"Love" & "Hate" Are Terrifying in 'Until I Kill You'

BritBox’s newest true crime series, Until I Kill You, is a harrowing and terrifying drama. Adapted by Nick Stevens (The Pembrokeshire Murders) from Delia Balmer’s book Living With a Serial Killer and directed by Julia Ford (The Bay), the series chronicles Balmer’s years-long journey encountering a psychopath who almost killed her and her fury at the legal system which allowed him to escape justice in two countries for so long.

Anna Maxwell Martin (Line of Duty) gives a brilliant performance as Balmer, who is not an easy woman to like or understand. Eccentric, opinionated, and arrogant, she swoops through London’s rush hour traffic on her bicycle without a helmet to the annoyance of traffic police. She doesn’t quite fit in anywhere, with an accent peppered with American and Canadian pronunciations and ties to Australia and Scotland. An agency nurse, Delia lives and travels light, ready to take a trip to bask in the sun and heat whenever it suits her. Except for Leah (Amanda Wilkin), her colleagues at Westminster Hospital mostly ignore or laugh at her.

As she tells the handsome young carpenter she meets in a pub, she’s a traveler, not a tourist. He admires her dancing, recognizes her as a free spirit, and shares her love of travel. His name is John Sweeney (Shaun Evans), all sexy and scruffy charm, accepting her invite to her place immediately. He is younger, 34 to Delia’s 40, and seems somewhat bewildered at her lack of furniture in a fabric-draped apartment. She serves tea on the rug, annoyed when he knocks over his mug and asks him to leave. However, the following day, she starts feeling concerned about her rudeness and writes him a letter of apology, which she presents to him at the pub. This time, his pet tarantula doesn’t even put her off, as they fall into bed.