Dark Angel

Written by Gwyneth Hughes (The Girl), Dark Angel is the story of Mary Ann Cotton (Joanne Froggatt), a troubled woman drawn ever deeper into a career of casual murder, while her loved ones and friends, who were also her victims, never suspected a thing. Episode 1 sees Mary Ann return home to Seaham in County Durham after four years away. She lost four babies in as many years while she was away and has come back home to make a clean start. Struggling under the weight of loneliness and hardship, Mary Ann suffers the loss of additional children and finds herself taking drastic steps with arsenic when faced with dire poverty and no prospects.

Inspired by the book Mary Ann Cotton: Britain’s First Female Serial Killer by noted criminologist David Wilson, Joanne Froggatt (Downton Abbey) stars as the notorious Victorian poisoner Mary Ann Cotton, a child of the northeast England coal fields who dreamed of escaping the hard life of a miner’s family. In episode 2, Mary Ann tries to make a fresh start as a housekeeper in the middle-class Robinson household. Grief-stricken widower James Robinson is father to five children, whom his sister Helen has been caring for. But the callous Mary Ann is called away to tend to her sick mother by her friend Maggie and again, Mary Ann resorts to arsenic-laced tea to cover her tracks in an attempt to move on to what she hopes will be a better life for herself and her children.

Written by Gwyneth Hughes, and inspired by the book Mary Ann Cotton: Britain’s First Female Serial Killer by noted criminologist David Wilson, Dark Angel is the story of the notorious Victorian poisoner Mary Ann Cotton, a troubled woman drawn ever deeper into a career of casual murder, while her loved ones and friends, who were also her victims, never suspected a thing. Joanne Froggatt leads as exceptional cast as Mary Ann Cotton, including Alun Armstrong, Thomas Howes, Jonas Armstrong, Sam Hoare, and Laura Morgan. Episode 3 shows Mary Ann Cotton moving on to West Auckland for a new start, but married to two living men at the same time. Pursuing a third marriage that would yield a new opportunity at respectability and a better life, she tries to shed her old life without arsenic but finds again that it is her only remedy. An observant shopkeeper puts the pieces together and calls the police upon the death of Mary Ann’s stepson, Charlie Cotton. Will the police be able to prove his suspicions?