BBC ALBA EXAMINES SCOTTISH MURDERER ARCHIBALD HALL
ARCHIBALD HALL - AN UAISLEAN : THE PERFECT GENTLEMAN
BBC ALBA – Wednesday 26th January at 9pm
In a new strand of compelling Scottish Killers profiles, BBC ALBA looks at one of Scotland’s most bizarre murderers - with top Scots actor Gary Lewis in the lead. Produced by STV, the drama documentary tells the captivating, gruesome story of “mad butler” Archibald Hall – much of it literally in his own words.
Glaswegian Hall’s autobiography was published under the title A Perfect Gentleman, and until he died in prison in 2002, he remained fixated with the aristocracy. An arrogant career thief who lied his way out of trouble repeatedly, “Archie Hall from Partick” reinvented himself as a butler to the gentry - before his greed and latent psychopathy led to brutality, and murder.
Portrayed by actor Gary Lewis (whose acting career includes Mo, Wasted, Valhalla Rising, My Name Is Joe, Gangs of New York, Billy Elliot,) the crazed killer’s story is told in full. Drama sequences were directed by Douglas Mackinnon of STV Productions’ Gaelic team, whose credits include Dr Who, Jekyll and Hyde and STV’s recently returned Taggart.
At the remarkably mature age of 54, rare for a murderer, Archibald Hall embarked on an astonishing killing spree that left five people dead within just a few months. The victims included former lovers and employers and Hall’s own half brother.
With accomplices Michael Kitto (a Cockney bouncer), and Mary Coggle (a Belfast prostitute), the “butler” shot, strangled, bludgeoned and drowned his targets, burying them in graves scattered from the Highlands to the English borders. Each time, he coolly returned to a glamorous, if entirely fraudulent, lifestyle; a promiscuous bisexual with an appetite for spending, fed by robbery and deception.
Born in Glasgow in 1924, Archie Hall was marked out as a “danger to society” in his teens. During stints behind bars, he studied etiquette and changed his name to “Roy Fontaine”. As a butler he flitted between London and Scotland, habitually robbing those he worked for, before spiralling into murder.
The programme features interviews with Hall’s solicitor, the police officer who finally caught up with him and chilling extracts from the recorded confessions of Hall himself. On the tape, he describes without hesitation how he took the life of his first victim, former lover David Wright: “I picked up my gun and I swung it round …. and I shot him through the head …. and I shot him again, and then again, and then once more.”
Archibald Hall – An Uaislean : The Perfect Gentleman can be seen on BBC ALBA on Wednesday 26th January at 9pm, and repeated on Thursday 27th at 10pm.