IN PLAIN SIGHT, STV, 9pm
MARTIN Compston plays the Scottish serial killer, Peter Manuel, in this three-part series.
Manuel killed some of his victims near my hometown and, as children, we were made to shudder on passing “the Manuel house” in Burnside.
The drama opens on Manuel’s release from prison. He’d been sent down for nine years for assaults on women and it was the indefatigable detective, William Muncie (played by Douglas Henshall) who caught him.
It’s 1955 and Manuel is back on the streets and swears revenge on Muncie: “One way or another Mr Muncie is going to pay.”
Compston plays Manuel as cocky and arrogant, with his hair slicked back in the 50s-style, swaggering around his Uddingston housing estate with one eye on Muncie and the other on the pretty girls at the local dance.
When he attacks one woman, threatening to cut her head off, and then humiliates her in court, Muncie realises Manuel “very badly wants to make up for all that lost time” and he must stop him before his assaults descend into murder.
THE COUNCIL, BBC1, 9pm
EVERYONE likes to moan about their local council, especially in the era of budget cuts, but this new series might provoke some sympathy for council workers.
It goes behind the scenes at Fife Council and follows some of their staff as they go out into the community, trying to do their job in the face of piles of cat droppings.
The council receives 4000 complaints a year and most are about housing. Cameras accompany one of the housing workers as she attends properties which have been abandoned by tenants.
“Ah jeezo!” is the cry when they break the door down and are nearly knocked flat by the smell of animal mess and rotting food. Vomiting is heard off-camera. The house has been wrecked and it’ll cost thousands to repair.
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