WARNING: This article contains spoilers from the ITV drama The Pembrokeshire Murders.
The Pembrokeshire Murders delves into the story of a Detective Superintendent who re-opens two unsolved double murder cases and tracks down a prolific serial killer.
Back in 2021, The Pembrokeshire Murders starring Welsh actors Luke Evans and Keith Allen debuted on ITV, with the stars portraying DS Steve Wilkins and John Cooper respectively.
In the three-part series, four murders are committed in the 1980s that go unsolved by the Dyfed Powys police force but the cases are re-opened by Wilkins in 2006 after he gets a promotion.
And using the advanced forensic technology that’s now at their disposal, the force discovers a DNA match with someone who is getting ready to be released from prison for a string of burglaries.
Is The Pembrokeshire Murders a ‘true’ story?
Netflix’s latest release, The Pembrokeshire Murders, is a ‘true’ crime drama and so is based on real-life events.
Welsh serial killer John Cooper was behind the murders of siblings Richard and Helen Thomas in 1985, as well as Peter and Gwenda Dixon in 1989.
He was only discovered to be the murderer after Wilkins saw that he was a DNA match for prints found at the scene, having already spent years behind bars for burglaries.
Actor Luke Evans expressed at the time that a major reason why he wanted to get involved with the show was because it was rooted in real life.
He shared: “The story just hooked me immediately, also I’m a sucker for a ‘true’ story. This isn’t just a ‘true’ story it’s a shocking ‘true’ story about the worst serial killer Wales has ever seen.
“It also drew my attention to the work the police force do behind the scenes, at the human impact of what people go through when something like this happens in their community.
“Often these stories do feel like they can’t be real but this one has so many twists and turns and many, many times during the story it feels like it’s going to go cold once again, the case will go cold because the forensic evidence was minimal and the budgets were running out – people were losing faith.
“So it is a real story of a team of people who absolutely wanted to find the truth and get the man who committed these crimes.
“The unbelievable twists that this story takes during the investigation which are just mind boggling and literally when I read it… I remember I started googling it.
“Somehow, I think I might have been too young for it to have made an impact on me when it actually did happen and I wasn’t living in Wales at the time, but when I read the story, I realised there were no fictional embellishments in this story. It’s as ‘true’ to the facts as it possibly can be and it really is a rollercoaster ride as you watch it.”
The gripping series draws its inspiration from the book Catching the Bullseye Killer, authored by Steve Wilkins and ITV news journalist Jonathan Hill, published back in 2012.
The title of the book refers to Cooper’s appearance on the popular game show Bullseye in 1989, with Wilkins utilising clips from the episode to compare with sketches of a suspect in the Dixons’ murder.
Cooper was eventually apprehended for the crime in 2009 and received a life sentence in 2011.
The Pembrokeshire Murders is available to watch on Netflix.