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TV Times

May 13, 2023

STEFFAN RHODRI and PHILIP GLENISTER on their true-crime drama showing how scientific breakthroughs solved a three-decade-old case

STEELTOWN MURDERS
MONDAY, 9PM, BBC1 DRAMA (BOX SET, BBC iPLAYER)

A harrowing true story that made murder- investigation history is explored in BBC1’s brand-new factual drama Steeltown Murders.

Written by Ed Whitmore (Manhunt), the four-part series follows the hunt to catch the killer of three teenage girls in the Port Talbot area of Wales in 1973, and shows how advances in forensic technology helped solve the crime almost 30 years later.

Set in both the early 1970s and the early 2000s, the drama starts with the original investigation into the murders of 16-year-old factory workers and best friends Geraldine Hughes and Pauline Floyd, who were killed after they left a nightclub in Swansea to hitch a lift home together.

Hundreds of officers worked on the case, and soon a connection was made to a murder two months earlier, when 16-year-old Sandra Newton was found dead after trying to hitchhike home following a night out with friends in Briton Ferry.

Philip Glenister (Life on Mars) and Swansea-born actor Steffan Rhodri (Gavin & Stacey) lead the cast as DCI Paul Bethell and his colleague Phil ‘Bach’ Rees, officers who worked on the first investigation and later reopened the case in the noughties. Younger versions of the characters are played, respectively, by Welsh stars Scott Arthur (Good Omens) and Siôn Alun Davies (Hidden).

Here, Philip, 60, and Steffan, 56, give us their take on the drama…

How much did you know about this case before you started filming?