Rillington Place : The Christie stoop?

Why Roth has been told to wander round like Groucho Marx I don't know.Old neighbours described Christie as very smart and upright.Look at the photos of him.

Adds to the deceptive nature of the character. If you watch Tim Roth carefully you'll see he walks upright when no-one is there, and stoops when in public or when others are around.

Not everything has to be based 100% on the facts. Poetic licence.

Probably looking for sympathy

I read the book many years ago and have watched the Attenborough film several times. I have seen many photos of Christie and although I cannot find any mention of his height there are several pictures that show him as relatively smart and slim and very upright. All through the BBC version I thought that Tim Roth at 5'7" was too short and shuffling and bent over and that his whole appearance was based on Richard Attenborough's earlier playing of Christie.
The original film at 111 minutes perfectly gave the story the treatment it deserved. The BBC trilogy runs at nearly 3 hours and missed the evil and horror and 'darkness' that it should have had. Might have been better in b/w .The continuity was confused, which victim in the chair was which halfway through part 3? And Evans new depiction nowhere near as effective as John Hurt's.

I think that makes sense, the stooped look in front of others to help act as a cover for his crimes that required a far higher degree of fitness. Though, I'm wondering how close the original Christie sounded in comparison (realising his voice was affected by a condition he had).

I liked Roth's depiction, even though it seemed an exact replica of Richard Attenborough's performance, very eerie. His head seemed bulbous in a similar way too, different to the real Christie. At points it was almost like watching extra scenes that didn't make onto the film. It was nice to see Samantha Morton, and looking strangely frumpy (I well remember her in Band of Gold!), yet still showing her quirky attractiveness.

I agree about the photos - as it was a rarer occurrence to have a photo taken, people tended to formally set themselves for it (rather than pouting for "selfies").


So this is planet Houston

Yep. And with an authoritative voice. Christie did not come by his fibrositis until the time of Beryl's murder - Ludovic Kennedy and Michael Eddowes point out that carrying Beryl's dead weight from the first floor flat out to the wash-house in the yard would account for that.

Did he have an authoritative voice? Was the whole mustard gas/whispering thing another of his stories? I agree about John Hurt - the 2016 guy was too fresh-faced and "modern" looking. If you look at pictures of Evans he was, as was typical of the era, old before his time looking - appearing nearer to 45 than 25 - Hurt depicted him brilliantly.




No Guru, No Method, No Teacher.

Absolutely..don't think anyone can match Hurt's portrayal especially the petulant and naive behavior that Evans displayed .