Driven TO KILL

Andrew Garfield and Daisy EdgarJones star in a true-crime drama about a double killing that rocked a community

- STEVEN PERKINS

NEW DRAMA

Under the Banner of Heaven

From Wednesday 27 July, Star on Disney+

In 1984, 24-year-old Brenda Wright Lafferty and her infant daughter, Erica, were found brutally murdered in their home near Salt Lake City, Utah.

Brenda was married to Allen Lafferty, a member of a high-profile local Mormon family who had recently distanced himself from the church and his relatives. As detectives investigated, it became apparent the murders had religious undertones.

FLASHBACKS

The story is dramatised in the seven-part miniseries Under the Banner of Heaven, which begins on Disney+ this week. Adapted from Jon Krakauer’s non-fiction book of the same name by Oscar-winning screenwriter Dustin Lance Black, it stars Andrew Garfield as Jeb Pyre, a detective and devout Mormon assigned to the case.

‘I read the book hungrily when it came out – I found it fascinating but also horrifying,’ says Garfield, 38, who recently bagged an Emmy nomination for his portrayal of Pyre.

‘For me, this was a no-brainer – I was convinced right away that this was an incredible group of creative people who were going to not only honour what Jon Krakauer wrote, but also honour Brenda and Erica Lafferty, and really unpick the rot at the core of what enabled such evil to take place.’