BBC One has tapped Sarah Phelps (A Very English Scandal, And Then There Were None) to write a true-crime miniseries, tentatively entitled The Sixth Commandment, centering on the death of Britsh teacher, Peter Farquhar according to Deadline. The series will be produced by Wild Mercury Productions and True Vision Productions.
According to Deadline, Phelps is set to executive produce with Derek Wax (Troy: Fall of a City, Humans), Brian Woods (Kids Behind Bars, The Dying Rooms), and Jezza Neumann (Poor Kids, Undercover in Tibet). Tommy Bulfin (Peaky Blinders, Baptiste) will also produce for BBC.
“This is such a shocking and brutal case; how a murderer hid his manipulation and malevolence in plain sight of a small community, how he insinuated his way into the lives of his victims,” Phelps said via Deadline. “It’s heartbreaking story of such desperate longing and loneliness but even within the darkness, there is the most astonishing blazing love and courage,” Phelps said via Deadline.
According to Deadline, the miniseries will highlight the peculiar case of Peter Farquhar and his untimely demise at the hand of one Ben Field. Farquhar was a 69-year-old British professor who met and struck a relationship with Field in 2015. Soon Farquhar would be dead, under mysterious circumstances, and an investigation to hunt a killer would commence. The investigation would reveal mind-numbing manipulation and insidious gaslighting on Field’s part, as well as his disturbing relationship with Farquhar’s neighbor, Anne-Moore Martin. Four years later, Field would be brought to justice for his crimes.
“Who better than Sarah Phelps, with her vivid imagination and forensic understanding of the criminal mind, to tell this tragic story and to honor the memory of its victims,” BBC drama controller Piers Wenger said via Deadline.
According to Deadline, True Vision has conducted three years of research pertaining to the case, making sure to not only be accurate in the portrayal of the story but to receive the blessings from the victims’ families.