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

Many in Britain were shocked when the police were exhuming bodies in the Manchester area with suspicion of foul play by a respected family doctor. This was in the late 1990s and this drama from ITV was shown a few years after the events and hence had to tread a fine and sensitive line.James Bolam plays Dr Frederick Shipman, at first the well respected GP with a small, thriving practice and a respected member of the community.However even when the police investigate him Bolam gives a hint of the sly humour that Shipman apparently had. As well as being a serial killer this was a doctor not ready to buckle under police pressure. James Hazeldine in one of his final roles plays the dogged policeman who is persuaded by the daughter of one of Doctor's victim's that Shipman might have a darker side.We get an idea as to how Shipman got caught, it is a part police procedural as they forensically examine his computer. Shipman made a mistake in forging a will of one of his victim's. We never really get an idea as to why he did it or what his motives were. It seems we might never know.Bolam's performance is key in keeping your interest in this drama and this is a tight film without getting too exploitative.

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.

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