THE SERPENT. (2021) A BBC/NETFLIX DRAMA REVIEWED BY SANDRA HARRIS. ©
THE SERPENT. (2021) A BBC CRIME DRAMA WRITTEN BY RICHARD WARLOW AND TOBY FINLAY. DIRECTED BY TOM SHANKLAND AND HANS HERBOTS.
STARRING
TAHAR RAHIM, JENNA COLEMAN, BILLY HOWLE, ELLIE BAMBER, TIM MCINNERNY, MATHILDE
WARNIER AND AMESH EDIREWEERA.
REVIEW BY
SANDRA HARRIS. ©
Oh boy. I had to keep reminding myself while watching this
fantastic crime drama on Netflix recently that it was actually based on real
life crimes and real life murders, and that real people had actually suffered
terribly in real life in the timeline concerned.
And why? Why did I have to keep reminding myself of these
unpleasant facts? Because Tahar Rahim, the actor who portrays Charles Sobhraj
in this superb dramatization of the life and crimes of a real life serial
killer, is so hot that I literally forgave him all the crimes instantly, no
questions asked.
And then I had to sternly tell myself that writing to
Sobhraj in prison, where he apparently still rots, would not result in a
meeting with Tahar Rahim, the hot actor, but would only make me look a total
pillock. Thus are the lines blurred between television and reality…
Charles Sobhraj is a French serial killer of Indian and
Vietnamese descent. He had a real bee in his bonnet about his mixed race, and
was convinced that people looked down on him for it. He felt inferior to
others, and this made him angry, angry and determined to be the best Charles
Sobhraj that he could be… but not at art or music or philanthropy or even
honest banking, or anything at all that might have benefited society.
No, Charles Sobhraj was a petty thief, the Prince of petty thieves,
even. He dealt in stolen gemstones, stolen passports and travellers’ cheques,
stolen identities and stolen lives. He frequently murdered his victims after
robbing them, disposed of their bodies and even occasionally adopted their identities, with the help of his two
accomplices: his devoted girlfriend, the French-Canadian Marie-Andree Leclerc,
and his Asian strong-arm man, Ajay Chowdhury.
Charles, calling himself ‘Alain’ and his girlfriend,
‘Monique,’ give every impression of being a lovely charming French couple with
a cute little dog. They, along with their super-cool Asian hippie friend, Ajay,
will seemingly put themselves out again and again to help any tourists who need
it. Want to go to a cool party? Ajay will take you to one. Need a place to
stay? Alain and Monique positively insist that you stay at theirs.
Suddenly got a horrible unexplained stomach ache and need to
lie down? Don’t worry. Alain has some special ‘medicine’ he keeps for
travellers who find themselves overwhelmed by the Asian cuisine, the climate or
whatever else.
What, his lovingly prepared- often by Monique- medicine just
makes you feel sicker? Oh dear. Well, everyone’s different, you know, and
everyone reacts differently to things. Just lie there quietly now while we try
to figure this out…
Many of the victims ended up in the sea, giving Sobhraj the
name, ‘the Bikini Killer.’ He stripped them and put them in the water, and,
even if they were found quite quickly, so what? It was just another drunken,
stoned hippy chick who thought a swim in the sparkling blue ocean while high as
a kite might be nice…
Charles seems to exert the same kind of controlling ‘spell’
over both Monique and Ajay. They both adore him and want to please him and make
him happy. They vie for his attentions. Ajay calls himself and Charles ‘brothers.’
Monique wants his baby inside her. They take his occasional abuse lying down
because, after all, it’s Charles, and Charles is the king, a notion the
cold-hearted, reptilian Sobhraj obviously encourages.
Monique, however, seems to grow more and more disillusioned
with Charles’s endless promises of the good life, which never seem to come to fruition.
It’s all subterfuge and being on the run and kipping in dumps and squats,
especially once the word gets out that the handsome, charming, cosmopolitan and
ever-so-helpful Alain Gautier might be a killer. We see Monique’s eventual
ending in the film, and it’s not a pretty one…
The other story portrayed in THE SERPENT is of course that of Herman Knippenberg, the determined official in the Dutch Embassy in Thailand who risked his position, and his marriage to Angela, to track down Charles Sobhraj so that he could be brought to some kind of justice.
The eight episodes move quickly. At first, I was bemused by
the timeline changes, but I pretty soon forgot all about them as the story
gripped me. It’s a deeply disturbing story, which after all happened to real
people and wasn’t dreamed up by a script-writer, and there were actual young
people who set out on the hippie trail with big dreams and big ideas of seeing
the world and seeking enlightenment who never went home to their parents,
families or children.
Charles Sobhraj would be termed in modern parlance a total scumbag. The way he took the engagement ring off Suda’s finger as he walked out of her life forever, though without troubling to tell Suda…! An utter rotter. He thought he was a big deal, but he was just a small-time petty thug, escape artist and thief, and he’s where he belongs now, ie, prison. Enjoy the ride…
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY OF SANDRA HARRIS.
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B015GDE5RO
Her debut romantic fiction novel, 'THIRTEEN
STOPS,' is out now from Poolbeg Books:
https://www.amazon.com/Thirteen-Stops-Sandra-Harris-ebook/dp/B089DJMH64
The sequel, ‘THIRTEEN STOPS LATER,’ is
out now from Poolbeg Books:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1781994234
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