Des cast reveal ‘utterly terrifying and eerie’ scenes where Dennis Nilsen’s victims’ bodies were stuffed into wardrobes

THE cast of Des have revealed the ‘utterly terrifying and eerie’ scenes where Dennis Nilsen’s victims’ bodies were stuffed into wardrobes. The ITV drama focuses on the notorious serial killer, who murdered more than a dozen men at his London home from 1978 until 1983. Dennis would befriend the men and offer them food or […]

THE cast of Des have revealed the ‘utterly terrifying and eerie’ scenes where Dennis Nilsen’s victims’ bodies were stuffed into wardrobes.

The ITV drama focuses on the notorious serial killer, who murdered more than a dozen men at his London home from 1978 until 1983.

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The Des cast have revealed how ‘terrifying and eerie’ the set for Dennis Nilsen’s flat was [/caption]

Dennis would befriend the men and offer them food or lodgings, before strangling or drowning them and then carrying out despicable acts with the corpses and then eventually dismembering them to dispose of, either by burning them on a bonfire or flushing bits down the toilet.

The drama shows the moment police arrived at his London flat and he confessed to the murders, before a later scene at the police station sees him tell officers where to find the bodies.

Speaking to The Sun’s TV Mag about the replica flat that was built on set for the scenes, actor Jason Watkins, who plays Dennis’ biographer Brian Masters said: “When we went on set, and did that scene, it felt very real and that in that wardrobe, bodies were present.”

Co-star Daniel Mays, who plays DCI Jay in charge of the case, added: “Yeah, it was utterly terrifying and beyond eerie stepping out onto that set for the first time.

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Daniel Mays plays DCI Jay, who found the remains of some of Dennis Nilsen’s victims in a wardrobe in his flat [/caption]

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David Tennant plays the serial killer in the ITV drama [/caption]

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Nilsen killed more than a dozen men at his flats in London[/caption]

“You really felt the magnitude of it really, it was an amazing set design and it was so evocative of that era, it was a brilliant, brilliant piece.”

Speaking about the levels of detail the set designers went to to make the flat look like the original, director Lewis Arnold told ITV: “The interior of Cranley Gardens was an exact set build of the real space, as created by our wonderful production designer Anna Higginson.

“She even went as far as having the original wallpaper replicated, and hunted down matches for almost all of the furniture Nilsen owned.

“I have to applaud the level of detail across all the sets and locations in this drama, as Anna and her team created an authenticity that easily enabled our actors to transport themselves back to the time of the case.”

Robert Viglasky

Director Lewis Arnold praised the set designers for recreating Dennis’ flat so accurately [/caption]

Meanwhile David recently explained why the drama didn’t show any of the victims directly on camera in the flat where they were killed and dismembered.

Referring to a scene where DCI Jay almost opens a pan lid on the stove to find a severed head, David told Radio Times: “What we didn’t want to do is titillate or turn Des into a horror movie. That is not the kind of story we are trying to tell.

“What we are doing is trying to figure out who this creature was.

“[Dennis] proved himself to be an unreliable narrator on many occasions. So the audience is taken into the story by Peter Jay’s character, you discover the horrors through his eyes.”

Des concludes tonight at 9pm on ITV. TV Mag is available for free every Saturday, only in The Sun.