ew four-part crime series the Sixth Commandment, is coming to the BBC.
It’s centred around the deaths of Peter Farquhar and Ann Moore-Martin in the village of Maids Moreton, Buckinghamshire, in 2015 and 2017.
The Sixth Commandment airs on July 17, a show said to highlight “the devastating effect of isolation and loneliness”.
What is the Sixth Commandement about?
The drama is written by Sarah Phelps, and stars Mr Turner and Spencer actor Timothy Spall as Peter Farquhar, “an inspirational teacher” who was manipulated into a relationship with Ben Field, his killer. Sanditon’s Anne Reid stars as the second murder vicitim, Ann Moore-Martin. Also in the cast list are:
- Éanna Hardwicke (Lakelands, Normal People)
- Annabel Scholey (The Split, The Salisbury Poisonings)
- Sheila Hancock (Unforgotten, A Discovery of Witches, Great Canal Journeys)
- Ben Bailey Smith (The Split, Andor)
- Conor MacNeill (Industry)
- Adrian Rawlins (Baptiste, Chernobyl)
- Amanda Root (Summerland, Unforgotten)
So what can we expect from the plot? The show tells the story of “how the meeting of an inspirational teacher, Peter Farquhar (Timothy Spall) and a charismatic student, Ben Field (Éanna Hardwicke), set the stage for one of the most complex and confounding criminal cases in recent memory.
“The Sixth Commandment explores the way in which both Peter and Ann were manipulated by Field, capturing the extreme gaslighting, the gripping police investigation, and the high-profile trial, while poignantly highlighting the devastating effect of isolation and loneliness, as Field closed in on them.
“It also celebrates both Peter and Ann’s lives as cherished mentors, much-loved relatives, and adored friends.”
The Sixth Commandment is airing across four episodes — each lasts an hour and is being broadcast on BBC One at 9pm. Episodes one and two were on Monday and Tuesday, with episodes three and four on next Monday and Tuesday, but you can catch up on iPlayer if you missed the first two.
What is the true story behind the Maids Moreton murders?
The real crimes that the series is based on began less than a decade ago, and concerns the deaths of English lecturer and novelist Peter Farquhar and his neighbour, Ann Moore-Martin, a retired primary school headteacher.
Mr Farquhar and Miss Moore-Martin lived three doors down from each other in Maids Moreton, Buckinghamshire, and died two years apart in mysterious circumstances.
They were both religious — Mr Farquhar was an evangelical Christian and had considered becoming a minister before starting in education, and Miss Moore-Martin was a devout Catholic.
Both Mr Farquhar and Miss Moore-Martin found themselves the target of PhD student and churchwarden Ben Field, who set out to scam them both out of their hard-earned money.
Field murdered his lover, Mr Farquhar, through alcohol poisoning and was sentenced to 36 years in prison in October 2019. The murderer admitted to drugging Mr Farquhar in order to inherit his house and money.
Mr Farquhar lectured at Buckingham University, where Field studied and, as the pair grew closer, the lecturer wrote Field into his will in 2013 before they moved in together two months later.
During their relationship, Field had a string of girlfriends and later started a sexual relationship with Mr Farquhar’s neighbour, Miss Moore-Martin, who was 57 years his senior.
Over two years, Field topped up Mr Farquhar’s drinks with bioethanol, gin, and poteen (Poitín), a high-strength Irish alcohol, and his food was laced with drugs.
Jurors were told Field “suffocated him” when he was too weak to resist. Field left a half-empty bottle of whisky in Mr Farquhar’s room to create a narrative that he had drunk himself to death and killed himself.
Field also deleted numbers from Mr Farquhar’s phone, which led him to believe he had done so himself but had forgotten. The lecturer even sought the help of specialist brain doctors but no-one could find out what was wrong with him.
The convicted killer showed no remorse, and told the jury “he did it for no other reason other than it was cruel, to upset and torment Peter — purely out of meanness”.
Mr Farquhar died in October 2015 and then Field decided to move out of Mr Farquhar’s home and went to live with Miss Moore-Martin, who lived three doors away.
Miss Moore-Martin had expressed a desire to live with her family, who lived elsewhere in the country. However, as Field’s manipulation grew stronger, she began to have less contact with her relatives.
Field pressured Miss Moore-Martin to change her will, gaslighting her and writing “messages from God” on her mirrors.
Subsequently, Field claimed he needed money for a dialysis machine for his brother, among others things, ruses that led to Miss Moore-Martin handing over more than £30,000. Then her health began to deteriorate and she was hospitalised after a seizure.
Police were contacted by a family member with concerns about Field, whose links to Miss Moore-Martin and Mr Farquhar were subsequently uncovered.
Miss Moore-Martin then died of natural causes and Field was accused of plotting to kill her, but was found not guilty.
However, he was jailed for life with a minimum term of 36 years for murdering Mr Farquhar and of defrauding Miss Moore-Martin, who had fortunately cut him out of her will before she died. The killer also unsuccessfully attempted to overturn his conviction.