“Ten years on, Timothy Evans (Nico Mirallegro) and his wife Beryl (Jodie Comer) move into a flat upstairs and fall prey to Christie’s influence and tales. When Beryl becomes pregnant with a second child, already struggling to make ends meet following the birth of baby Geraldine, the Evans allow Christie to help them with deadly consequences for the young newlyweds.”

What did critics make to Rillington Place?

The drama attracted plenty of praise when it first aired. Writing in The Guardian, Lucy Mangan had high praise, as she commented: “Obviously it is a tale that has been told many times before. But the limning of the manipulation, the entrapment, the complicity without blame, the forced compromises, and the black misery spreading from one man’s evil has surely rarely been better done.“

Meanwhile, Sally Newall said in The Independent: “This did not make easy Tuesday night viewing but, with such a strong cast and sense of place, that was very much part of this drama’s creepy appeal.”

© BBC
Critics were impressed with the three-part series

However, the praise wasn’t universal, and Inkoo Kang noted in The Hollywood Reporter: “Boasting the psychological depth of a Wikipedia entry, Rillington presents some of the most horrific human behaviour possible while never asking what motivates such extreme actions.

“The series effectively evokes atmospheric dread by revisiting two decades of a historical murderer’s life, but it largely fails as drama because writers Tracey Malone and Ed Whitmore offer so little emotional context for why their characters do the things they do.”

Rillington Place’s cast

The three-part drama is led by Tim Roth (The Hateful Eight) as John, while his doomed wife, Ethel, is played by Samantha Morton (The Serpent Queen). Newlyweds, and eventual victims of John, Timothy and Beryl Evans are played by Nico Mirallegro (Hollyoaks) and Jodie Comer (Killing Eve) respectively.