One of my favourite TV shows of the year – yes, I know it’s only February, but I’m calling it already – The Serpent, is coming to DVD on 22nd February. The eight-episode limited series is still playing out on the BBC (though all episodes are available on iPlayer) but will land on the physical formats on the above date. It is already available on digital download.
The Serpent is inspired by real-events and tells the astonishing true story of how one of the most elusive criminals of the 20th century was caught and brought to trial. It’s also headline by the great Tahar Rahim, so if that’s not a reason to seek it out then I don’t know what is.
Rahim plays Charles Sobhraj and Jenna Coleman plays his girlfriend Marie-Andree Leclerc who together carried out a crime spree along the Asian “Hippy Trail” during the 1970’s.
Directed by Tom Shankland, the series also stars Ellie Bamber, Mathilde Warnier, Grégoire Isvarine, Tim McInnerny, and newcomer Amesh Edireweera.
Charles Sobhraj was the chief suspect in the unsolved murders of up to 20 young Western travellers across India, Thailand and Nepal through 1975 and 1976. Psychopath, con man, thief and master of disguise, having slipped repeatedly from the grasp of authorities worldwide, by 1976 serial killer Sobhraj was Interpol’s most wanted man and had arrest warrants on three different continents.
When Herman Knippenberg, a junior diplomat at the Dutch Embassy in Bangkok, unwittingly walks into Sobhraj’s intricate web of crime, he sets off an extraordinary chain of events that will see these two diametrically opposed men engaged in a chase across the porous borders of the Hippy Trail, as Knippenberg seeks to bring Sobhraj to justice for his terrible crimes.
We’ve found a trailer which you can check out below.
