Beyond The TARDIS Des by DJ Forrest

 

Dennis Andrew Nilsen was a Scottish serial killer who murdered 15 young men and boys between 1978 and 1983 at his home in London. His youngest victim was only 14. He was convicted at the Old Bailey of six counts of murder and two of attempted murder and was sentenced to life imprisonment on 4^th November 1983, with a recommendation that he served a minimum of twenty-five years. This was later changed to a whole life tariff which means that he would never be given parole. That he will never be released. 

On 12^th May, 2018, Nilsen died in his prison cell at the age of 72. 

I had heard of Nilsen when I was a youngster but there were a lot of serial killers at that time, so he was just another in a long list of criminals. However, Des, and indeed the documentary after the three-part series, really opened my eyes as to just how vile Nilsen really was. 

Tennant’s depiction of this character was horrifying, and the likeness between the pair visually was shocking. Not once during his performance of Nilsen did Tennant break a smile. Not once did I witness a touch of the Doctor. He displayed a deadness behind the eyes. A cold-hearted killer. This was not a character role that you could warm to, that you would want to root for. 

In one of the scenes, his biographer, Brian Masters could not understand how Nilsen could sit and eat a sandwich in his kitchen, while the severed head of one of his victims was boiling away in a pan on the stove. 

Tennant played Nilsen to a tee. 

To be fair, much of the three series event was like a Doctor Who reunion, but each of the actors played characters so far removed from the sci fi series that you couldn’t see them in anything other than the roles they played in Des. 

But it wasn’t just Tennant who played a ‘blinder’. Daniel Mays as Detective Chief Inspector Peter Jay was also outstanding in his role, along with Jason Watkins as biographer Brian Masters and Ron Cook as DSI Geoff Chambers. 

In our current world where we barely see anyone smoking a cigarette and most definitely not indoors, Des brought it all back to the screen. It was just like watching The Sweeney again except without the strong language. Everyone smoked, and Mays’ character was no exception. Peter Jay died of a cancer related illness many years later. 

If you haven’t seen Des yet, you can catch up with it on one of the streaming channels on the tellybox. It’s well worth a watch, but make sure you’ve a strong stomach. It’s not for the faint hearted.