TV review: The Nobody Zone offers a chilling tale of Irish serial killer Kieran Kelly
Ned Dennehy as Kieran Kelly in The Nobody Zone, on RTÉ One.
‘Okay Kelly, how many did you kill altogether?’ Given the phenomenal success of the true-crime podcast, it is no surprise that a two-part televised version of The Nobody Zone has been created.
The story itself is both fascinating and shocking in equal measures. It opens with a seemingly impossibly straightforward case - the year is 1983 and William Boyd is found strangled to death in a London cell. Present in the cell is another unassuming vagrant by the name of Kieran Kelly, one of many Irish men who found themselves orbiting what was called ‘The Nobody Zone’ - the forgotten underworld of London’s homeless.
The murder of Boyd by Kelly is the jumping-off point for a stunned London police force who, based on his confessions, connect Kelly to a string of unsolved murders of vulnerable people in London. If his confessions are true, it would make him one of the UK’s most prolific serial killers.
Though the true-crime documentary is well-worn ground there is still enough here to enthrall a potentially jaded audience. The familiarity of the London underground as the scene of most of these crimes adds to the terror as we hear the scale of Kelly’s crimes and the quickness with which his annoyance turned to murder.
Ned Dennehy is nothing short of a wonder in his depiction of Kieran Kelly. The nonchalance with which Kelly recounts his life of killing is chilling, with the use of the original interrogation tapes bolstering and adding veracity to what is truly an unbelievable story.
Though the exposition itself is a little dragged out and the pace feels plodding in paces, it is when the show moves to the wider context of people losing their way in London - particularly Irish men - that The Nobody Zone truly shines.
What is also deftly demonstrated here is Kelly’s ability to command his space and exert power in an interrogation space, despite his lack of social capital. Kelly’s arrogance in dealing with these officers is fascinating to watch: it is very much he who is wielding the power here. It makes for a disturbing yet riveting turning of tables.
The inherent flaw in this documentary is ultimately what is integral to the tragedy itself: given their transient lifestyle, the men Kelly murdered are simply names on a list of crimes the police are trying to solve.
Reducing the victims to a name and a date of death is depressingly diminishing but also points to the broader societal crime, of allowing vulnerable people to fall through the cracks, and the lack of value that society places on those located on the peripheries. All of this makes for a disturbing, fascinating watch for both true crime fans and those less enamoured with the genre.
- The Nobody Zone is available on the RTÉ Player, and episode 2 is broadcast on Monday, November 13, on RTÉ ONE
