The true story behind Landscapers and where Susan and Christopher Edwards are now

Real life can often be stranger than fiction and no more so than in the new television drama series Landscapers.

The Sky/HBO mini-series premiers on Sky Atlantic this evening starring Oscar winning actress Olivia Colman and Harry Potter film series star David Thewlis.

It charts the crimes of Susan and Christopher Edwards, who killed and then covered it up for years.

Although the four-part series is a black comedy drama written by Ed Sinclair and directed by Will Sharpe it is inspired by real-life events.

Who were Susan and Christopher Edwards?

Susan was a former librarian obsessed with the golden age of Hollywood films of the 1930s through to the 50s who met and married Christopher Edwards.

The couple lived what seemed a relatively unremarkable life in Dagenham, east London up until their arrest for the killing of Susan’s parents William and Patricia Wycherley.

It emerged during their trial the Edwardses had killed the elderly couple during the May bank holiday in 1988 and buried them in the back garden of their home in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire.

Why did they kill William and Patricia Wycherley?

Money appears to have been the motivation behind the murders.

Susan was aggrieved her parents had used an inheritance left to her and never paid it back.

Her and her husband also racked up debts buying movie memorabilia.

Straight after the murder of her parents, Susan transferred her parents’ bank account into her name.

And over the next 15 years, they carried out a full-scale deceit pretending to friends, family and the authorities the Wycherleys were still alive, going as far as sending letters and Christmas cards in their name.

Det Ch Insp Rob Griffin, of the East Midlands major crime unit, told the BBC at the time of the trial: “They planned what they were going to do.

“The Wycherleys didn’t have many close friends, weren’t particularly close to their families.

“The Edwardses were prepared to go to great and extravagant lengths to keep up the pretence they were alive.”

During this time, they claimed pensions and benefits on their behalf and took out loans and credit cards in the dead couple’s name racking up a total of £286,285.

They even sold the couple’s home in Mansfield in 2005, where their bodies had been buried in the back garden.

How did the law eventually catch up with them?

A demand for the Department for Work and Pensions for a face-to-face meeting with William Wycherley in 2012, when in theory he would have turned 100, saw the façade start to crumble.

The couple fled to France but unable to speak French or get a job, they soon struggled.

Christopher Edwards eventually called his stepmother to ask for money and claimed the Wycherleys had died in a shooting while Susan was at the house. His stepmother called the police.

Within 36 hours of digging in the garden of the elderly couple’s home, two skeletons had been found.

What happened to Susan and Christopher Edwards?

A month after the murder investigation was launched, Christopher Edwards emailed the police to say they would be surrendering themselves to UK Border Force Authorities in Lille, France.

Arrested and placed on trial, it emerged during the court hearing at Nottingham Crown Court that Christopher Edwards was a former member of a gun club.

Police believe he shot both his in-laws with a World War Two .38 commando revolver. He was later seen by neighbours digging “up to his waist” in the garden.

The pair were both found guilty of murder at Nottingham Crown Court in 2014 and sentenced to a minimum of 25 years in prison.