Harold Shipman: Doctor Death

Many in Britain were shocked when the police were exhuming bodies in the Manchester area with suspicion of foul play by a respected family doctor.

This was in the late 1990s and this drama from ITV was shown a few years after the events. Hence it had to tread a fine and sensitive line.

James Bolam plays Dr Frederick Shipman. A well respected GP with a small, thriving practice and a respected member of the community.

However even when the police investigate him Bolam gives a hint of the sly humour that Shipman apparently had. As well as being a serial killer this was a doctor not ready to buckle under police pressure.

James Hazeldine in one of his final roles plays the dogged policeman who is persuaded by the daughter of one of Doctor's victim's that Shipman might have a darker side.

We get an idea as to how Shipman got caught. It is a part police procedural as they forensically examine his computer. Shipman made a mistake of forging a will of one of his victim's.

We never really get an idea as to why he did it or what his motives were. It seems we might never know.

Bolam's performance is key in keeping your interest in this drama and this is a tight film without getting too exploitative.

I thought that James Bolam played the part of Dr Frederick Shipman very sensitively and he certainly did the best he could with what must have been a tough role.

The setting for the drama was very good and the scenes representing Christmas 1997 were very good. I think it caught the atmosphere of the whole thing very well.

The humour displayed by James Bolam was very authentic to the real Dr Shipman and the sense of theatre he displayed to some patients in his surgery was true to the real character which I guess must have been relatively easy for the actor to do as he is so familiar with playing in comedy.

I particularly liked the confrontations between Dr Shipman and the police as well as the interview scenes.

The high-light of James Bolam's acting in my opinion came when he broke down after being confronted with the computer evidence and we see him crying and clinging to his solicitor's legs. This was an excellent piece of acting.

2 hours was not long enough as there was so much that could have been covered and one got the feeling that it had been rushed a little, and maybe the programme makers had found it difficult to know just where to start.

I found it intriguing and sad as well. It made you think about the case and yes, maybe it did supply some understanding into how the tragedy came about.

I was gratefully surprised when I watched this movie, and after I was informed that was a TV Movie! Well, it doesn't seem like that: the timing is so perfect that we don't notice the intersection for commercials breaks. James Bolam is extremely convictive in the role of the physician that pretends to be GOD, choosing the day and the hour that a person should die. In a scale of 10, I give 6.

I found this to be a pretty good movie based on a real serial killer. The movie shows the events of Harold Shipman on how he kills people with lethal doses and the motive on why he does it. James Bolam does a great job playing as Harold on how he portrayed the character as a cold blooded killer who doesn't show any remorse on what he doing to his victims. The other actors did a great job with their performance in the movie too. It also shows how the authorities slowly realize there's something strange going on with these series of deaths that happening around town and start to suspect Shipman.

Harold Shipman: Doctor Death is a pretty good crime movie.

I liked James Bolam in the series "New Tricks" where he played a cold case detective. In this movie he was a really evil doctor who had a way with words that fooled his patients. They trusted him and talked good about him.

Police investigated a suspicious death of one of his patients. Dr Shipman had a friend in the funeral business. He would sign a death certificate give it to the funeral home director and would get money from the director. When a patient dies everyone trusted the doctor and no one is investigated until a lady dies whose daughter was a lawyer and saw forged documents supposedly signed by her mother giving the doctor her estate. Most of the people that died under his care were cremated soon after.

After watching this I saw how liars lie and sound truthful. I saw how hard it is for police to get answers and this made it hard for prosecutors to get a criminal found guilty. I have more respect for the police after this. As I watched the police interrogate Dr Shipman they asked several questions that were crucial and Shipman had all the answers. The police did not threaten or raise their voice. After watching Shipman playing dumb I would not make a good cop. The police were very respectful.

DI Egerton played by James Hazeldine is so excellent in pursuing this case to get at the truth. He goes to speak to a pastor of the church. He believes Shipman killed a lot of people but does not know why. He talks it out with the pastor. DI Egerton is very professional he respects those police on the case questioning Dr Shipman. There were documents predated on Shipman's computer but the hard drive told the investigator the documents were created on the day his patients died not before like he predated their symptoms.

I think this is a great movie for those involved in law enforcement, investigating and gathering witnesses and knowing how to get info from their computers.

Excellent movie