documentary maker Mike Dibb. Born in London, England, Saul Dibb is a graduate of the University of East Anglia. He is best known for co-writing and direc ...

. Based on the deaths of Peter Farquhar and Ann Moore-Martin, it stars

Timothy Spall Timothy Leonard Spall ( ; born 27 February 1957) is an English actor. He gained recognition for his character actor roles on stage and screen. In 2000, he was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) by Queen Elizabeth II. S ...

Anne Reid Anne Reid (born 28 May 1935) is an English stage, film and television actress, known for her roles as Valerie Barlow in the soap opera ''Coronation Street'' (1961–1971); Jean in the sitcom '' dinnerladies'' (1998–2000); and her role as C ...

Sheila Hancock Dame Sheila Cameron Hancock (born 22 February 1933) is an English actress, singer, and author. She has performed on stage in both plays and musicals in London theatres, and is also known for her roles in films and on television. Her Broadway ...

Éanna Hardwicke Éanna Hardwicke is an Irish actor and filmmaker. He began his career as a child actor in Conor McPherson's '' The Eclipse'' (2009). His films since include '' Lakelands'' (2022). On television, he is known for his roles in the BBC One series '' ...

Annabel Scholey Annabel Scholey (born 1983 or 1984) is an English actress. She has performed extensively on stage and is known for her roles in the BBC supernatural drama '' Being Human'' in 2009 and as Anne-Marie Blake in the true crime drama miniseries '' Th ...

, and

Ben Bailey Smith Benjamin Harvey Bailey Smith (born 21 September 1977), professionally known as Doc Brown, is an English actor, comedian, rapper, screenwriter, songwriter, producer and voiceover artist. He portrayed DS Joe Hawkins in the television series '' La ...

. Produced by Wild Mercury Productions and True Vision Productions, the series began to air on

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's oldest and flagship channel, and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television b ...

on 17 July 2023.

Synopsis

The story explores the narcissistic manipulation and murder of Peter Farquhar and the death of his neighbour Ann Moore-Martin in the

Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (, abbreviated ''Bucks'') is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-east, Hertfordshir ...

village of

Maids Moreton Maids Moreton is a village and civil parish in north-west Buckinghamshire, England, around north of Buckingham. The village sits on top of a plateau overlooking Buckingham and is less than 1km away from the Foxcote Reservoir SSSI. Descript ...

in 2015 and 2017, and the fall out from these events including the police investigation and 2019 criminal trial of

Ben Field Ben is frequently used as a shortened version of the given names Benjamin, Benedict, Bennett, Benson or Ebenezer, and is also a given name in its own right. Ben meaning "son of" is also found in Arabic as ''Ben'' (dialectal Arabic) or ''bin ...

and Martyn Smith.

Cast

as Peter Farquhar *

as Ann Moore-Martin *

as Anne-Marie Blake *

as Elizabeth Zettl *

as Simon Blake *

Conor MacNeill Conor MacNeill is a film, television, and stage actor from Northern Ireland. He is best known for his role as Kenny Kilbane in the BBC Two and HBO series ''Industry'' (2020–2024). Early life and education MacNeill was born in West Belfast. ...

as Martyn Smith *

Adrian Rawlins Adrian John Rawlins (born 27 March 1958) is an English actor best known for playing Arthur Kidd in '' The Woman in Black'' (1989) and James Potter in the ''Harry Potter'' films. In 2019, he starred in '' Chernobyl'' as Nikolai Fomin. Early ...

as Ian Farquhar *

Amanda Root Amanda Root (born 1963) is an English actress. She is perhaps best known for her starring role as Anne Elliot in the 1995 BBC adaptation of ''Persuasion''. A familiar face on both stage and screen, she worked regularly with the Royal Shakesp ...

as Sue Farquhar *

Jonathan Aris Jonathan Aris is an English actor who has appeared in films, television, and theatre. He is known for his roles as the irascible policeman Anderson in the BBC series '' Sherlock'', the angelic quartermaster in the Amazon Prime series '' Good O ...

as DCI Mark Glover *

Rick Warden Richard George Warden (born 29 September 1971) is an English actor. Warden was born in Amersham, Buckinghamshire, he studied at Dr Challoner's Grammar School and received a B.A. honours in history at Churchill College, Cambridge, 1994. He mar ...

as Oliver Saxby * Peter Sullivan as David Jeremy *

Anna Crilly Anna Crilly is an English actress and comedian. Education Crilly was educated at Kent College, Pembury, and attended Middlesex University, where she studied performing arts. Career She was a finalist in the So You Think You're Funny? competi ...

as DS Natalie Golding

Production

Development

The project was first announced in November 2020 by the BBC to “explore the death of Mr Farquhar and the

gaslighting Gaslighting is the manipulation of someone into questioning their perception of reality. The term derives from the 1944 film ''Gaslight (1944 film), Gaslight'' and became popular in the mid-2010s. Some mental health experts have expressed c ...

campaign of physical and mental abuse he was made to endure at the hands of church warden Benjamin Field”.

was writing the screenplay. In June 2022 the project was announced as moving forward with Wild Mercury Productions and True Vision Productions making the four-part series for BBC One. It is directed by

, from a Phelps script, with production by Frances du Pille. The project is executive produced by Derek Wax, Brian Woods and Lucy Richer as well as Dibbs and Phelps. It was confirmed that the project had the full co-operation of the families of Peter Farquhar and Ann Moore-Martin.

Casting

In June 2022 Timothy Spall, Anne Reid, Éanna Hardwicke, Annabel Scholey and Sheila Hancock were announced as the lead cast.

Filming

Filming took place in

Bristol Bristol () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, the most populous city in the region. Built around the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by t ...

and

Bath, Somerset Bath (Received Pronunciation, RP: , ) is a city in Somerset, England, known for and named after its Roman Baths (Bath), Roman-built baths. At the 2021 census, the population was 94,092. Bath is in the valley of the River Avon, Bristol, River A ...

from July 2022. The shoot lasted three months for Hardwicke.

Episodes

Release

The series went to air on

on 17 July 2023. Irish broadcaster RTE also hold rights for the show, airing it on their main channel RTÉ One and streaming service RTÉ Player.

Reception

Critical reception

On the

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews and ratings of products and services, such as films, books, video games, music, software, hardware, or cars. This system then stores the reviews to be used for supporting a website where user ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

, ''The Sixth Commandment'' holds an approval rating of 88%.

Lucy Mangan Lucy Mangan (born 1974) is a British journalist and author. She is a columnist, features writer and TV critic for ''The Guardian'' and an opinion writer for '' i'' news. Early life and education Mangan was born in 1974 and grew up in Catford, ...

of ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' awarded the first episode five stars out of five, praising the writing, directing and performances. Ed Power of ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was found ...

'' gave it four out of five stars, also praising the performances and saying the drama 'never forgets Field’s victims were real and suffered horribly'. In a more critical review, Nick Hilton of ''The Independent'' gave it two out of five stars.

Accolades

The series was nominated in the Best Casting category at the 2023 Royal Television Society Craft & Design Awards. The series received four nominations at the

Royal Television Society Programme Awards The Royal Television Society Programme Awards, (often referred to as the RTS Awards) seek to recognise programmes or individuals who have made a positive and material contribution to their genre: either because their content or originality in for ...

in March 2024, for Best Limited Series, Phelps for Writer - Drama, Spall for Leading Actor, and Hardwicke for Supporting Actor. Phelps, and Hardwicke were both winners, and the series won in the limited drama category. In May 2024, the series won Best Limited Drama category at the

2024 British Academy Television Awards The 2024 British Academy Television Awards ceremony was held on 12 May 2024 at the Royal Festival Hall in London, to recognise the excellence in British television of 2023. The ceremony was hosted by Rob Beckett and Romesh Ranganathan for the se ...

, with Spall winning Leading Actor. Reid was also nominated for lead actor and Hardwicke for supporting actor. In April 2024, Hardwicke won the Best Actor award at the

IFTA Film & Drama Awards The IFTA Film & Drama Awards are awards given by the Irish Film & Television Academy for Irish television and film. The awards were first presented in 1999. The ceremonies recognise Irish creative talent working in film, drama, and television, a ...

. Spall was nominated for Best Drama Actor and Phelps for Best Writer at the 2024

Broadcasting Press Guild The Broadcasting Press Guild (BPG) is a British association of journalists dedicated to the topic of general media issues. History The Guild was established in 1974 as a breakaway of The Critics' Circle and celebrated its 50th anniversary in 20 ...

Awards.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sixth Commandment, The 2023 British television series debuts 2023 British television series endings 2020s British drama television series 2020s British television miniseries BBC television dramas British English-language television shows Television series by Banijay Television shows shot in Bristol Television shows set in Somerset Television series about old age BBC high definition shows