Shaun Evans felt ‘repelled’ by murderous role

Shaun Evans felt “repelled” by the role of serial killer John Sweeney in ‘Until I Kill You’.

The 44-year-old actor plays the real life murderer in the new four-part ITV crime drama – based on Delia Balmer’s book ‘Living with a Serial Killer’ – and he’s revealed he felt compelled to sign up for the show despite his initial misgivings.

He told The Mirror newspaper: “Obviously you’re the antagonist and I was kind of repelled when I read it. But then I thought that’s interesting territory – but I had trepidation. It’s a delicate balance because these are real people.”

Evans plays Sweeney opposite Anna Maxwell Martin as Delia, who narrowly escaped being killed by the notorious murderer back in 1994. Sweeney is serving life in prison for killing two ex-girlfriends – Melissa Halstead and Paula Fields – and throwing their bodies into canals.

Evans previously revealed he “respectfully” opted not to meet Delia because he wanted to keep a “degree of separation” between the series and the real life events.

He told BANG Showbiz and assembled media at a screening of the programme: “I purposely didn’t meet anyone to do with it. I bought the book but I didn’t read it because I thought you have to create it in your imagination and keep a degree of separation in order for me to do the job as I would want to do it. I purposely and respectfully didn’t meet her.”

However, he revealed he was thrilled to get a chance to work with Maxwell Martin on the show

He added: “You want to be professionally challenged and pushed. I have been a big fan of Anna’s for a long time so I thought all the ingredients were there but I had trepidation, I’m not gonna lie.”

‘Until I Kill You’ debuts on ITV and ITVX in November. It will be followed by the documentary ‘Until I Kill You: The Real Story’.