James Nesbitt is to star as a respectable dentist turned killer in a new TV drama about an extraordinary real-life double murder.
The Northern Irish actor who previously appeared in BBC One’s The Missing, will cross over to ITV for The Secret, a three-part drama.
Nesbitt, 50, will play Colin Howell, a dentist from Portadown who was a deeply religious father of ten and respected member of the local community. Howell became a murderer alongside Hazel Stewart (then Buchanan), a Sunday school teacher, in 1991.
Stewart will be played by Genevieve O’Reilly, 38, who is known for roles in Episodes, Banished and The Honourable Woman.
Howell and Buchanan met at their local baptist church in Derry and began an affair, ultimately plotting to kill their partners, Lesley Howell and Trevor Buchanan.
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The pair were discovered in a fume-filled car in an apparent suicide pact in May 1991. It was only 19 years later that the truth was discovered, when Howell confessed to the murder and named Buchanan as his accomplice.
The drama is based on Let This Be Our Secret, a book by Deric Henderson, the former Ireland editor of the Press Association.
“It’s an extraordinary story, certainly the most remarkable I’ve ever covered in a long career,” Mr Henderson said.
The Secret is written by Stuart Urban, a Bafta-winning writer and directed by Nick Murphy. Mark Redhead of Hat Trick Productions is the executive producer.
“This is the story of an audacious and wicked crime. It tells us something very surprising and revealing about the dark side of human nature,” Mr Redhead said.