In Plain Sight (ITV 2016, Martin Compston, Douglas Henshall)

In Plain Sight is a three-part mini-series based on the true story of Lanarkshire detective William Muncie’s quest to bring to justice notorious Scottish killer Peter Manuel.

Douglas Henshall takes the role of William Muncie whilst Peter Manuel is played by Martin Compsto.

Muncie first arrested Manuel in 1946 for housebreaking, but also successfully convicted him for a string of sexual assaults. Manuel vowed revenge.

Released from prison in 1955, Manuel embarked on a two-year killing spree, claiming eight lives in the close-knit communities of South Lanarkshire.

Manuel evaded capture for so long because he was unlike anything the local police had ever encountered: A murderer without any discernible motive whose victims were chosen at random. Muncie was the one man who had Manuel’s measure and doggedly refused to give up until Manuel was brought to justice.

Between 1956 and 1958, Peter Manuel traumatised South Lanarkshire. In two years, he killed 8 people (almost a third of all the people murdered in Scotland during this gentler time) and all within an area that was a mere 26-mile round trip by car.

Long before anyone else, Detective William Muncie saw Peter Manuel for what he was: a psychopath. Almost a decade before Manuel committed his first murder, Muncie had arrested him for a slew of housebreakings, seeing to it that Manuel did time in prison. Manuel never forgave him for this. Released six years later, Manuel emerged from prison ready for murder, and, in a twisted form of revenge, he made Detective Muncie his Number One target audience, leaving a trail of tantalising clues and taunting Muncie with birthday and Christmas cards.

Manuel was addicted to the limelight. A high-visibility killer – literally In Plain Sight – who thrived on the panic and press generated by his crimes. On three occasions he opted to conduct his own defence in court. The culmination of all this pathological attention-seeking was his prolonged, sadistic victimisation of William Watt.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=hppEK-SCq-s

production details
UK | ITV – World Productions – Finlaggan Films | 3×50 minutes | Broadcast Wednesday 7 December – Wednesday 24 December 2016

Writer: Nick Stevens
Costumes: Alison McCosh
Producer: Gillian McNeill
Executive Producers: Simon Heath, Kirstie Macdonald
Consultant: Allan Nicol

cast
Douglas Henshall as William Muncie
Martin Compston as Peter Manuel
Joanne Thompson as Iris Laird
Jack Greenlees as McLeod
Sorcha Groundsell as Jane Muncie
Shauna Macdonald as Agnes Muncie
Joanna Roth as Bridget Manuel
Michael Nardone as Det Supt Leish
Gilly Gilchrist as Samuel Manuel
Jenny Hulse as Mary McLaughlin
Bobby Rainsbury as Theresa Manuel
Gavin Jon Wright as Hugh Kirk
Denis Lawson as Laurence Dowdall
Gary Lewis as William Watt
Jack Greenless as DS McLeod
Louise McCarthy as Babs