THE HUNT FOR PETER TOBIN
04 March 2025
THE HUNT FOR PETER TOBIN
Across two episodes, this documentary series examines the disappearances of three young women and the fight to bring their murderer to justice.
On a snowy night in winter 1991, 15-year-old Vicky Hamilton fails to arrive home. Her case becomes one of Scotland’s biggest missing persons investigations. In the summer of the same year, 18-year-old Dinah McNicol disappears after hitchhiking home from a music festival in Kent.
Vicky and Dinah’s missing persons investigations result in no real leads for over 15 years, until 23-year-old Angelika Kluk goes missing in Glasgow in 2006. Her body is found hidden under the floorboards of a church. Police search for the man Angelika was last seen with - the church handyman. When the police arrest the man in London, they identify him as a sex offender who had been on the run for months. His name is Peter Tobin. His arrest set in motion a remarkable series of events, which led to the horrifying conclusion that a serial killer had been roaming at large in the UK for decades.
The Hunt For Peter Tobin won two BAFTA Scotland awards, for best Factual Series and best Director, Factual for Matt Pinder. It also won the RTS Scotland award for best Documentary Series, and was nominated at the 2025 Broadcast Digital Awards for best true crime programme.
Peter Tobin was a Scottish serial killer responsible for the rape and murder of women between 1991 and 2006. This two-part documentary does not shy away from the awful details of his crimes. Yet this film is primarily about Tobin's victims: Dinah McNicol, Vicky Hamilton and Angelika Kluk. The first episode barely mentions Tobin's name, choosing to focus on the families of the murdered girls, and the numerous lives Tobin destroyed. No one watches true crime programmes hoping for uplift, but at least in this case you feel that a kind of justice has been enacted.
The Times
Pick of the Day
Daily Mail, Daily Telegraph, Sunday Times, The Times
