Rillington Place: anyone watching?

He was about eleven when he moved from Wales, living in London possibly did cause him to want to speak like his friends, he did go back to Wales as an adult and worked in the pit but not for very long then left Wales again.

my daughters never lived in the valleys yet when with me they slip into a valleys accent, Evans mother must have had a valleys accent , so I can understand him slipping from one to another , not forgetting he did have problems with the truth

Anniebach, I just looked for the book on Amazon. Have you seen the price of it??!! You've got a valuable item there!

AsI said earlier I wasn't familiar with the story and wish (now that I know it was true that I hadn't watched it. I did guess what would happen to the poor baby though which makes the fact that it was true almost unbearable. Given that these miscarriages of justice do still occur I can't even begin to imagine what would happen if capital punishment was reintroduced. I want to watch the final part but wish I still believed it was a far fetched drama

Good grief, wot I looked after reading your post, my book is signed by Ludovic Kennedy ,the author ,oooooooh

I have just read an account of the murders and cannot believe how absolutely incompetent the police were.

Gilly, there has been so many , I have joined many campaigns over the years , we must never, ever, reintroduce the death penalty

It was more than incompetence Gilly, evidence was withheld by the police

I m really enjoying it now didn't get into the first episode until I had watched it again (I think I might have nodded off first time round) but yes it's good and well acted I too am quite annoyed by the accent change I can understand the explanations but I ve never heard it so black and white usually it will be a bit Welsh in England and a bit more Welsh when home but the distinct change in almost a day isn't likely My daughter has been in Ireland 15 years and although she uses colloquial sayings with a tinge you would always know she is English likewise my son in NZ 20 years, ... to me has a kiwi accent but to them over there he still has an English accent and it doesn't change when he comes home .... perhaps it would if he was home 6 months but not in three weeks Otherwise cracking drama
Evans made it a bit easy the way he confessed to everything

Evans was a vunerable person, people with learning difficulties are easy victims

The account I have just read Anniebach confirms as you say, that the police deliberately withheld information in order to secure Evans' conviction. How could they live with themselves knowing they sent an innocent man to his death? The account also says that children took a human skull found close to the Christie house to the police station and this was ignored. Bones were apparently lying only inches deep in the Cristie's garden. The account also states that it is quite probable that Evans' confession was given as a result of police brutality or even torture.

Even as a viewer you can see that Evans account of what happened didn't match up with the police findings. (the body in the drain etc) Surely this in itself should have made them question his guilt. I am so angry and sad. I wish I hadn't watched it now.

I cannot abide the death penalty in any circumstances. Better to give them a good slap now and again for their sins. Otherwise, just keep them under lock and key.

Did Evans have learning difficulties then I must have missed that ?

He had an IQ of 70 I read, think on the BBC website,and Christie's was 120+

I think a lot of people then (and probably a lot of the police) had the same attitude as my parents. They couldn't see what all the fuss was about when Christie was revealed as the murderer. They thought that Evans could still have murdered his wife and child and if he was innocent it didn't matter because he wasn't important. There were a lot of things we disagreed about!

Evans' death does emphasise the case for not bringing back the death penalty so perhaps he didn't die completely for nothing. It was so awful. I've always felt that killing a murderer like Christie is too easy, too quick. They need to suffer and helped to come to realise what they've done - and suffer some more!

I agree totally Nfkdumpling death penskty has always been completely wrong in my eyes and look st the serial killers who have killed themselves in prison they don't like being in there with no means of carrying out the very thing that keeps them going

I didn't realise they had IQ tests in them there days ? I wonder if he had any schooling he certainly didn't come across as learning impaired in the play not the brightest button but not that limited either... IQ of 70 is pretty low isn't it

Had a read up should have done that in the first place haha apparently Timothy had a tubercular foot as a child and missed vast amounts of schooling so could barely read and write

Off topic but we mustn't forget Derek Bentley abd Ruth Ellis .

I think Kennedy said Evans couldn't read or write . This week Chistie brought Evans a notice and Evans asked Christie to read it to him

Bluebell, I don't understand what you think a person with learning difficulties should look like or act

Moving on from the dodgy accent. Two phrases were used that struck me as odd.
1 . New build ( when Tim said they wouldn't be staying long and hoped to get a house)
2 . Bad- mouthing. ( Tim's mother telling him not to speak badly about his wife)
We're these phrases really used at that time? They seem modern or American to me.

New build I don't know if this was used in England, but bad mouthing was not used in South Wales mining areas

I think both phrases are fairly recent additions to UK language and certainly wouldn't have been used in the forties/fifties.

I heard one character ending an argument by saying "whatever" which would never have happened.

I can remember IQ tests at school in the early 50s, an IQ test was part of the !! plus.

My parents also had no time for Derek Bentley and thought he was no loss, but my mother was strongly against the hanging of Ruth Ellis.

Yet Bently didn't take a life, Ellis did ,

Well Anniebach having met various friends /neighbours /acquaintances over the years with children with varying degrees of learning difficulties they would be less able than Evans was coming across in the play To me it wasn't obvious he had learning difficulties

You're right Deedaa we did have IQ tests as part of the 11 plus I remember that but we weren't given an IQ score, well we weren't in my school anyway

My mother's view on Ruth Ellis was that she had recently had a miscarriage and might have been affected mentally by that.