Martin Clunes stars as the former London Metropolitan Police Detective Chief Inspector Colin Sutton in a sequel to the critically acclaimed drama Manhunt.
Manhunt The Night Stalker, a four part drama, is the real life story of the police pursuit of a notorious serial burglar and rapist, whose 17 year reign of terror left thousands of elderly people in south east London living in fear. It is based on the diaries of Colin Sutton.
BAFTA award winning actor Martin Clunes will again take the role of DCI Sutton, the detective portrayed in the first series of Manhunt tenaciously pursuing serial killer Levi Bellfield.
The first series of Manhunt attracted an average audience of nine million viewers, and was the highest rated new drama on any channel during 2019. The drama also won many plaudits for Martin Clunes “portrayal of the dedicated detective.
Manhunt II: The Night Stalker is devised by Colin Sutton and Ed Whitmore. The drama is written by Ed Whitmore (Viewpoint, Silent Witness, Rillington Place, Strike Back) who also wrote the first se ries of Manhunt, which told the real life story of how the murder of Amelie Delagrange on Twick enham Green in 2004 was eventually linked to the murder of Marsha McDonnell in 2003 and the abduction and murder of Milly Dowler in 2002.
This sequel is based on the true story of the police investigation of a series of rapes, sexual assaults and burglaries which took place in South East London between 1992 and 2009. A dedicated unit, Operation Minstead, was established to hunt down the man who became known as the Night Stalker.
As the suspect continued to evade capture, Detective Chief Inspector Colin Sutton was asked in 2009 to review the case. Working with Detective Superintendent Simon Morgan and the Minstead team, the tenacious detective proposed a strategy he believed could catch one of Britain’s most prolific rapists, focusing a vast surveillance operation around a key area of south east London.
Scores of additional officers were deployed to invisibly saturate the target area on a nightly basis. The clock was ticking, as the Night Stalker was becoming ever more brazen and prolific.
Now, former Detective Chief Inspector Colin Sutton opens up about Martin Clunes’ portrayal of him in ‘Manhunt II: The Night Stalker’.
Manhunt won many plaudits – were you pleased by the reaction to it, both the TV drama and your book?
After the first series of Manhunt I had messages from constables to chief constables to say how they appreciated the authenticity of it, and how we had made it much more real for people who are not involved to see what it is really like to do one of these high profile serious investigations.
What did you think of Martin Clunes’ portrayal of you?
He took it on in his own way. It wasn’t mimicking me. But he dealt with the understated deadpan sort of way I think I used to work. So I appreciated that very much. People who know me say he managed to capture some of the essence of me in his mannerisms and the way he spoke. So he obviously did a good observational job in the time we spent together as well. I was thrilled with it. I thought it was a fantastic performance.
What do you hope the reaction to this new series will be?
I hope that the main reactions to it are similar to the first series in some ways – “didn’t they do well in the end and wasn’t that a terrible series of crimes these poor people suffered”.
What I hope is the general public take to it and find it as compelling as they did the first one. I hope I get as many nice messages from police officers of all ranks. I hope people see it as very real, very authentic and tells the story in a way and from a viewpoint that is not often told in drama. That was the plan with the first one. From the scripts of the second series I think we have achieved that again. The people with the remote controls are the final arbiters of that.
You have been involved in a number of television documentaries. How did you feel about being involved in a dramatisation?
By the time it was broadcast I had got used to it. When I saw the first cuts of it, it was a little bit odd. I think it was done so well, both in the way they wrote it and the way Martin performed it. It didn’t cause me any difficulties, or fears or worries about it. The whole thing was not just for me, but for the other people from the team as well.
We have all said we find it a little bit humbling in some ways that so many people are interested in watching what we lived for real. It makes you take a step back and think about things. As if we needed it, it is more realisation that we achieved something pretty fantastic.
What did you think of the attention to detail in the production?
I was surprised by the fact that I was given so much credence and so much involvement in how we put it together and how the art department went into absolute painstaking minute detail to make things right. All the way through I was given the opportunity, from the scripts to the art, to some of the ways of the direction to make sure we get this authentic feel.
I was really pleased with the way it turned out in that respect. Right from the very start what I wanted to achieve, and what Ed Whitmore wanted to achieve, was something that really felt and looked real.
That is one of the great strengths of Manhunt 1 and 2 is that we take this effort to make sure things are right. If you are dealing with real events as we are, then I believe you have to make it as authentic as possible, otherwise you start to lose credibility and people start to wonder how real is what is being portrayed. And of course we always tried to make sure as far as we can that the scenes and events are accurate too.
Did you go on set during filming?
I managed to get to the set three or four times during filming. Marc Evans the director came over when they were doing a scene with a search and asked me to brief the search team about what to do. It was just like turning back the clock. I also did a day before filming started with all the actors playing police officers talking about the individuals, the characters and how they related to each other.
Did the success of the first Manhunt give you confidence and encouragement to collaborate with Ed Whitmore again on a sequel? Why did you think this case should be brought to a television audience?
The story in the second series is not one that is nearly as well known as the story in the first series. But I think having seen how we managed to portray the events in the first one and what a good quality piece of television the series was, I think the fact that fewer people know about the story in the second series won’t really be an issue because we have gained their trust, if you like, from the first series, that it is worth watching the second series.
It is a case which, like many, was of desperate importance to those that were involved in it, at the centre of it, the police, the victims and witnesses, but because of the effect of the other case, having these murders of young girls it was a much more newsworthy and well known story. Indeed that is part of an issue that we explore and we deal with in series two is the fact that kind of below the radar status of the Night Stalker’s crimes was even a factor in how it was investigated, and how the investigation had been resourced and how it was viewed over the years.
Were the Night Stalker’s victims seen as the ‘wrong victims’ due to their age?
Yes I think that is right. The whole line, which is in my book, and in the drama, where someone says if these victims had been aged 18 to 35 instead of 58 to 95 it would have been a whole different situation and different response, and I think that is true. It is sad, but it is true.
That is really topical because of what happened with Covid and the way the elderly have suffered disproportionately because of that. The whole business of care homes and how we deal with, and how we care for the elderly, and what status we afford the elderly in society, people have been looking at that and in ways we are looking at those things in Manhunt as well.
Why did you think this case was a good case to bring to a television audience?
Because once again it was a case where I wanted to showcase that, even if things are difficult and things haven’t gone well over a long period, the police are still capable of turning around and doing a good job and doing things well. So you have the same sort of dedication by individuals and officers going above and beyond their ordinary call of duty which enabled us to get the Night Stalker’s arrested, prosecuted and convicted, in the same ways as we did in the first series.
My main intention in writing the book and then going into a television series with the first one was that the work that had been done was of such a standard and such a quality that it was worth recording and worth telling people about, and that is the same as happened with the Night Stalker.
Catch ‘Manhunt II: The Night Stalker’ on BritBox now.
