Not every man thinks of his wife when picturing a scruffy, socially awkward murderess who lives in a fantasy world. But then writer Ed Sinclair is not every man – he’s been married to Oscar-winning Olivia Colman for 20 years.
While Olivia’s career has soared ever higher, first with The Favourite and then The Crown, Ed, who also trained as an actor, has been the one anchoring the ship at home and looking after their three children – until now.
Two years ago he and Olivia formed their own production company, South Of The River Pictures, and now their first project together, the true crime mini-series, Landscapers, airs on Sky Atlantic this week. Impressively, it’s Ed’s first ever TV screenplay.
Based on the true story of oddball murderers Susan and Christopher Edwards, who did away with her parents, buried them in the garden and looted their bank accounts, it’s laced with dark humour that makes the emotional punches, when they come, land twice as hard.
David Thewlis and Olivia Colman play oddball murderers Susan and Christopher Edwards, who did away with her parents, buried them in the garden and looted their bank accounts, it’s laced with dark humour that makes the emotional punches, when they come, land twice as hard
Ed, 50, became fascinated with the story after reading a newspaper article following the Edwards’s court case. Olivia plays Susan, a former librarian who lives in a fantasy world inspired by her favourite films. She’s been longing for a knight in shining armour to come and rescue her from her dreary life with her controlling parents.
David Thewlis plays that unlikely hero, Christopher Edwards, a credit control officer for a copywriting firm, who meets Susan through a dating agency. They shared a joint passion for signed photographs and memorabilia from Hollywood greats (not a cheap hobby when some items can cost as much as £20,000) and they soon married.
One May bank holiday in 1998, Susan’s parents Bill and Pat Wycherley were both murdered, shot twice at their semi-detached home in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire. The exact details of who shot who are unknown and none of the neighbours heard a blast.
One, however, did see Christopher digging a hole up to his waist in the back garden in the middle of the night – but didn’t think that was suspicious. The next day, when they saw shrubs on top of a new earth mound, they presumed he’d been landscaping the garden for his in-laws.
As soon as the banks opened the next day, Susan emptied her parents’ savings accounts of £40,000, and for the next 15 years, the couple stole their pensions, benefits and winter fuel payments while telling friends and family that the Wycherleys were away travelling.
They sent Christmas cards to family members from ‘Bill and Pat’ and replied to correspondence with forged letters. There was ‘good air’ in Ireland one relative was told in a letter, while Susan told another her parents were loving their travels, adding ‘it’s good to see them with such zest’.
Christopher and Susan Edwards (pictured) were sentenced to 25 years for killing Susan’s parents Bill and Pat Wycherley at their home in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire
Every so often Susan and Christopher would travel from their home in London to the Wycherleys’ house in Mansfield to mow the lawn, pay the bills and pick up letters. No one suspected a thing and in 2005 they felt secure enough to sell the house, pocketing another £66,000.
But they grew worried that someone would suspect something when the Department for Work and Pensions sent a letter to Bill, asking for a meeting to assess his needs and insisting that a letter would not suffice. So the couple fled to France, which is where the four-part series begins.
It was more than just cold-hearted murder
By 2013 they had spent all of the £245,000 they had stolen, mainly on film memorabilia which they didn’t want to part with. They could barely afford to eat and were living in poverty alongside their pictures of long-dead acting legends, so Christopher phoned his stepmother Elizabeth, admitting that the Wycherleys were buried in their garden and asking if he could borrow some money.
Elizabeth immediately phoned the police, who at first greeted the news of a double murder they knew nothing about with some incredulity. Then they found the bodies.
Ed said it was ‘strange’ that Susan’s lawyer Darrell Ennis-Gayle spoke about the murderers with a degree of affection when he got in touch. Pictured: David and Olivia as Christopher and Susan
With the net closing in, Christopher emailed the British police and said they were coming home to surrender themselves. They were arrested, and despite claiming that Susan was provoked into shooting her mother after Pat had shot Bill, the couple were both convicted of murder in June 2014 and each sentenced to 25 years.
‘The series isn’t just about re- creating what happened, it’s also an exploration into some of the things the court case didn’t go into,’ says Ed.
‘Susan’s past and her relationship with her father were particularly interesting. While they looked like cold-hearted murderers, there was more to it once I read about it.’
Ed got in touch with Susan’s lawyer Darrell Ennis-Gayle (a fictionalised version of him appears in the show), and through him he started a written correspondence with Susan. ‘What was striking about Darrell was the way he spoke about Susan and Chris with a degree of affection, which is a strange thing to think about with convicted killers,’ says Ed.
‘The other striking thing was that he continued his relationship with them; he sends them books and Christmas cards.
‘Whether to get in touch with Susan was a decision I had to think about. One of the things I had to be upfront with Susan about from the outset was that I didn’t think there was a miscarriage of justice.
‘What exactly happened still isn’t clear but all the evidence points to the conviction for murder being sound. As for Chris, in the show we don’t come to a deliberate conclusion.’
The series has more dark humour than the usual crime drama. ‘It was a question of balance as these people are murderers, but just as with the police, we wanted to make them all feel real, part of the world,’ says Ed.
From the beginning, creating a show for Olivia while being her husband brought up some issues. Ed admits it’s one of the times they’ve come closest to having cross words.
‘Susan is such an interesting character who led this extraordinary life,’ says Ed, who only ever had Olivia in mind to play her. ‘She can switch between being cold and calm and then emotionally vulnerable and there’s this great sadness underneath. Olivia is someone who could provide that depth without it having to be written too obviously in the script.’
The issues came when Olivia started speaking some of Ed’s lines in a way he hadn’t quite imagined them and she didn’t take kindly to being told how to act. ‘We’re definitely feeling our way through,’ he laughs.
Ed admits there was an awkwardness while working with Olivia on the series as he had to give notes on her performance. Pictured: Olivia with husband Ed Sinclair, who wrote the screenplay
‘When you’re in a personal relationship with someone and then you start working with them, you have to remember that the way you interact with people at work isn’t the same as the way you interact with your spouse at home and Olivia is quite sensitive to that.
‘So I might give a note about the way a scene had been done and she might not like what I’d said. There was this awkwardness that we hadn’t experienced before. I think it was a learning experience but, ultimately, we were aware that it was funny.’
Fortunately that awkwardness hasn’t stopped them from thinking about working together again and Ed’s looking forward to writing his next script.
‘I feel very lucky and happy that my first script has such an amazing cast, producer and director and it has opened up a world to me,’ he says. It looks like Olivia soon won’t be the only star in the Colman/Sinclair household.
Landscapers starts on Tuesday at 9pm on Sky Atlantic.