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True crime series 'The Staircase' gets TV drama starring Colin Firth and Toni Collette - first-look trailer

Watch: Colin Firth and Toni Collette star in drama adaptation of documentary The Staircase

True crime documentary The Staircase has been made into a star-studded drama series featuring Colin Firth and Toni Collette, with a first-look trailer released ahead of its 5 May start.

Based on the story of seemingly perfect family the Petersons and the suspicious death of wife and mother Kathleen, it dramatises the story that viewers may already know from the popular Netflix documentary about the case.

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Michael and Kathleen Peterson lived in a sprawling North Carolina home and had a close, seemingly happy family - until one night in 2001, Michael called in his wife's death from the house, saying she had accidentally fallen down the stairs while drunk.

Colin Firth as Michael Peterson & Toni Collette as Kathleen Peterson in The Staircase (Sky/Warner Bros.)
Colin Firth as Michael Peterson and Toni Collette as Kathleen Peterson in The Staircase. (Sky/Warner Bros.)

However, as the documentary showed, cracks began appearing in novelist Michael's story and detectives became suspicious that the staircase fall had been something more sinister.

Firth and Collette will play the couple in this drama series for Sky of the same name which follows the couple's relationship and the investigation into Kathleen's death, as well as Michael's involvement.

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During the court case about Kathleen's death, it emerged that Michael's first wife, the mother of his adopted children, had died of similar injuries while they were living in Germany as she had fallen down a staircase after collapsing - which prosecutors believed had given him an idea of how to cover up what they believed had been Kathleen's murder.

Dane DeHaan as Clayton Peterson & Colin Firth as Michael Peterson & Patrick Schwarzenegger as Todd Peterson in The Staircase (Sky/Warner Bros.)
The Staircase was also a documentary and gets the drama treatment with Colin Firth starring. (Sky/Warner Bros.)

Michael's daughters stood by him during the trial but he was convicted, and at a later trial in 2017 had his sentence reduced to manslaughter and was freed having already served time.

The documentary began following the family and their case from shortly after Michael was accused in 2001 and filmed various updates as the case progressed over the years, with scenes in the drama's trailer showing that it will feature in the Sky series.

Also starring in The Staircase are Michael Stuhlbarg (Your Honor), Juliette Binoche (Chocolat), Dane DeHaan (ZeroZeroZero), Olivia DeJonge (Elvis), Rosemarie DeWitt (Little Fires Everywhere), Tim Guinee (Inventing Anna), Patrick Schwarzenegger (Moxie), Sophie Turner (Game of Thrones), Vincent Vermignon (Romy and Michele's High School Reunion), Odessa Young (Shirley) and Parker Posey (Lost in Space).

The Staircase begins on 5 May on Sky.

Watch: Lawyer in The Staircase murder explains defence that set Michael Peterson free