In all of our eyes it is the cannibalistic killer which is the most horrific of all murderers, and in this Channel 4 documentary series these killers who are the subject.

Episode 1: The Real Hannibal Lecters

In the first we see journalist Katharine English consult experts, examine historical, cultural and religious instances of cannibalism whilst also interview some of the worlds most horrific criminals, four of whom became monsters in recent times:

Andrei Chikatilo went on a 12 year killing spree which shocked Russia and the rest of the world. He murdered 53 people, mainly children and he ate their sexual organs.

Jeffrey Dahmer killed 17 young men, he cut up their bodies, cooked them and served them up with vegetables. He would later claim that he did this for love.

Arrthur Shawcross killed and mutilated 12 prostitutes and two children, he claims to have eaten the genitalia of four of his victims.

Issei Sagawa conceived a fantasy of eating the girl he loved and carried that fantasy out.

The acts of these four men are so alien that it is hard, sometimes repulsive to face up to them but it is the job of science and medicine to try and make sense of the apparently incomprehensible.

In this film we are taken on a journey of exploration through the childhood, mind and brain of the cannibal killer in search of explanation.

Episode 2: Bones Of Contention

Eating is central to life and to culture, but the idea of eating a fellow human being is the ultimate taboo, the instinct to block it out is so strong that we tend to deny it could happen in a civilised society. In Britain cannibalism does not even constituent a crime. In this one hour programme we investigate the archaeological evidence of our propensity to eat one another