Anne Reid and Timothy Spall to Lead True Crime Drama 'The Sixth Commandment'

Award winning actress Anne Reid is certainly staying booked and busy now her time on the seaside-set period drama Sanditon has come to a close, taking on a role that's quite different from that of rich society matron Lady Denham. She's next set to star alongside Timothy Spall (The Pale Blue Eye) in true crime drama The Sixth Commandment, a four-part series about the death of Peter Farquhar in the village of Maids Moreton, as well as the  complicated series of criminal events --- from fraud and burglary to murder ---- that surround it.

The series follows the story of Ben Field, a charismatic student who drugged, gaslit, and finally murdered university lecturer and novelist Farquhar in Buckinghamshire in 2015. Field, who had a romantic relationship with Farquhar, gave him benzodiazepines and other psychoactive drugs to alter his moods and behavior, manipulated him into making him a beneficiary of his will, and ultimately suffocated him, leaving a half-empty bottle of whisky at the crime scene in the hopes of convincing authorities that he'd drunk himself to death.

Field then set his sights on 83-year-old neighbor Anne Moore-Martin, aiming to seduce and gaslight her into changing her will as well. Aware of her deeply religious background, he even began leaving supposed "messages from God" on her mirror. His plans ultimately unraveled when Moore-Martin's niece contacted the police about their relationship, alleging that Field was manipulating her aunt. The investigation that followed revealed Ben's connection to Farquar --- who had lived just three doors down --- and the uncomfortable (and potentially deadly) similarities between the two situations