Rent Des (2020)

An exceptional Tennant & Mays lead this powerhouse drama which never loses sight of the victims - Des review by TB

In this brilliant & detailed 3 part drama, the case & trial of Dennis Nielsen is looked at in detail. From the initial suspicion after human remains are found in a drain through to the interrogations of Nielson, the series keeps an admirable step back, not in any way gamourising or revering him. In fact, the overriding impression I came away with after finishing the series was one of absolute patheticness. Nielson was a highly intelligent man who also, in his professional life, was known as a good worker who was extremely conscientious to the people in the job center he was helping. But the real person was someone obsessed with control, who never had any and so needed to find the most vulnerable in society & make them drunk before he was able to do what he wanted to them.

But for me, as much as Tennant got the headlines and awards, the best performance was Daniel Mays as the lead inspector. Peter Jay is introduced as the determined cop whose live is collapsing around him (divorcing, trying to rebuild his life, chasing after criminals to distract himself,) but Mays really gives him a humanity behind all that. This was the first thing I have seen Mays in where he has a leading role & I was genuinely blown away. He is excellent & takes the thankless role on and really makes something of it.

Jason Watkins rounds things off as the journalist who makes contact with Nielson once he is in prison and ends up writing for many what is seen as the definitive story of the crimes, whilst also clearly concerned about the representation of Nielson's sexuality would have towards the gay community which he is also a part of.

But as I alluded to in my title, one of the best things about this documentary is the lack of sensationalism that is given to Nielson and instead the focus given to not only the victims and survivors but also the parents of those killed. One victim, who managed to survive strangulation & drowning, was particularly poginent with the suffering that he had been through, thinking at first it was a dream before being told that everything he was remembering actually happened to him. Similarly, the deliberate (at times) duplicity of Nielson, destroying someone's credibility when he didn't like a particular way he was portrayed, even though he freely admitted at a later time that he had been guilty of the offense was also important to be shown. There is emphatically no pulling of punches with how disgusting Nielson is shown to be.

The production values are high and the mise-en-scene is flawless throughout. The script is also well-written, fleshing out many elements of the strange twists & turns of the case.

An absorbing & thoroughly great watch.