Watch: Charlotte Hope plays Micki Pistorius in ‘Catch Me A Killer’

Showmax has just dropped the first trailer for Catch Me A Killer, premiering on 12 February 2024.

ABOUT ‘CATCH ME A KILLER’

“Catch Me A Killer is the true story of the first serial killer profiler in South Africa,” says lead actress Charlotte Hope, who played Myranda in Game of Thrones and headlined Starz’s The Spanish Princess as Catherine of Aragon. “She is called Micki Pistorius and, frankly, she’s amazing.” 

South African Film and Television Award (SAFTA) winner Rene van Rooyen (Oscar entry Toorbos, Alles Malan, Summertide) agrees.

“Living in South Africa amid a wave of violence, we have all been asking for a superhero, and here we have the true story of a superhero in the 1990s,” says Rene, who alternates directing duties with SAFTA winner Brett Michael-Innes (Fiela Se Kind) and Tracey Larcombe (Silent Witness).

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Adapted from Pistorius’ memoir of the same name, the 10-part series follows Pistorius, a newly qualified forensic psychologist, as she tracks down South Africa’s most feared killers. Each episode looks at another of her cases, from the Cleveland Killer to Stewart ‘Boetie Boer’ Wilken, taking viewers across the country. 

“Catch Me A Killer is about Micki’s experience of trying to understand the psychology of serial killers, but it’s also more than that,” says Charlotte. “On one hand it’s a true crime: every week we have a different episode, a different serial killer and a different case to solve. But it’s also a character study. This is a woman who goes through a huge emotional journey; in understanding the psychology of the killers, she’s also aware of what’s happening psychologically to herself.”

As her character says in the series, “Whoever fights monsters should see that in the process he does not become a monster too.”

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A TIME-CAPSULE FOR 1990S SA

A co-production between Showmax and Germany’s Night Train Media, Catch Me A Killer is also a classic underdog story: Micki is the only female profiler in a predominantly male police force, many of whom are deeply suspicious of the whole concept of psychology and think trying to understand the killers is a waste of time and resources. 

The series is also a time-capsule for 1990s South Africa: when the optimism of the country’s new democracy was undermined by a string of serial killers.

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Steven Ward (One Piece) and newcomer Donna Cormack-Thomson feature as series regulars.

However, the supporting cast changes each episode, with the likes of Lemogang Tsipa (Shaka iLembe), Waldemar Schultz (Die Byl), Ivan Zimmermann (Alles Malan), Frank Rautenbach (Lioness, Summertide), Silwerskerm winner Carel Nel (Gaia), and SAFTA winner Louw Venter (Swartwater). The cast also includes SAFTA nominees Albert Pretorius (Spinners, Devil’s Peak) and Sean Cameron Michael (Fried Barry) as Stewart ‘Boetie Boer’ Wilken and FBI profiler Robert Ressler respectively.