The twisting, real-life story of Charles Sobhraj, a murderer, thief and seductive master of disguise, who was a hidden darkness in the mid-70's on Asia's hippie trail.The twisting, real-life story of Charles Sobhraj, a murderer, thief and seductive master of disguise, who was a hidden darkness in the mid-70's on Asia's hippie trail.The twisting, real-life story of Charles Sobhraj, a murderer, thief and seductive master of disguise, who was a hidden darkness in the mid-70's on Asia's hippie trail.
- Nominated for 2 BAFTA Awards
- 13 nominations total
Browse episodes
Featured reviews
This is well done and well acted. A grade A production. Its only flaw is the bouncing timeline. It is hard enough to pay attention with subtitles, let alone with the timeline going back and forth. Entertaining but NOT a relaxing watch. I'd advise you to learn French or take up speed reading because during fast exchanges of dialogue, those subtitles fly by fast.
Half a point off for the bad wigs.
Half a point off for the bad wigs.
The series is suspenseful, but what really irritated the hell out of me is van Knippenberg's accent when he speaks Dutch, there would've been several really good Dutch actors that could've pkayed his part. A big let down for my concern.
I really enjoyed the show. I wasn't too bothered by those constant time jumps while those seemed to have annoyed quite a lot of people. But those accents...Jenna Coleman speaking french especially. I'm french myself so this really annoyed me. Why didn't they just cast someone who actually speaks the language?! I like Jenna Coleman, but I think she's just not a great fit here. Otherwise great production.
This is a very energetic, fast paced drama. Visually it looks so good, the production values are excellent. A particularly good cast, once again I'm impressed with Jenna Coleman. It's one of those dramas that you need to concentrate hard on, as it is a little deep, and could be seen as confusing. After being starved of drama for obvious reasons, it was nice to start 2021 with something this good. You couldn't switch the BBC on without seeing a trailer for it, they certainly went to town to advertise it. Hard to fault. 8/10.
Excellent, gripping drama. Well acted throughout. The story would be unbelievable if it were not true! Some reviews have pointed out the frequent timeline jumping. I personally found that watching it as a "box set" seemed to lessen that feeling. A refreshing change to see a work of such high quality from BBC these days!
Did you know
- TriviaBased on a true story, Charles Sobhraj was dubbed 'The Serpent' due to his conniving ways and constant escape from reprimand. He was also nicknamed the 'Bikini Killer' due to the clothing worn by his victims.
- GoofsAll the dialogues between William Brand (Ambassador van Dongen) and Billy Howle (Herman Knippenberg) are in genuine and comprehensible Dutch, though their pronunciation and intonation make it evident they don't really master the language.
- ConnectionsFeatured in Jeremy Vine: Episode #4.10 (2021)
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Official sites
- Languages
- Also known as
- Змій
- Filming locations
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content