TV Pick of the Week: The Sixth Commandment - review by Yvette Huddleston

It explores the gaslighting and deaths of retired teachers Peter Farquhar and Ann Moore-Martin, neighbours in the Buckinghamshire village of Maids Moreton, in 2014 and 2017 by young churchwarden Ben Field. Made with the co-operation of the victims’ families, the drama is not an easy watch by any means but Phelps’ sensitive script ensures that the two victims retain their dignity and humanity and that their memory is honoured.

In the opening episode we meet Farquhar (Timothy Spall), a bright, warm, funny, intelligent and much-admired teacher at Stowe school just as he is about to retire. A solitary man whose deep religious faith is at odds with his sexuality, he has remained closeted and celibate yet yearns to be loved. It is this basic human need that, heartbreakingly, makes him so vulnerable to the machinations of the coolly manipulative Field (Éanna Hardwicke) who is a student of Farquhar’s on a course he is teaching at the local university. Field writes the older man love poems and gradually inveigles his way into his life. The pair eventually become ‘betrothed’ and Field moves in to Farquhar’s house, much to the surprise of his brother and sister-in-law (Adrian Rawlins and Amanda Root) who are initially concerned but then genuinely pleased that Peter appears to have found happiness at last. Meanwhile Field has persuaded Farquhar to change his will. Then the gaslighting and slow poisoning begins, which sees Farquhar transformed into a fearful shadow of the person he once was.

Spall is outstanding as Farquhar giving one of his best performances to date and in the second episode Anne Reid is equally impressive as Moore-Martin. She is a retired, never-married schoolteacher who is preyed upon by Field once he has murdered Farquhar. She too has a strong religious faith, is lonely and is charmed by Field, believing his declarations of love and accepting his proposal of marriage. Her loving and protective niece (Annabel Scholey) is suspicious of the young man’s motives from the start and it is her tenacity that leads to the police investigation of both deaths and the criminal trial of Field, covered in later episodes.