David Tennant says Des drama about killer Nilsen 'is not The Silence of the Lambs'

Des ITV sees David Tennant as killer Dennis Nilsen
David Tennant as killer Dennis Nilsen in recent ITV drama Des (Image credit: ITV)

'This is cool and responsible,' says David Tennant about ITV serial killer drama Des

David Tennant is always a friendly, chatty interviewee and the Broadchurch star is just as warm and welcoming as usual when we arrive at a North London studio in January where he is filming ITV drama Des, in which he plays real-life serial killer Dennis Nilsen.

But with his 1980s-style hair and glasses, we are disconcertingly struck by David’s uncanny resemblance to the chilling Nilsen.

TV tonight Des

David Tennant as killer Nilsen in ITV's Des

The three-part drama explores how the horrific crimes of Scottish-born job centre worker Nilsen, known as “Des”, were discovered in February 1983, when police arrived at his North London home, 23 Cranley Gardens, after human remains were found in the drain. Nilsen, then 37, calmly confessed to having killed “15 or 16” young men since 1978.

DCI Peter Jay (Mrs Biggs’ Daniel Mays) led the subsequent dogged police investigation, which eventually saw Nilsen sentenced to life in prison for six murders and two attempted murders.

TV tonight Des

Arresting: Daniel Mays and David Tennant star

The drama also explores the case through the eyes of biographer Brian Masters (The Crown’s Jason Watkins), who interviewed Nilsen for his book Killing for Company, which partly inspired the series.

Here David Tennant, 49, tells us why playing Nilsen in Des has been one of the toughest of his career...

Do you remember the case?

David Tennant: "I was about 12 when Nilsen was arrested and he was like a bogeyman. But it wasn’t until I moved to North London that I heard the details and read Killing for Company. It was like a local legend. What's extraordinary is the gulf between his apparent normality and what he did. How close is any of us to falling down that wormhole? What happened to him that flicked that switch?"

MORE: Everything you need to know about new Keeley Hawes true crime drama Honour

How did you approach playing him?

DT: "A couple of people had said, ‘He looks a bit like you!’ But trying to unpick his mind is horrifying and fascinating. I continue to change my mind about what his motivation was, he remains an enigma. It’s challenging trying to decide what's real and what isn't. Nilsen lived in his own fantasy world. There’s no consistency to him, only his narcissism. When he was caught he didn't stop talking, he confessed to everything."

Many of Nilsen’s victims were vulnerable and homeless men he had befriended, was it important to you that the drama focuses on them?

DT: "Yes it’s not sensationalist, it’s memorialising the victims. I’d have had reservations if we were presenting a gothic horror piece but this is cool and responsible. It's not The Silence of the Lambs. You want to tell it with sensitivity. There are still many victims unidentified because Nilsen didn't give a lot of names. The police work was about tracking people down. Many of them had gone missing and people weren't sure if they were dead or just gone away. It’s difficult to know whether that was something cunningly plotted by Nilsen so that he’d get away with it for longer."

MORE: Des in pictures

What research did you do?

DT: "There’s footage of Nilsen and a lot has been written about him. I also met people involved in the case and people who knew him. You don’t want to do an impression but I did spend time studying him and listening to his voice trying to think myself into that space."

Des ITV

David Tennant has been made to look remarkably like Nilsen for Des (Image credit: ITV)

Nilsen died two years ago in prison, aged 72. Would you have been tempted to meet him if you could?

DT: "There’s a relief he's gone because I’d have felt uncomfortable about serving his narcissism. He’d have been delighted and appalled by the drama. I’d have been interested in meeting him though, not to allow him to have input, but to use it as a resource."

Is it hard to switch off when you finish filming?

DT: "I'm not aware of taking anything home but you’d have to ask those around me! But I’m aware that my off-camera self has been more alienated. I’ve been more dour, less larky and more contained. You have to be respectful and carry a responsibility and duty of care – there are still people alive who are devastated by what he did."

Des begins tonight on ITV at 9pm (see our TV Guide for more shows to watch).

Caren Clark

Caren has been a journalist specializing in TV for almost two decades and is a Senior Features Writer for TV Times, TV & Satellite Week and What’s On TV magazines and she also writes for What to Watch.


Over the years, she has spent many a day in a muddy field or an on-set catering bus chatting to numerous stars on location including the likes of Olivia Colman, David Tennant, Suranne Jones, Jamie Dornan, Dame Judi Dench and Sir Derek Jacobi as well as Hollywood actors such as Glenn Close and Kiefer Sutherland.


Caren will happily sit down and watch any kind of telly (well, maybe not sci-fi!), but she particularly loves period dramas like Call the Midwife, Downton Abbey and The Crown and she’s also a big fan of juicy crime thrillers from Line of Duty to Poirot.


In her spare time, Caren enjoys going to the cinema and theatre or curling up with a good book.