'Sinister' five-star crime drama based on true story that was dubbed one of 2023's best series

If you’re on the lookout for your next crime drama obsession, there’s a ‘sinister’ series that’s not only been rated a five-star watch by viewers and critics alike, but was also named one of the best shows of 2023.

With the wealth of content coming out on terrestrial TV and streaming sites each week, it often feels hard to keep up – a good problem to have, sure, but still a huge source of FOMO.

The issue is that, once the hype’s died down, some of the underrated gems get completely lost in the noise of newer stuff.

Thankfully, many of them are sitting there waiting for you on streaming sites, ready to be binged whenever you remember.

That includes one BBC series that was hailed as one of the best releases of last year, having been met with incredible reviews and strong viewer reaction online.

Starring Timothy Spall and Anne Reid, The Sixth Commandment is based on a true story about a ‘complex criminal case’ involving a teacher courted by their student.

Billed as a ‘sinister’ crime drama by the BBC, it follows what happened to retired schoolmaster Peter Farquhar, who was murdered in 2015 by his former student and lodger Ben Field.

BBC

The captivating four-part series has an average audience rating on Google of 4.9 stars, based on 217 scores, while its Rotten Tomatoes average sits pretty at 89 percent.

It was named no. 9 of the Guardian’s best 50 TV shows of 2023, while the newspaper’s original review from journalist Lucy Mangan awarded it a full five stars.

“This true-crime tale of a predator poisoning two vulnerable victims is harrowing and intense – but it is impossible to look away,” Mangan said at the time, saying The Sixth Commandment was ‘as immaculate a piece of TV as you will ever see’.

Many viewers were equally bowled over, some admitting they’d lapped up all four instalments in one sitting.

“This production is up there with the best,” one reviewer wrote, via Google.

“I watched in one session and was drawn into this compelling and harrowing true story of Peter Farquhar and Ann Moore-Martin. Spall as Farquhar and Read as Ann are magnificent.”

BBC

Someone else said: “A stellar cast with an excellent script. A true story with some embellishments that was compulsive viewing, I watched in one sitting all four episodes.”

A third added: “I'm not often moved so strongly when watching a show, but this 'fictional' account of the real murders of these two elderly people really got to me.”

A fourth agreed: "The best TV series for a long time. I had no idea (deliberately so) what this was about before I started to watch. I was hooked on the first episode, mainly by the incredible performance of Timothy Spall.

"A little uncomfortable to watch initially I think because of the sympathy, pain and anguish felt for Farquhar, which is all credit to Spall."

Stream The Sixth Commandment via BBC iPlayer now.