Also in the three episode drama were Line Of Duty actor Daniel Mays as Detective Chief Inspector Peter Jay and Jason Watkins as Brian Masters who wrote a biography on Nilsen.

Nilsen was a former soldier and policeman who murdered at least a dozen boys and young men in his North London homes between 1978 and 1983. He was only caught when DCI Peter Jay was called to his home in Muswell Hill to investigate human remains clogging the drains. The killer had strangled his victims before chopping them up and flushing their body parts down the toilet.

The drama also looked at why his killing spree went uncovered for so long which was in part because his victims were homeless or prostitutes. Nilsen was convicted of six counts of murder and two of attempted murder in 1983 and given a life sentence. He died in 2018 aged 72.

Des started filming on Monday 25th November 2019 and aired on the three consecutive nights Monday 14th to Wednesday 16th September 2020. Broadcast deals for Des in other markets include Sundance Now for the Americas, Stan and TV New Zealand for Australasia and CMore for Scandinavia.

David Tennant also narrated a documentary titled The Real 'Des': The Dennis Nilsen Story. The one hour documentary was shown on ITV on Thursday 17th September at 9pm.