Harold Shipman: Doctor Death

A pretty good dramatization of how Doctor Harold Shipman finally fell under suspicion and was caught.

The production values are pretty basic but everything is well acted and the sets and locations all look pretty run of the mill and pretty realistic.

The programme takes a bit of dramatic licence obviously having to fill in many blanks.

Shipman is portrayed as charming, authoritative and highly respected and trusted. There seems little to no reason to doubt any thing he says. A few locals have doubts about the high death among his patients, many of them elderly but in excellent health and spirit. Shipman explains though that he has many patients in his surgery and that sadly death from old age does happen. Characters who do raise concerns are left looking foolish and crestfallen. Shipman continually exercises a caring bedside manner and is upheld as a pillar of the community. There's even some fantastic corpse acting.

The other main character in the story is a detective coming up for retirement who is first put onto the case when a forged will comes to light. Slowly they begin to uncover a mountain of evidence that there is a serial killer in their area. Shipman though seems able to offer a plausible defence and it's by no means certain they can prove his guilt.

The case is so famous that there's no point in trying to leave it a mystery so we know right from the beginning what he's up to. In the first scene he starts filling out the death certificate before he's even killed the victim. The drama uses a lot of actor with strong local Manchester accents to keep things feeling real.

The programme never really tries to answer the question of why he did what he did. I don't suppose we'll ever know. It seems to have had little to nothing to do with money. Nor do we know why he targeted elderly women. Was it because their deaths would be less suspicious? Was it because he had a special reason for wanting them dead. We'll never know....

Most of the acting is very good, there's just one or two extras who are truly wooden. The detective also sits down and discusses the case with a member of the public too over a drink in one scene. Pretty implausible.

Some critics will also feel maybe that this drama is exploiting an awful true story for entertainment.

This drama retraced some of the murders commited by primary care physician Harold Shipman in the Manchester area of the UK in the late 90s. Shipman was convicted of injecting his patients with lethal doses of diamorphine. Despite the highly unusual number of deaths in his practice his actions went unnoticed for a long period of time, and even now the authorities are unsure about the number of people that he may have killed. The film is low key, and does not attemot to provide any insight or reasoning into Shipman's motives, it simply documents the events as recorded in court transcripts. Nevertheless it is a powerful film; James Bolam a stalwart of light comedy in the UK is well cast. The film has caused some controversy here, as it has been shown on television before the inquiries into Shipman have been completed. Relatives of those who died tried to prevent the film been shown at this stage. On balance the events are documented as sensitively as possible; and the drama is good if very very uncomfortable viewing.

A fantastic reenactment of the Shipman case. Portrayed wonderfully by everyone involved. A definite must watch if you like old British tv.

I found this to be a pretty good movie based on a real serial killer. The movie shows the events of Harold Shipman on how he kills people with lethal doses and the motive on why he does it. James Bolam does a great job playing as Harold on how he portrayed the character as a cold blooded killer who doesn't show any remorse on what he doing to his victims. The other actors did a great job with their performance in the movie too. It also shows how the authorities slowly realize there's something strange going on with these series of deaths that happening around town and start to suspect Shipman.

Harold Shipman: Doctor Death is a pretty good crime movie.

Many in Britain were shocked when the police were exhuming bodies in the Manchester area with suspicion of foul play by a respected family doctor.

This was in the late 1990s and this drama from ITV was shown a few years after the events. Hence it had to tread a fine and sensitive line.

James Bolam plays Dr Frederick Shipman. A well respected GP with a small, thriving practice and a respected member of the community.

However even when the police investigate him Bolam gives a hint of the sly humour that Shipman apparently had. As well as being a serial killer this was a doctor not ready to buckle under police pressure.

James Hazeldine in one of his final roles plays the dogged policeman who is persuaded by the daughter of one of Doctor's victim's that Shipman might have a darker side.

We get an idea as to how Shipman got caught. It is a part police procedural as they forensically examine his computer. Shipman made a mistake of forging a will of one of his victim's.

We never really get an idea as to why he did it or what his motives were. It seems we might never know.

Bolam's performance is key in keeping your interest in this drama and this is a tight film without getting too exploitative.