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See No Evil: The Moors Murders

Ian Wylie
5/ 5/2006

THE black and white TV set flickers. Elsie Tanner and Len Fairclough are arguing in Coronation Street.

It was a scene played out in millions of homes across the country, no different to this one. Except this house belongs to the parents of a young woman called Myra Hindley, and the year is 1964.

It's the knowing that makes See No Evil: The Moors Murders so harrowing. At least five young people died at the hands of Hindley and her lover Ian Brady. The victims came from the same terraced streets as the evil couple who were to end their brief lives.

For good reason, this stunning drama cannot show the abductions and murders of children. But there can be no escape from the truth.

Saddleworth

The signs are there to be found: Brady standing over freshly dug soil on Saddleworth Moor; Hindley talking about shopping at Ashton Market, or remarking about her new car: 'It converts to a two-seater. You never know when you might need the extra baggage capacity.'

Finally, Brady can keep his secret no longer and tells Myra's brother-in-law David Smith that he has killed. 'Three or four. I haven't finished yet. Teenagers mainly. Any younger, it's too much fuss. What? You don't believe me? You stood on the graves.'

Scenes which show the bloody axe murder of Edward Evans, 17, the couple's final victim, are hard to watch. But how else could the drama illustrate the nature of these crimes, or the events that led to their arrest?

Maxine Peake is bleached blonde evil as Hindley, alongside Sean Harris as the brooding Brady. But this is also the story of her sister Maureen, played by Joanne Froggatt, related by blood to one of the most hated women of the last century, and of the determination of Lancashire detective Joe Mounsey.

Police team

The revulsion on the faces of the police team as they examine the photos in Brady's suitcase is the moment the true horror of the moors murders hits home. Nearby is the unheard tape of Lesley Ann Downey, 10, crying for her mam and begging for mercy as she is tortured and killed, followed by the chilling sound of The Little Drummer Boy.

Lesley's grave was the first to be discovered. As the search continues, Mounsey pulls a child's shoe from the earth. 'Second Body Found On The Moors,' reports the front page of the Manchester Evening News. John Kilbride, aged 12. Abducted from Ashton Market.

Myra stands in the dock, denying everything. She stands in Holloway prison, claiming to have found God, while Maureen's life unravels towards its own tragic conclusion.

Writer Neil McKay transports us beyond those all too familiar mugshots of Hindley and Brady ' taken from that black and white age long ago ' and ensures this terrible story will never be forgotten.

It's a drama as bleak as the howling wind on the moors, which returns again and again to remind us of the victims at the heart of this notorious passage in history.

It's still blowing at the end as the faces of the lost children stare silently out from the screen. Watch this remarkable film, and weep for them.

Did you watch it? Let us know your thoughts.

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