# Code of a Killer (2015)

> A two-part British dramatization of how Alec Jeffreys' DNA fingerprinting breakthrough helped a detective catch a double murderer.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/55367

## Facts

- Seasons: 1
- Episodes: 2
- Episode runtime: 90 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: drama, crime, history
- Network: ITV1
- Cast: David Threlfall, John Simm, Anna Madeley, Lucy Carless, Andrew Tiernan, Lorcan Cranitch, Dorothy Atkinson, Neil Edmond
- TMDB rating: 7.6/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3847626/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: measured
- Intensity: moderate
- Complexity: accessible
- Violence: mild
- Tone: earnest, tense, restrained, grounded, methodical

## What critics say

Audiences rate this docudrama positively for its dramatization of the discovery of DNA fingerprinting and the tense police investigation behind it.

## Synopsis

Code of a Killer (2015) is a British dramatized true-events miniseries created for ITV1 and presented as a two-part, 90-minute limited series. John Simm plays geneticist Alec Jeffreys, whose discovery of DNA fingerprinting becomes the engine of the story, while David Threlfall plays Detective Chief Superintendent David Baker, who sees in that untested method a way to catch a double murderer. Anna Madeley plays Sue Jeffreys, grounding the scientist's home life amid the pressure of his work. The drama moves through laboratory experiments, doubts about the reliability of the new technique, and the slow, methodical pursuit of a suspect through the mid-1980s British justice system. Its atmosphere is restrained and grounded, with a tense, earnest tone that foregrounds the stakes of getting evidence right. Fans of Making a Murderer, Mindhunter and Chernobyl will find resonance in its blend of real events, procedural rigor and period detail. The story is set in 1980s England, rooted in the era's policing and scientific culture, and it plays as a docudrama about how one discovery reshaped criminal investigation.

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