Catch Me A Killer, based on the memoir of groundbreaking profiler Dr Micki Pistorius, travels back to 1994, when criminal psychologists are a new phenomenon within the police force.
More than 20 young boys have been murdered in Mitchell's Plain, South Africa, and Pistorius is brought in to help catch the killer. An intelligent young woman being tasked with identifying a serial killer causes fractions within the Cape Town police and the lead detectives in particular, while also attracting scepticism from the public.
Pistorius, portrayed by English actress Charlotte Hope (The Spanish Princess, Game of Thrones), is a former journalist turned psychology lecturer with expertise in criminology, and she has enough on her plate when her superior nominates her for the role of forensic profiler. She's in the midst of a divorce, she's busy planning her classes, and being at the behest of a team of experienced male detectives does not appeal. The prospect that her expertise could stop the killer weighs on her, though, and soon she is knee-deep in the hunt for a serial killer.
Micki (Charlott Hope) ponders a possible clue in the hunt for the killer. Credit: Multichoice / MNET Local / Motion Pictures / Inge du Toit
There are very few famous female criminal profilers, and even as the world’s first female forensic criminal profiler, Micki Pistorius doesn’t have the sort of celebrity notoriety of former FBI profiler Candice DeLong. Hope didn’t seek influences beyond Micki’s book for her portrayal, but she laughingly admits her boyfriend drew parallels with a formidable TV heroine when he saw the series.
“I was in the lucky position of having a huge amount of written material from Micki [since the series] was based on her book. I tried to completely submerge myself in her head. When my boyfriend watched it the first time, he said it had ‘Buffy [The Vampire Slayer] vibes’. That would be the vaguest comparison, probably because he was trying to be nice to me.”
Portraying a young professional thrown into a world where she has to sink or swim in, English actress Charlotte Hope brings a vulnerability, determination and relatability to Pistorius. It's a challenging role – not least for the very dark terrain of the human psyche it explores – but Hope's previous roles are evidence she doesn't choose easy parts. She was the cruel, unforgiving Myranda in three seasons of Game of Thrones, the conniving Catherine of Aragon in The Spanish Princess, and Sister Victoria in horror film The Nun.
Chris (Ivan Zimmermann) and Micki (Charlott Hope) at Mitchell's Plain dunes. Credit: Multichoice / MNET / Local Motion Pictures
Hope tells SBS, “There’s no getting away from it, the subject matter is harrowing and heartbreaking, but the stories are important and the psychology behind it is fascinating. It’s a ‘why-dunnit’ rather than a ‘who-dunnit’. Micki’s psychological journey throughout the show is dark, but there’s also a responsibility not to shy away from the darkness of this subject matter.”
She adds, “There’s absolutely hope and real moments of levity. It’s not all gloom at all. It’s a story of an incredibly strong, powerful, fiercely intelligent woman fighting for good against evil, in essence. Micki is the first female profiler in the world, so it’s really a story of a very young woman brought into this incredibly male environment and she f***ing kills it! That’s an incredibly empowering story. To me, it’s about hope and the complexity of human nature.”
While Hope says she was entirely supported by the crew during the six months she was in South Africa for filming, she admits the truth of the stories within Catch Me A Killer really hit home on set.
“This was completely confronting; it would be impossible for it not to be. Certainly, with The Spanish Princess there’s violence but there’s historical distance, and with Game of Thrones, it is fantasy so there’s distance from that violence. These stories [in Catch Me A Killer] took place 30 years ago. We were filming about The Station Strangler [rapist and killer Norman Afzal Simons] and a lot of our crew remember it happening because they were young children at the time. That proximity makes it really shocking, it’s such a recent part of our history.”
Hope says that besides the onset therapist, and her own “brilliant” therapist, she credits her friendship and ongoing communication with the real Micki Pistorius for finding a way through challenging material.
“Micki texted me something like ‘you know, if you go too far into the abyss, I'll come and get you’. Having her taking care of me made it a lot easier.”
Charlotte Hope as Micki Pistorious. Credit: IMultichoice / MNET / Local Motion Pictures / Joe Alblas
The distance between Hope’s role as an actor and Micki’s reality also put things in perspective.
“She was in the abyss all of the time, there was no escape from it, you know? It was a huge responsibility that she had because the faster that she worked, the fewer people who would die. That's a massive responsibility.”
Hope made copious audition tapes in the only hours she was not sweltering in her non-airconditioned house in London. She was determined to “fight tooth and nail” for this role.
“I made so many self-tapes,” she confesses. “It was during this horribly hot London summer and the house had no air-conditioning, so we could only film self-tapes at night between 11pm and 3am when it wasn’t a furnace. I’d drag my boyfriend up at night to film more and more scenes to send [producers] and eventually, they succumbed and were stuck with me.”
That determined and driven pursuit, which the real Micki Pistorius had in spades, meant that by the time Hope secured the role, she had done significant preparation to take on the enormity of such a pioneering woman.
“Even though I read the book during the audition process, it got pretty real once I got to South Africa,” Hope says. “We drove up to the dunes and the gravity of the story really got to me. Plus, [convicted rapist and killer] Norman Simons was released only recently, so the stories have very much stayed a part of my consciousness. I’m really hoping that we get to do this again at some point. A second series is up in the air, if people like it.”
The real Micki Pistorius lives in Mauritius, so Hope is angling for a second season to be filmed amid the lagoons, beaches and lush rainforests of the East African country. Catch Me A Killer in one of the most beautiful places on Earth? We’re on board, Charlotte Hope.
Catch Me A Killer is streaming now at SBS On Demand.
Stream free On Demand
Catch Me a Killer
series • Crime drama
MA15+
series • Crime drama
MA15+
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