‘The Serpent’ recap: What happened in Episode 1?

New crime drama The Serpent began in the UK tonight.

Set in the 1970s and based on a phenomenal true story, the BBC and Netflix’s eight-part mini-series tells how one of the most elusive criminals of the 20th century was caught and brought to trial.

From the creator of Ripper Street and the makers of Endeavour, The Serpent stars French actor Tahar Rahim (A Prophet) as Charles Sobrhaj, alongside Jenna Coleman (Victoria) as Marie-Andrée Leclerc, Sobhraj’s partner and frequent accomplice.

Watch the trailer:

 

Here’s a plot recap for the first episode of The Serpent, which aired on BBC One at 9pm on Friday 1st January 2021:

Posing as a gem dealer, Sobhraj and his girlfriend Marie-Andrée Leclerc travelled across Thailand, Nepal and India in 1975 and 1976, carrying out a spree of crimes on the Asian ‘Hippie Trail’ and becoming the chief suspects in a series of murders of young Western travellers.

As Sobhraj repeatedly slips from the grasp of authorities around the world, Herman Knippenberg (Billy Howle), a junior diplomat at the Dutch Embassy in Bangkok, unwittingly walks into his intricate web of crime.

Knippenberg sets off an extraordinary chain of events that will see Sobhraj become Interpol’s most wanted man, with arrest warrants in multiple continents.