The Widower

So often these true crime dramas tend to start slow, try to set the scene, establish character and the mood.

Not so with The Widower. Sheridan Smith as Claire Webster marries Malcolm Webster (Reece Shearsmith) and is soon bumped off as she takes a close interest in her husband's financial affairs.

Malcolm is a charmer but also controlling and a killer who likes to drug people and start fires. He made Claire's death look like an accident. He collected on her life insurance and went off to New Zealand to start a new life and find his next prey. The life insurance money did not last long. However his second wife's family were eventually on to him and his nefarious plans against his second wife did not succeed.

Malcolm returned to Scotland and set his eyes on hospital administrator Simone Banarjee. By this time the police took a closer interest on Malcolm Webster.

The story was condensed. It was 14 years from his first marriage until the police got a warrant to investigate his house. Webster was also involved in other relationships and other deaths such as some children in a hospital in the middle east where he worked as a nurse that is glossed over.

However Shearsmith found it difficult to put over the charm because of how quickly the episodes moved. He just came across as too creepy especially as he talked to his drugged wives which was in effect a mechanism for internal narration.

However this a cautionary tale of a needy charmer, fantasist who can smell money from a mile off and is prepared to kill for it.