The Widower

The career of a real-life Scottish scoundrel who preyed on women is given rather subdued treatment in filmmaker Paul Whittington's three-part 2014 miniseries from Britain's ITV that aired stateside on PBS. Reece Shearsmith brings both oiliness and a degree of easygoing charm to the role of the notorious Malcolm Webster. In the opening episode, Malcolm murders his wife, Claire (Sheridan Smith)—who has expressed suspicions about his use of her money—staging her death to look like an auto accident, and then leaving the country. The second hour skips forward five years to 1999, when Webster weds Felicity Drumm (Kate Fleetwood) in New Zealand, and then attempts to do away with her as well, but is foiled by the intervention of Felicity's parents, which sends him scurrying back to the U.K. In the final episode, Webster feigns leukemia to lure nurse Simone Banerjee (Archie Panjabi) away from her boyfriend and then proposes to her—despite still being married to Drumm. But by then a police detective (John Hannah) is on the case, although he is frustrated by legal obstacles in his efforts to charge Webster. On the positive side, The Widower refuses to sensationalize Webster's story, but the overly laidback treatment sometimes feels a bit dull, although enlivened by occasional bursts of dry humor and Shearsmith's ability to interject some steely menace into Webster's ordinarily genial personality. Ultimately, The Widower may find viewers wondering less about Webster than about the gullibility of some emotionally needy people and the oddities of the British legal system. A strong optional purchase. (F. Swietek)