A TRAGIC story

TONI COLLETTE on how a new series offers a fresh perspective on a true-crime case

- STEVEN PERKINS

MICHAEL PETERSON

COLIN FIRTH

A novelist and aspiring politician whose personal life becomes the subject of intense scrutiny in the wake of his wife Kathleen's suspicious death.

KATHLEEN PETERSON

TONI COLLETTE

The telecoms executive and proud matriarch grasps life with both hands, which makes her untimely death all the more shocking.

THE STAIRCASE

NEW THURSDAY, 9PM, 10.20PM & 11.35PM, SKY ATLANTIC DRAMA

When Kathleen Peterson was found dead at the foot of a staircase in her North Carolina home on 9 December 2001, her husband, novelist Michael Peterson, said she must have tripped and fallen. But a post-mortem revealed the injuries to Kathleen’s head were consistent with an attack using a blunt object, leading to Michael being found guilty of murder in 2003 and sentenced to life in prison.

After serving eight years, he was granted a new trial after a judge ruled that a prosecution witness had given misleading evidence. In 2017, Michael pleaded guilty to manslaughter, but as he had already served more time than this sentence, he was freed.

The extraordinary case received worldwide true-crime documentary Staircase and has now inspired a new eight-part Sky Atlantic drama, also called Staircase, which stars Toni Collette as Kathleen and Colin Firth as Michael.