A dramatic new television programme will premiere tonight, featuring the story of how a Felixstowe born and raised police detective put a serial killer behind bars for life.

Peter Jay was the real life Detective Chief Inspector, played by Daniel Mays in ITV's mini-series 'Des' which tells the chilling story of Dennis Nilsen, played by David Tenannt.

The drama focuses on how Jay gathered evidence to prove 'Des' Nilsen murdered at least six young homeless, homosexual men and attempted to kill two others, which led to the killer being jailed for life.

DCI Jay, who was with Scotland Yard between 1981-1986, led the whole unique murder investigation from start to finish, which was one of the largest serial killer cases of its time.

When necrophile Nilsen was arrested, he confessed to 15 murders. but later pleaded not guilty and tried to argue diminished responsibility.

The police had to prove how Nilsen had killed his victims, then washed, clothed and kept them in his room in Muswell Hill for some time before dismembering them and in some cases cooking parts of their bodies.

Nilsen was jailed for life in 1983 with a recommendation he served a minimum of 25 years, although that sentence was later upgraded to a whole-life term and he died in May 2018 at York Hospital after suffering a pulmonary embolism and a retroperitoneal haemorrhage.

DCI Jay moved to Hertfordshire and his son 32-year-old son Simon who still lives in Herts, but has helped the programme makers with the story after his dad passed away in Suffolk, aged of 79 in February 2018, due to cancer.

Simon said: "The problem with the case is that Nilsen always claims he killed 15 or 16 people. I think they only found six bodies and the police at the time shut the whole case down without Dad wanting it to be shut down.

"They could convict him for life based on the six bodies they found but he always thought they still hadn't sought justice for the victims and their families.

"It was always a bit of a tainted case for him even though everyone looks at it as this big, positive case that they found this killer. For Dad it was always that we never got to finish it properly."

A modest man, Pater Jay would most probably have been uncomfortable with being in the limelight, although he had helped research a couple of crime-based documentaries.

"He wouldn't necessarily like his name in the limelight so much," said Simon. "He's always had the view of he was just doing his job and, in his eyes, there was still more work to do on it.

"I'm sure he would've been proud but again, his view was yes, I was the DCI, but there was also Steve McCusker and a whole team involved. He didn't do it on his own, he was very humble about it."

Des begins tonight (Monday September 14) at 9pm on ITV and the drama will continue this week, with episode two on Tuesday, September 15 at 9pm and the final episode on Wednesday September 16 at 9pm.

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