David Tennant turns out a chilling performance as a real-life serial killer in Stan’s Des 

David Tennant turns out a bone-chilling performance as real-life serial killer Dennis ‘Des’ Nilsen in Stan’s hit new true-crime drama, Des.

A trailer for the series shows the 49-year-old former Doctor Who actor transformed into Nilsen, who went on a five-year killing spree in the UK.

Known as the ‘kindly killer’, Nilsen killed 15 young men from 1978 to 1983, before he was finally caught.

Appearing as Nilsen, David appeared cool and calm as he cooperated with the authorities, confessing to the murders.

‘I have to ask, why did you do this?’ asked one of the detectives, prompting Nilsen to reply: ‘I was hoping you could tell me that.’

A biographer then revealed the calculating Nilsen may have been playing the detectives in an attempt to get a lesser sentence. 

In an interview with Express earlier this month, David explained his decision to take on the terrifying role, after people noted his resemblance to the killer.

David said the hard part was trying to strike the right ‘balance’ between telling the story, but also acknowledging the victims.  

‘We didn’t want to slope into sensationalist because it would be easy to do and wouldn’t serve the victims of this,’ he explained.

‘There’s some footage of him and there’s a lot that has been written about him and people who knew him.

‘You take that all in and then forget about it. I suppose I spent quite a lot of time studying him and listening to his voice.’  

Des is now streaming on Stan.