''Landscapers'' is a

true crime True crime is a nonfiction literary, podcast, and film genre in which the author examines an actual crime and details the actions of real people associated with and affected by criminal events. The crimes most commonly include murder; about 40 pe ...

dark comedy Black comedy, also known as dark comedy, morbid humor, or gallows humor, is a style of comedy that makes light of subject matter that is generally considered taboo, particularly subjects that are normally considered serious or painful to discus ...

drama Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has b ...

drama miniseries created and written by Ed Sinclair, and directed by

Will Sharpe William Tomomori Fukuda Sharpe (born 22 September 1986) is an English actor, writer, and director. He is known for writing, directing, and starring in the 2016 dark comedy-drama ''Flowers''. He starred in the drama series ''Giri/Haji'' and the s ...

. The series is based on the true story of the 1998 murders of William and Patricia Wycherley and stars Olivia Colman and

David Thewlis David Wheeler (born 20 March 1963), better known as David Thewlis (), is a British actor, author, director and screenwriter. Thewlis rose to prominence when he starred in the film ''Naked'' (1993), for which he won the Cannes Film Festival Awa ...

as Susan and Christopher Edwards, the couple behind the murders, as their decade-old crimes are uncovered in 2012.

Premise

Inspired by real events, ''Landscapers'' tells the story of mild-mannered Susan and her husband, and how they came to kill Susan's parents and bury them in the back garden of their Mansfield home, in a crime that remained undiscovered for over a decade.

Cast

; Main * Olivia Colman as Susan Edwards *

as Christopher Edwards *

Kate O'Flynn Kate O'Flynn is a British actress. She is known for her performance in National Theatre's production of ''Port'' for which she received a Critics' Circle Theatre Award in 2013, as well as starring roles in plays ''A Taste of Honey'' in 2014, a ...

as DC Emma Lancing * Dipo Ola as Douglas Hylton *

Daniel Rigby Daniel Rigby (born 6 December 1982) is an English actor and comedian. He received a BAFTA TV Award for his leading role as Eric Morecambe in the 2011 television film ''Eric and Ernie''. Early life Rigby was born in Stockport, Greater Mancheste ...

as DCI Tony Collier * Samuel Anderson as DC Paul Wilkie *

Felicity Montagu Felicity Jane Montagu (born 12 September 1960) is an English actress. She is best known for playing Lynn Benfield, the long-suffering assistant of Alan Partridge. Early life Montagu was born in Leeds, West Riding of Yorkshire, to Lieutenant-Co ...

as Patricia Wycherley *

David Hayman David Hayman (born 9 February 1948) is a Scottish film, television and stage actor and director, known for his role as DCS Mike Walker in ITV drama ''Trial & Retribution'', as Jonas Franks in BBC period drama '' The Paradise'' and as Brace i ...

as William Wycherley

Episodes

Production

In December 2019, HBO and Sky announced they had given a series order to ''Landscapers'', a true-crime miniseries written by Ed Sinclair and originally intended to be directed and executive produced by Alexander Payne, with Olivia Colman attached to star; Sinclair had created and wrote the series with Colman in mind for the part of Susan Edwards. In October 2020, Alexander Payne exited the project due to scheduling conflicts and was replaced by

. David Thewlis was cast as Christopher Edwards in March 2021.

Principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as a ...

for the series began in March 2021 in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire. The series features a flashback scene; although both Colman and Thewlis are intended to be much younger in the scene, no visual effects or specific makeup were used, with Thewlis commenting "We just put wigs on." Both Colman and Thewlis stated that they did not doubt the culpability of the Edwards in the murder, but that series was intended to create empathy and an understanding for the couple, with Thewlis stating "what we’re asking the audience to decide is not whether they're guilty, because they clearly are, but whether they deserve sympathy" and Colman stating "you do find yourself going, 'God, I wonder, had I had that set of circumstances, what would I do? They’re gentle, meek people. What on earth made them do it?"

Reception

The series received positive reviews upon its release, particularly for the two leads performances. On

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, it has an overall approval rating of 98% with an average score of 8.10/10 based on 46 reviews. The site's critical consensus reads: "''Landscapers'' layers enigmatic style onto an already unbelievable true story with varying results, but Olivia Colman and David Thewlis ground the absurdity with outstanding performances". On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, which uses a weighted average, the series has a score of 79 based on 22 reviews indicating 'Generally favourable reviews'. In the United Kingdom, the series averaged 1.52 million viewers, aired on SkyAtlantic.

References

External links

* {{Sky Atlantic 2021 American television series debuts 2021 American television series endings 2020s American drama television series 2021 British television series debuts 2021 British television series endings 2020s British drama television series 2020s American drama television miniseries 2020s British television miniseries HBO original programming Sky Atlantic original programming English-language television shows Mansfield