Killer Women With Piers Morgan

With her golden hair, elfin features and pure, soaring voice, she’d go down a storm on a TV talent show. But the woman sitting in front of Piers Morgan singing a faultless Amazing Grace is a monster guilty of the murder of her family. That was the verdict of a Texas court in the case of 16-year-old Erin Caffey. Eight years on, Morgan ventures inside the state penitentiary in the opening episode of Killer Women With Piers Morgan (Wednesday, ITV, 9pm) to try to understand how the endearing young lady he meets could have committed such horrific crimes.

She looks back and remembers an earlier, happy time, when her family had been together and she was voted ‘most likely to succeed’ at her church camp. Then came the day her parents insisted she break up with her boyfriend Charlie after they’d discovered his boasts of heavy drinking and promiscuous sex on his web page. Revenge was swift and brutal: with two accomplices, Charlie broke into the Caffey home and killed Erin’s mother and two young brothers, left the father, Terry, for dead and then burnt the house down. All the while sitting outside in the car was Erin, who prosecutors decided was responsible for instigating the massacre. Morgan hears from Terry how despite everything he has forgiven his family’s killers – Erin included. Nudged along by Morgan’s plain-speaking questions, this astounding tale confronts us with the horror and mystery of humanity’s darkest side.

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NOT TO BE MISSED

The Extraordinary Collect or, Fri, BBC2, 8pm
Lord Rothschild is offered a choice of bizarre artefacts to consider as art dealer Gordon Watson presents a new six-part series.

The Hollow Crown, Sat, BBC2, 9pm
Benedict Cumberbatch and Dame Judi Dench are to come in this Shakespearean trilogy, but first this week Hugh Bonneville stars in a magnificent film of Henry VI Part 1.

Choose The Right Puppy For You, Mon, BBC2, 8pm
Owners and breeds are matched together in a new two-part series with Kate Humble and trainer Louise Glazebrook.