BAZ BAMIGBOYE: How studying serial killer Dennis Nilsen for new TV drama left Daniel Mays shaken 

The spectre of serial killer Dennis Nilsen haunted Daniel Mays as he tackled the role of a lifetime: the ‘old school copper’ who helped bring the mass murderer to justice.

‘I watched all these documentaries,’ Mays told me, ‘and pored over all this research’ — including Killing For Company, Brian Masters’ best-selling psychological study of Nilsen.

Even before filming started on Des, the three-part ITV mini-series in which Mays plays Detective Chief Inspector Peter Jay, the nightmares began.

‘On two occasions I woke up my wife, Louise, screaming, because I thought I was locked in an attic with Dennis Nilsen.’ 

Not helping matters was ‘the amount of herbal cigarettes I had to smoke’ (Jay was a chainsmoker). 

Des contains masterclass performances from David Tennant, as the monster who disposed of his victims in grisly ways; Jason Watkins (Harold Wilson in The Crown) as author Masters, who visited Nilsen in jail and RADA-trained Mays, star of lockdown hit White Lines and Line Of Duty.

‘More than anything, it was an investigation in reverse,’ Mays said of the police’s efforts. 

‘Here was a guy who openly admitted to 15 murders and yet because of the way he disposed of the bodies, they had no evidence. They had to find some.’

The 42-year-old reflected on the difference between policing then, and now; particularly how officers coped with the horrific nature of the crimes. 

‘Coppers back in 1983 didn’t have counsellors. They’d just go down the pub and drink a few pints to get over it.’

Nilsen was collared at his flat in North London, in an area Mays once used as a cut-through. ‘You do wonder which house it was,’ he said. 

The making of Des, with director Lewis Arnold at the helm, was as painstaking as the police investigation into the murders. 

Arnold and his producers spent several years on research, talking to the victim’s families, and that sensitivity is reflected in the drama, over three nights from Monday. 

‘It was always told from a point of respect,’ Mays said, adding that while the killings are described in graphic detail by Tennant, as Nilsen; they are not shown.

He added that Des also deals with ‘a whole set of untruths about the case’, and I urge you to watch it, to see what they are.

Mays was speaking to me from the ‘bubble’ he’s sharing with Stephen Graham, during a break from filming the second series of Sky’s police show Code 404.

Following that, he’ll join Mark Strong for new episodes of Temple, which should take him through till February.

‘We’ve got Covid testing hanging over the production,’ he said of Code 404. ‘We’re tested twice a week.’ He added he felt sorriest for the crew, who had to wear masks and PPE 12 hours a day.

His own Lockdown was spent nursing Louise, who had slipped and shattered an ankle. Son Milo, 14, was studying for mocks; and Mays helped home school seven-year-old Dixie. ‘We got through it,’ he said, laughing.

Going back to work was initially difficult. ‘I hadn’t acted for seven months. In your own mind-set you’ve switched off.’

Looking further ahead, he said treading the boards again — after doing The Caretaker at the Old Vic four years ago with Timothy Spall and George McKay (who also appeared with Mays in Sam Mendes’s 1917) — was a priority. He told me he’s been discussing playing Macbeth for director Joe Hill-Gibbins.

Watching Sleepless, the musical, at the Troubadour, Wembley Park Theatre, left me singing the praises of the cast led by Jay McGuiness, Kimberley Walsh and Theo Collis. 

Everyone involved with producers Michael Rose and Damien Sanders deserves a pat on the back, too, for putting on the musical version of Nora Ephron’s romance movie. I found it touching. 

How amazing to see a musical in 2020, inside a disease secure theatre. Thousands have been spent on health checks to keep cast, crew and audiences safe. Bravo. 

I hope the rumours come to pass about David Hare’s scorching monologue Beat The Devil being filmed, for viewing at some later date. 

The play stars Ralph Fiennes, portraying Hare as he copes with the effects of Covid-19, while throwing the Prime Minister under a bus for his handling of the pandemic.

Beat The Devil is on at the Bridge as part of a season of one-person plays featuring a diverse array of artists.

I saw it last weekend. It was my first time back in a theatre and the Bridge’s maintenance of Covid secure protocols was scrupulous, and very reassuring.

Festival serves up movie treats 

Movie fans are in for a well-deserved treat at the British Film Institute’s London Film Festival.

Even though it is a quarter of its normal size, director Tricia Tuttle and her team have assembled a brilliant array of titles to show at the event, which will feature a mix of live and virtual screenings, from October 7-18.

Kicking things off is Steve McQueen’s film Mangrove, featuring Shaun Parkes, Letitia Wright and Malachi Kirby as members of the Mangrove Nine: activists acquitted in a landmark case of inciting a riot in London in 1970. 

And bringing it to a conclusion will be Ammonite, directed by Francis Lee (God’s Own Country), starring Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan (on general release early 2021).

There will be screenings at the BFI Southbank complex and 12 independent cinemas in London and across the UK. ‘It’s about getting audiences back into cinemas!’ Tuttle said. 

Titles getting cinema showings include Chloe Zhao’s Nomadland, about an underclass of Americans living in vans out West, starring Frances McDormand; Phyllida Lloyd’s Herself, about a battered mother-of-two who decides to build her own home; and Mogul Mowgli, starring Riz Ahmed as a rapper.

Cinemagoers can also catch Spike Lee’s film of David Byrne’s Broadway show American Utopia; Joanna Scanlan rediscovering life after her husband’s death in Aleem Khan’s After Love; Stanley Tucci and Colin Firth in Supernova; Elisabeth Moss in Shirley and Pixar’s latest, Soul, voiced by Jamie Foxx, Tina Fey, Angela Bassett and Daveed Diggs.

Those and more than 50 other titles will also be shown virtually via BFIPlayer.

For a complete list of films, and how to see them, visit bfi.org.uk/london-film-festival.