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Scottish mass-murderer Peter Manuel (1927 - 1958) smiling during his trial, Glasgow, Scotland, May 29, 1958 Express Newspapers/Getty Images

We're only just getting into Rillington Place, the BBC1 drama which explores the true events of John Christie's serial killing, but it looks as though ITV want a slice of the murderous pie.

Wednesday night's premiere television series, In Plain Sight, is all about the 1955 true story of Lanarkshire detective William Muncie's quest to bring notorious killer Peter Manuel to justice.

It all gets started when Manuel (Line of Duty's Martin Compston) is released from prison after a nine-year sentence for housebreaking and sexual assaults. He then attacks a young woman and keeps her with him in an open field for most of the night before returning to his home. Muncie – played by Douglas Henshall – is convinced that further crimes will be committed.

Too young to remember who exactly Peter Manuel was? Let's have a recap. Manuel was an American-born Scottish serial killer convicted of murdering seven people across Lanarkshire and southern Scotland between 1956 and his arrest in January 1958. He is thought to have killed at least two more people.

Prior to his arrest, the then unidentified killer was nicknamed "the Beast of Birkenshaw" by police.

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At the age of 16, Manuel – who had moved to Detroit with his family before migrating back to Britain in 1932 – committed a string of sexual attacks that lead him to serve nine years in Peterhead Prison.

He successfully conducted his own defence on a rape charge later in 1955. He was said to have had a troubled childhood and was bullied, before being known to the local police as a petty thief at the age of 10.

Manuel was tried in 1958 for the murders of eight people, with three of them being men. In a move that shocked many at the time, he sacked his lawyers and conducted his defence by himself.

On 11 July 1958, Manuel was hanged on the gallows at Barlinnie Prison. The 31-year-old's last words are reported to have been: "Turn up the radio and I'll go quietly".

In Plain Sight airs tonight (7 December) at 9pm on ITV.