There is nothing glamorous about serial killers, he says with emphasis.
They are dead inside, there is nothing glamorous about them, no matter how stylish they may be. Are they evil? I see them as dead, cruel and damaged. Looking them in the eye is like staring into a wall.
The reality-based BritBox series "Until I kill you" is about nurse Delia who in the early 1990s reluctantly falls for a man named Sweeney. He moves in with her, but soon starts showing aggressive tendencies. When she wants to break off the relationship, he rapes her – and tells her that he killed his previous girlfriend and dumped the body in a canal in Amsterdam.
Manages to escape
Delia manages to escape and eventually gets the police to listen – when Sweeney shows up again and severely assaults her.
Despite the horrific things that happen to Delia, Nick Stevens had problems with how to portray her – partly because she was not perceived as a particularly sympathetic person in real life.
She is not sympathetic in a traditional sense, but there must be room for victims who do not want to be heroes. They must also have their stories told, he notes.
That's what drove me to this story. She was not just someone who survived, but also someone who got a tough deal in the justice system due to who she was.
"Deliberate decision"
Stevens spent many hours with the real Delia, while Anna Maxwell Martin, who plays the lead role, met her very briefly during filming.
It was a deliberate decision. She wanted the script to give her the character, she did not want to risk being influenced.
Sweeney is in prison with a life sentence without the possibility of parole. Nick Stevens did not meet him, he thought he got enough information from Delia.
So far, Nick Stevens has only written reality-based TV series, but now he is working on writing a fiction series.
The little success I've had in recent years makes me dare to try it.
Lives: In London.
Occupation: Screenwriter, director.
Previous: "A murderer's smile", "Murders by the coast road".
Currently working on: "Until I kill you" (streaming on BritBox).
