---
title: "The Sixth Commandment"
year: 2023
kind: "series"
canonical: "https://film.one/tv/the-sixth-commandment"
fi1m_id: "the-sixth-commandment"
imdb_id: "tt20916306"
tmdb_id: 229876
wikidata_id: "Q117019221"
fi1m_score: 80
critics_reviews: 3
published: "2026-10-07T20:01:37.112989+00:00"
updated: "2026-10-07T20:01:49.746993+00:00"
region: "FI"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# The Sixth Commandment (2023)

Created by Sarah Phelps · 57m · Crime, Drama

## Identity

The Sixth Commandment

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/tv/the-sixth-commandment
- **Type:** Series
- **Fi1m ID:** the-sixth-commandment
- **IMDb ID:** tt20916306
- **TMDB ID:** 229876
- **Wikidata ID:** Q117019221
- **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt20916306/, https://www.themoviedb.org/tv/229876, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q117019221

**Fi1m score: 80** · Critics: 3 of 6 reviews so far

*In a sentence:* Four hours in which the most frightening thing on screen is a young man being helpful

> Sarah Phelps and Saul Dibb have made a true-crime drama that keeps its eyes on the people who were killed rather than on the man who killed them. Timothy Spall and Anne Reid are superb; the back half, once the police arrive, is ordinary by comparison.

## Synopsis

Peter Farquhar (Timothy Spall) lives alone in an English village with his books, his church and a diary he writes in every night. When a young churchgoing student, Ben Field (Éanna Hardwicke), moves in as his lodger, Peter finds himself loved for the first time in his life, and says so to the diary. Next door, Ann Moore-Martin (Anne Reid) also lives alone; her niece Ann-Marie Blake (Annabel Scholey) keeps an eye on her. Ben’s friend Martyn Smith (Conor MacNeill) comes and goes. Peter’s brother Ian (Adrian Rawlins) and sister-in-law Sue (Amanda Root) begin to notice that Peter is sleeping badly, falling over and talking strangely. Sarah Phelps’s four-part series is drawn from a real case, and it starts long before anyone thinks to call the police.

## Review

Most true-crime drama is about the killer. He gets the close-ups, the actor with the awards reel, the scenes in which he explains himself to a detective. Sarah Phelps, who wrote all four episodes of *The Sixth Commandment*, has gone the other way. The first two hours belong to Peter Farquhar and Ann Moore-Martin, two elderly people in an English village who took a lodger into their homes, and the man who did it to them is kept at the edge of the frame for as long as the story allows. It is a serious, careful, upsetting piece of television, and we would recommend it with one reservation, which is that it is only half as good once the victims are gone.

Timothy Spall plays Peter as a man who has spent sixty years being polite about his own unhappiness. He reads aloud to himself, he writes to God in his diary, he straightens the cushions after a visitor leaves. When Ben Field (Éanna Hardwicke) moves in and begins to pay him attention, Spall lets a kind of giddiness into the face that is almost unbearable to watch, because we know what the character does not. The scene that horrified us is one in which nothing happens: Ben pours Peter a drink at the kitchen table and sits and watches him drink it. Saul Dibb holds the shot. Hardwicke does not move. We wanted to shout at the screen, which is not something we say often.

Hardwicke’s Ben is the quietest monster we have seen in some while. He is pleasant, tidy, good with old people, handy at church. Amanda Perryman dresses him in soft jumpers and open collars, the uniform of a young man who helps with the chairs after a service, and he never raises his voice. Phelps declines to explain him, and Hardwicke declines to hint, so that for four hours we are looking at a blank and the blank is looking back. That is honest. It is also, by the third episode, a problem, because a story that will not get inside its villain has to find something else to hold the last two hours together, and the police procedure it finds is not it.

Anne Reid’s Ann is the series’ other great performance, and a different kind. Where Peter is anxious, Ann is delighted: a woman in her eighties who has been noticed by a handsome young man and sees no reason not to enjoy it. Reid plays the pleasure without a trace of foolishness, which is what makes it so hard to watch. Sheila Hancock, as her friend Elizabeth Zettl, and Annabel Scholey, as the niece who smells something wrong and cannot get anyone to listen, give her two scenes of ordinary village friendship that do more than any speech could. Gemma Randall’s production design fills both houses with the right clutter, Peter’s with books in piles and Ann’s with photographs and china, and Rik Zang shoots them in flat grey daylight, close on the faces, so that we are kept inside the two houses with them and never allowed out.

Then the police arrive, and the series becomes the one we have seen before. Jonathan Aris is decent and unshowy as DCI Mark Glover, and Peter Sullivan is good in court as David Jeremy, but episodes three and four are interviews, files, a trial, and the familiar rhythm of a case being built. Steven Worsley and Sarah Peczek cut the first two episodes with patience that pays off; in the fourth the same patience feels like length, and 57 minutes is a long time to spend in a courtroom whose outcome the story has already made plain. Rael Jones’s score, thin strings and not much else, has the sense to stay out of the way throughout, and we were grateful for it.

Watch the first two episodes together, in the evening, with someone to talk to afterwards. Then decide whether you have the stomach for the rest. We did, and we were glad we had, but it was the kitchen table we were still thinking about a week later, not the verdict.

*Fi1m score 80, published 7 October 2026.*

## Straight answers

**Is The Sixth Commandment worth watching?**

*The Sixth Commandment* is worth watching for anyone who can sit with a slow, upsetting true-crime drama, and we scored it 80. Timothy Spall and Anne Reid are superb as the two elderly victims, and the first two episodes are the best of it. Once the police arrive, the back half becomes an ordinary procedural, and the fourth hour feels long.

**How long is The Sixth Commandment, and what is it rated?**

*The Sixth Commandment* has episodes of about 57m. It is a crime and drama series.

**Where can I watch The Sixth Commandment in Finland?**

*The Sixth Commandment* is streaming on Amazon Prime Video in Finland. Availability is checked daily; the links above go straight to each service.

**How violent or frightening is The Sixth Commandment, and is it suitable for children?**

*The Sixth Commandment* has no certificate in the UK or US, and it is not for children: it is a true-crime drama about an elderly man and woman harmed by a young lodger they trusted. The dread comes from quiet scenes rather than shown violence, such as a drink poured at a kitchen table, and it is hard to watch for that reason. Adults and older teenagers only.

**How does The Sixth Commandment compare to Appropriate Adult?**

*The Sixth Commandment* keeps its eyes on the victims, while [*Appropriate Adult*](https://film.one/tv/appropriate-adult) watches Fred West through the woman who sat beside him in the interview room. The earlier film is the more consistent of the two, held together by Dominic West and Emily Watson across its two parts. The series has the finer first half, with Spall and Reid, but loses its grip once it turns to police and court.

**What should I watch after The Sixth Commandment?**

After *The Sixth Commandment*, try [*Appropriate Adult*](https://film.one/tv/appropriate-adult) (2011, Fi1m 84): Dominic West’s Fred West, seen through the eyes of a woman who had to sit beside him. Then [*The Talented Mr. Ripley*](https://film.one/film/the-talented-mr-ripley) (1999, Fi1m 80): The charming young man who makes himself indispensable, in sunshine rather than drizzle; and [*Shadow of a Doubt*](https://film.one/film/shadow-of-a-doubt) (1943, Fi1m 88): Hitchcock’s favourite uncle arrives in a trusting household and only one person notices.

### Reviews we read (3)

- **The Guardian**, Lucy Mangan (90/100, inferred): Lucy Mangan calls the series immaculate, harrowing television that is impossible to look away from. She particularly praises Timothy Spall’s compelling portrait of Peter Farquhar and the care taken to honour the victims. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2023/jul/17/the-sixth-commandment-review-as-immaculate-a-piece-of-tv-as-you-will-ever-see)
- **The i Paper**, Gerard Gilbert (75/100, inferred): Gilbert finds the series chilling but respectful, and a strong addition to the true-crime genre. He particularly praises its lack of dark glamour and its respectful treatment of the victims. [Read](https://inews.co.uk/culture/television/the-sixth-commandment-bbc-one-review-true-crime-dramas-murder-victims-2482847?ico=most_popular)
- **Evening Standard**, Kate Rice (3/5): Rice finds the series worthwhile despite its flaws and difficult subject matter. She praises the performances, especially the way Timothy Spall and Anne Reid make the victims feel human, while noting that the pacing drags. [Read](https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/tvfilm/the-sixth-commandment-review-timothy-spall-anne-reid-b1094144.html)

## Details

- **Created by:** Sarah Phelps
- **Creator:** Sarah Phelps
- **Director:** Saul Dibb
- **Writer:** Sarah Phelps
- **Cinematography:** Rik Zang
- **Editor:** Steven Worsley, Sarah Peczek
- **Music:** Rael Jones
- **Production design:** Gemma Randall
- **Costume design:** Amanda Perryman
- **Producer:** Frances du Pille
- **Cast:** Timothy Spall as Peter Farquhar; Anne Reid as Ann Moore-Martin; Éanna Hardwicke as Ben Field; Annabel Scholey as Ann-Marie Blake; Anna Crilly as Natalie Golding; Jonathan Aris as DCI Mark Glover; Peter Sullivan as David Jeremy; Doc Brown as Simon Blake
- **Runtime:** 57m
- **Release (Finland):** 17 July 2023
- **Genres:** Crime, Drama
- **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_aaSvOVMtkY

## Where to watch in Finland

- Amazon Prime Video: add-on

*Checked 2026-10-07.*

Also available in: AU, CA, FI, GB, NZ, SE, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country.

## If you liked this

- *Appropriate Adult* (2011), Fi1m 84: Dominic West’s Fred West, seen through the eyes of a woman who had to sit beside him — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/tv/appropriate-adult.md)
- *Four Lives* (2022): Another British true-crime drama that gives its time to the families rather than the killer
- *The Talented Mr. Ripley* (1999), Fi1m 80: The charming young man who makes himself indispensable, in sunshine rather than drizzle — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-talented-mr-ripley.md)
- *Shadow of a Doubt* (1943), Fi1m 88: Hitchcock’s favourite uncle arrives in a trusting household and only one person notices — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/shadow-of-a-doubt.md)
- *The Imposter* (2012): A documentary about a family who let a stranger in because they wanted to believe him

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/tv/the-sixth-commandment