ITV’s true crime drama The Pembrokeshire Murders is a story of meticulousness and hard work
Its excitements lay not in revisiting John Cooper’s inexplicably horrible crimes, but in building a case, bit by bit, against the clock.
True crime can be so cheap: voyeuristic, cruel and ultimately futile. Some things are beyond comprehension, no matter what those involved might say about the need for understanding (we all know they’re really only in the business of entertainment). But still, such shows keep coming – possibly because people keep watching them. Last year brought us dramas about Jeremy Bamber and Dennis Nilsen. This spring, Olivia Colman will play Susan Edwards, who, with her husband, murdered her parents and buried their bodies in their Mansfield garden; and Stephen Merchant will take on the role of Stephen Port, who drugged, raped and killed four men in east London between 2014 and 2015.