ctyankee1 I liked James Bolam in the series "New Tricks" where he played a cold case detective. In this movie he was a really evil doctor who had a way with words that fooled his patients. They trusted him and talked good about him.Police investigated a suspicious death of one of his patients. Dr Shipman had a friend in the funeral business. He would sign a death certificate give it to the funeral home director and would get money from the director. When a patient dies everyone trusted the doctor and no one is investigated until a lady dies whose daughter was a lawyer and saw forged documents supposedly signed by her mother giving the doctor her estate. Most of the people that died under his care were cremated soon after.After watching this I saw how liars lie and sound truthful. I saw how hard it is for police to get answers and this made it hard for prosecutors to get a criminal found guilty. I have more respect for the police after this. As I watched the police interrogate Dr Shipman they asked several questions that were crucial and Shipman had all the answers. The police did not threaten or raise their voice. After watching Shipman playing dumb I would not make a good cop. The police were very respectful.DI Egerton played by James Hazeldine is so excellent in pursuing this case to get at the truth. He goes to speak to a pastor of the church. He believes Shipman killed a lot of people but does not know why. He talks it out with the pastor. DI Egerton is very professional he respects those police on the case questioning Dr Shipman. There were documents predated on Shipman's computer but the hard drive told the investigator the documents were created on the day his patients died not before like he predated their symptoms.I think this is a great movie for those involved in law enforcement, investigating and gathering witnesses and knowing how to get info from their computers.Excellent movie

shatguintruo I was gratefully surprised when I watched this movie, and after I was informed that was a TV Movie! Well, it doesn't seem like that: the timing is so perfect that we don't notice the intersection for commercials breaks. James Bolam is extremely convictive in the role of the physician that pretends to be GOD, choosing the day and the hour that a person should die. In a scale of 10, I give 6.

Theo Robertson Dr Harold Shipman caused a massive stir when he was convicted and jailed for murdering 15 of his patients . " How could this have happened ? " was the public outcry , but after watching this docudrama I doubt if anyone will be any the wiser . There`s nothing fundamentally wrong about SHIPMAN except for the fact that it portrays Dr Harold Shipman as being extremely arrogant and conceited . Fine you may say , he was a mass murderer and he was , but what SHIPMAN doesn`t show is the way the general public and people in authority view doctors . Having read interviews with patients of Shipman many of them spoke about what a wonderful doctor he was and a really nice human being , many people refused to believe that a doctor in general and Shipman in particular would harm one never mind over a dozen sick patients but none of this is shown , only people who are suspicious about him at the outset and watching James Bolam`s performance you`d be hard pressed to believe anyone could be taken in by him . SHIPMAN was made with hindsight and I`ve got a really uneasy feeling it was made solely to cash in on the inquiry that concluded Friday 19th July 2002At the inquiry it was revealed Shipman had murdered for certain 215 ( Two hundred and fifteen ) patients between May 1975 and June 1998 with another possible 45( Forty five ) murdered making him by far Britain`s most prolific serial killer. Shipman has never revealed why he did it and probably never will making any future film article or book deals pointless . Who cares why. He murdered scores of people and that`s the only fact that matters

davideo-2 STAR RATING:*****Unmissable****Very Good***Okay**You Could Go Out For A Meal Instead*Avoid At All CostsThis interesting and welcome TV drama/thriller charts the rise-and-fall of the titular Tameside GP,who is now regarded as quite possibly Britain's most excessive (and certainly most infamous) serial killer.Though only convicted of in-total murdering 15 (as if that weren't enough) of his elderly/middle-aged women patients,he is now suspected of murdering a great,great deal more,but due to the extreme amount of publicity the case has received,it is thought impossible to give him a fair trial.The initial,most searing shock seems to come from those who knew and were patients of the 'good doctor',seemingly unable to believe or come to terms with how a man they put all their trust in could betray them in such an evil way.James Bolam does a really good job of portraying Shipman.Before the murders ,he is seen as a kindly,well-to-do doctor,for whom doing regular home visits is seen as no skin off his nose whatsoever.But after the killings and as the investigation into them drags on,he develops a really more sinister side,callously informing relatives of deaths of their loved ones and being really difficult as he helps the police with their enquiries.James Hazeldine also does a really good turn as DI Stan Egerton,who's in charge of the investigation into Shipman.The problem ,however,comes with the story.Hardly any insight is offered into possible reasons Shipman might have committed his evil crimes.For example,it's often been suggested seeing his mother die of cancer at the age of 17 might have played a huge part,but this is only mentioned in passing,rather than being delved into in any great detail ,say,maybe at the beginning.Still,assumption's all it could be.This is a real-life story,and Shipman himself has never offered any explanations into his behaviour.This is not a standard TV murder mystery story,but a depiction of a real life event,and it should should be treated with more respect accordingly.***