“God Mr Christie, she was only young!”

There are few films in the British horror genre more harrowing than 10 Rillington Place, and that has a lot to do with one thing... it all happened. As the credits roll we are proudly informed that this is a very true story, much of the dialogue culled from court reports from the time. That statement alone is enough to make you shudder.

And it wastes no time getting down to the nitty gritty, either - an almost unrecognisable Richard Attenborough indulging in some nasty shenanigans with a middle aged woman that involve a length of pipe, his gas supply, an old cigarette box, a jar full of white liquid and a small amount of brute force.

Even more disturbing than this is what happens after the woman is dead… Attenborough, about as far away from his “could he be Santa?” 90s persona as it is possible to get, frotting the body and moaning with orgasmic delight.

Shenanigans over, he buries the body in the garden, and into his home move young couple Timothy and Beryl (John Hurt and Judy Geeson). Attenborough is at his seedy, lisping best when sizing up Geeson as a possible "conquest", and once she reveals she's pregnant and wants to "get rid of it", he wastes no time in convincing them of his medical credentials. Geeson doesn’t survive his attentions (the Hitchcock-like addition of workmen arriving just as the murder is about to begin unfortunately not expanded on), Christie then tells the distraught Hurt that it was all his fault for allowing the op to go ahead, packs him off to Wales and allows the non-genius to dig his own hole, potential suspect-wise.