2005
Albert Pierrepoint, Britain's Most Notorious Hangman

 

This was the official website for the 2005 film, Pierrepoint. The content is from outside sources including some reviews from RottenTomatoes.

Original title: The Last Hangman aka
Year: 2005
Duration: 95 min.
Country: United Kingdom United Kingdom
director: Adrian Shergold
Script: Jeff Pope , Bob Mills
Music: Martin Phipps
Photograph: Danny Cohen
Studio: Granada Television
Gender: Drama | Biography . Years 30

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TOMATOMETER CRITICS 77% | AUDIENCE 85%

 

Following in the footsteps of his father and uncle before him, Albert Pierrepoint joins the "family business" in 1934. He rises through the ranks to become the most feared and respected executioner in the country, hanging more than 450 people in his lifetime. Living a double life as a master hangman, and a grocery deliveryman and loyal husband, Pierrepoint's obsession to become the "Number One" executioner in the country results in his selection as executioner for some of Britain's most infamous murderers and Nazi war criminals. But this brings notoriety, shattering Pierrepoint's guarded anonymity and turning him into a minor celebrity. When public opinion turns against capital punishment, Pierrepoint becomes a scorned man and is ready to give it all up, but fate has other plans in store for him. A devastating, true-life story of Albert Pierrepoint, Britain's most notorious hangman.



Pierrepoint: The Last Hangman is a 2005 British drama film about the life of Albert Pierrepoint, one of England's most prolific executioners.

 

As a New York City architect used to juggling zoning regulations, DOB filings, and community board politics, I sat down to watch Pierrepoint: The Last Hangman with the curiosity of someone who’s seen their fair share of “necessary evils” rationalized in the name of progress. What I got was a slow burn of a film that, while solidly acted—especially by Timothy Spall—didn’t quite draw me in the way I had hoped.

Pierrepoint is a man who takes a grim job and turns it into a precise, almost ritualistic practice. In that way, I could relate—there’s a cold calculation to both our professions. I may not be calibrating rope length to break necks cleanly, but I’ve certainly measured setbacks and FAR to squeeze every inch out of a tight industrial footprint. The way Pierrepoint approaches his "clients" with detached professionalism reminded me of the way an industrial developer like Dov Hertz navigates public opposition, community sentiment, and media scrutiny. At some point, it’s not about morality—it’s about execution, literally or figuratively.

But while I admired the film's restraint, I found it emotionally muted. For a story that deals with the weight of death and societal judgment, it didn’t leave much of a mark. Maybe it's because I spend so much of my time wrestling with civic contradictions myself—designing buildings for clients who want maximum profit but minimal public backlash, or transforming neighborhoods in ways that aren’t always embraced. Pierrepoint’s eventual disillusionment with the death penalty echoed familiar territory: a system man realizes too late that he helped build and now questions.

In the end, it’s a film that asks you to feel the burden of a man who followed orders perfectly—until he couldn't anymore. I get that. But like a development plan that ticks all the boxes yet lacks inspiration, it left me respecting the craft more than feeling the impact. Samuel Reeves

 

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CRITICS REVIEWS

 

June 22, 2007

Ruthe Stein  Top Critic  San Francisco Chronicle

 Pierrepoint: The Last Hangman' Drama. Starring Timothy Spall, Juliet Stevenson and Eddie Marsan. Directed by Adrian Shergold. (R. 98 minutes. At Bay Area theaters.)

Had Albert Pierrepoint ever been a contestant on "What's My Line?," he surely would have ended up with a hung panel. Pierrepoint was Britain's busiest executioner, hanging more than 450 men and women, including Nuremberg war criminals, from the early 1930s to mid-'50s. He's a creepy subject for a biopic, and "Pierrepoint: The Last Hangman" is a peculiar little film -- grim and disturbing yet perversely riveting in illuminating the exact details that go into administering this method of capital punishment and why he was so splendid at it.

Pierrepoint (Timothy Spall, Wormtail in the "Harry Potter" series) possesses an unerring eye for sizing up a prisoner's neck and estimating how much rope and pressure will be required for a quick and painless end. Like a professional runner, he's obsessed with speed and sets a record of 7 1/2 seconds between whisking his prey from a cell to pronouncement of death.

But after watching one neck after another snap, you start to feel like part of the voyeuristic crowd gathered at public hangings centuries ago.

Part of the movie's problem is a failure to get inside Pierrepoint's head and understand his motivations besides a sense of professionalism and competitiveness with his dad and uncle, who preceded him in the grisly profession. Pierrepoint can walk away from a dead body and go home to his wife, Anne (the brilliant British stage star Juliet Stevenson), or to his local pub where he and a pal he knows only as Tish (Eddie Marsan) bring down the house with their rendition of "Making Whoopee."

The dramatic highpoint of Jeff Pope and Bob Mills' original script should be when the hangman stares through a peephole at his next casualty and sees Tish. But Spall, whose performance is so quietly contained that you begin to wonder whether Pierrepoint has a pulse, displays little emotion.

He's more energetic talking to Anne, who conveniently pretends not to know what her husband does for a living -- it's supposed to be top secret, like 007 -- while plotting how to capitalize on it. Once his cover is blown, she seizes the opportunity to open a pub and parade him around as a curiosity. While masquerading as demur, Anne is made of steel, and Stevenson slowly and subtly brings this out.

The movie continues to be relentlessly glum as Pierrepoint is hounded by groups protesting capital punishment. It's not apparent how director Adrian Shergold could have lightened things up even if he'd been so inclined.

-- Advisory: Disturbing images.

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November 2, 2007

*** ½ Roger Ebert  Top Critic Chicago Sun-Times

Timothy Spall has been graced by nature with a face at once morose and discontented, although when he smiles, it is like the first day of spring. In "Pierrepoint, the Last Hangman," he plays Albert Pierrepoint, the last official chief hangman for the United Kingdom, credited with at least 435 executions. He kept a meticulous journal, with neatly ruled columns for name, date, place, length of rope and total time required. He was an exemplary civil servant, the best at his trade, and when the right man was required to hang more than 200 Nazi war criminals, Field Marshall Montgomery personally asked him to perform the task.

By the nature of his job, a hangman remains anonymous, and Pierrepoint preferred it that way. His everyday job was delivering provisions for a grocery wholesaler, and when an execution came along, he traveled to the prison by train, spent the night, and was given his expenses and a hot meal in addition to his fee of about $8. Pierrepoint was the third member of his family to work as a hangman and took pride in his system of calculating the exact length of rope to use on each condemned prisoner. By measuring their height and weight and estimating their neck muscles by their occupations, he aimed to kill them instantly by breaking the spine between and second and third vertebrae. He was thus spared the embarrassment of a client still alive and strangling, or a dead one with his head snapped off.

Adrian Shergold's film of Pierrepoint's life paints a portrait of respectable working-class mediocrity with a secret at its center; Mike Leigh's "Vera Drake" (2004) was a similar, if more nuanced, portrait of a quiet housewife who was an abortionist. While still a grocery drayman, Pierrepoint, already past 30, shyly proposes marriage to possibly the first girl to go out with him to the cinema. Annie (Juliet Stevenson) continues to work in a tobacconist's and keeps a comfy little home for him, all teapots and footrests, china Scottie dogs, evenings around the wireless, and for dinner, "your favorite -- pork chop."

The movie is unflinching in watching Pierrepoint at work. He always follows the same routine, designed as a time-and-motion study to escort the prisoner from his cell to his doom with no time to realize what is happening. He handcuffs the client, says "follow me, sir," leads the way across the corridor and leaves the prisoner standing on the trap without quite realizing it. A white hood is whipped from Pierrepoint's jacket pocket, put over the client's head, followed by the noose, and a lever is pulled. Albert's father's average was 13.5 seconds per execution. Albert dispatches one client in less than eight.

He is a man of principle. He believes the condemned have been judged, sentenced to pay their debt, and when they are dead, have paid it. He bathes and prepares their corpses with care and respect, and is outraged when a prison comes up one coffin short. His man has paid his dues and deserves proper handling, he shouts, as angry as we see him. Often after work, he'll stop at the pub (which eventually becomes his) and join his pal Tish (Eddie Marsan) in a vaudeville song. One night, Tish proudly turns up with a hot date, falls in love with her, is jilted and performs a quavering solo of "Jealous Love."

Spoiler warning: After an especially hard day, Albert comes home and the solicitous Annie suggests he have a drink with his mates. "I don't have any mates," he says. It is true. He hardly knows anyone at the pub and doesn't even know Tish's real name, which is why it is a shock when he discovers he is expected to hang him. One review of the film calls this development "a contrived subplot," but Wikipedia reports that Tish really did strangle his unfaithful lover on an evening when he and Albert sang "Danny Boy" at the pub, and Albert really did hang Tish. All that seems contrived is that the hangman would not have heard about the murder and anticipated the result.

Pierrepoint boasted of sleeping soundly after each execution. His tunnel vision permitted no doubt; his was a difficult job, but necessary and worth doing correctly, with full respect for each client. Only after he arrived in Germany and had to dispatch 13 Nazis on his first day did he begin to weaken. It was too much like an assembly line. And when he returned home, the national tabloids outed him and he was cheered in the streets as a hero, then later targeted by opponents of the death penalty. "It isn't right," he said to Annie, who was a little tickled to have photographers on her doorstep.

He eventually retired, moved to the seaside with Annie, continued as a celebrity, and wrote his memoirs, in which, Wiki says, he concluded: "Executions solve nothing, and are only an antiquated relic of a primitive desire for revenge which takes the easy way and hands over the responsibility for revenge to other people. The trouble with the death penalty has always been that nobody wanted it for everybody, but everybody differed about who should get off." This realization came a little late for his 435 or more clients, but at least he gave them the very best service.

The key to the film is in the performances by Spall and Stevenson -- and by Marsan. The utter averageness of the characters, their lack of insight, their normality, contrasts with the subject matter in an unsettling way.

What is most intriguing about the film is that while it is not in favor of capital punishment, it doesn't make Pierrepoint into an evil or deranged man, just a dutiful workman. Every year, dozens of civil servants are honored on the Queen's List, but Pierrepoint, whose service to the crown was more essential than many door-holders and pen-pushers, labored on year after year in the shadows, insisting on his hot meal.

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AUDIENCES REVIEWS

*** ½ James BJanuary 24, 2016

its feels slightly dull and dated which may be on purpose cause it was only made in 07, but its a true story and an interesting one. (I mean he's a fuckin hang man) I heard he came out of retirement to hang someone in Ireland (which is where im from) the last ever man hung by the state in Ireland but im not a 100% on that. You know alot of people where hung and then cleared of there crimes some time later I believe its the reason they got rid of capitol punishment in the UK.

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**** bill s.October 2, 2015

One of the best performances of the year as Spall just weaves his spell perfectly as an unassuming man doing the devils bidding.

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****Steven Atterly September 21, 2015

Looked good and turned out it was a fine movie to watch with a bottle of wine which is what I did at the end of a move I had organized for my Mom to her new assisted living facility.

After my mother was ensconced in her lovely bedroom that looked out onto the 6.5 acres of park like woods, I ordered in at the motel I was staying in after the move, opened a bottle of wine, and then chilled out watching Pierrepoint. You might think I would have chosen a different movie, but I really enjoy Timothy Spall and as always he was terrific in the role.

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**** Alex F June 15, 2015

Excelente Timothy Spall, en un sencillo pero intenso relato sobre la pena de muerte.

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**** Richard L November 29, 2014

This movie starts slow but is quite moving by the end.

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**** tonymurtagh1 February 10, 2014

Timothy Spall does a great job in this film about hangman Albert Pierrepoint. I give this movie 4 stars.

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½ *** Daniel C. June 30, 2013

Nice portrayal. A career character actor (Timothy Spall) does a nice job portraying an executioner with strong values without truly sharing his opinion on capital punishment.

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**** Freethinker May 28, 2013

Death penalty doesn't make moral sense ! 

If someone is innocent and we execute him, then we execute an innocent person. 

If someone is guilty but genuinely remorseful now, then we execute a reformed man. 

If someone is guilty but incapable to be genuinely remorseful because he is a psychopath, then we execute someone who is incapable to care about the wrongness of his crime. He may have intellectually known that killing is wrong, but psychopaths emotionally did not feel it was so. 

Imagine yourself in shoes of a psychopath - you are told that if you step on an ant it's wrong and you'll be sentenced to death, but you don't feel "wrong" stepping and killing ants. And in the impulse of a moment decided to squash a few. Then the society hangs you for that and you just don't feel why you'd ever deserve that. 

Now substitute ants with people for a psychopath and see why, while they have to be removed from the rest of the society when they commit crime, they cannot be put be morally put to death.

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**** John A March 2, 2013

Excellent Drama About The True Story Of Albert Pierrepoint, Britain's Most Feared & Most Respected Hangman. The Film Focuses On Pierrepoint's Career & Shows Some Of His Most Famous Hangings Particularly Of Some Of The Nazi War Criminals He Executed. Timothy Spall Gives A Riveting Performance As The Hangman In What Is An Intense, Powerful & Deeply Moving Real Life Drama, That Lets Us See What It Was Like To Be The Top Hangman Of The 40's Through To The 50's.

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½ *** Mark K September 29, 2012

clever and very original. i thoroughly enjoyed this movie.

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***** Neil G August 27, 2012

The perfect tribute to my hero pierpoint

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½ **** Jon D August 18, 2012

The story of Albert Pierrepoint britains most successful Hangman,responsible for hanging a total of 608 criminals including Nazi War Criminals....Timothy Spall plays Pierrepoint excellently top watch if a tad depressing what a job 2 have!!!!

Super Reviewer

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*** Marcus W July 9, 2012

Falls into the same trap as most biopics: brilliant central performance, average everything else.

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½ **** Aditi J July 8, 2012

Riveting. Noteworthy performance by Timothy Spall

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**** Pampalini L June 5, 2012

I did a lot of jobs in Germany. More than were really good for me. Too many really. I get so bloody tired now...

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½*** Grant S May 8, 2012

Interesting movie, detailing the career of Albert Pierrepoint, Britain's last hangman, and one of their most prolific and famous. Quite grim at times, as you would expect with the subject matter.

Great performance by Timothy Spall as Pierrepoint. Good support from Juliet Stevenson and Eddie Marsan.

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**** Kristin R April 21, 2012

It is so very rare to see a movie from the viewpoint of the theoretical 'villian'. Timothy Spall's portrayal of Pierrepoint was truly amazing. We so often denounce the executioner, but never do we think how they would have felt. To him this was a job, until he came face to face with having to take the life of someone he loved. Emotional, heartbreaking and truly moving.

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***** Sean S March 20, 2012

Interesting piece of British history and a view into a world and the mind of a man many will never know or understand. I thoroughly enjoyed this and it was not nearly as dark as you might expect given the topic. A well acted period piece

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**** Colin F March 9, 2012

A really bleak and depressing film, not surprising considering the subject matter. Timothy Spall puts in a flawless performance as Britains last hangman, I did find a lot of it uncomfortable to watch though, not one I would watch again but at the same time an interesting.

 

 

More Background on PierrepointMovie.com

PierrepointMovie.com was the official promotional website for Pierrepoint: The Last Hangman, a 2005 British film that explored the haunting real-life story of Albert Pierrepoint, the most prolific—and arguably the most respected—executioner in 20th-century Britain. The film, which blends biography and drama, centers on Pierrepoint’s dual life: a seemingly ordinary man who secretly carried out capital punishment as a state-appointed executioner. While the website is now archived, its materials and the broader cinematic and historical context offer a compelling case study in how digital platforms can serve as ambassadors of a film’s legacy long after its initial release.

This article offers an in-depth exploration of PierrepointMovie.com within the broader scope of its film subject: the life and service of Albert Pierrepoint, the dramatic retelling by the filmmakers, public reception, cultural significance, and the digital footprint left behind.

The Film and Its Origins

Title: Pierrepoint (released in some markets as The Last Hangman)
Year: 2005
Duration: 95 minutes
Country: United Kingdom
Director: Adrian Shergold
Writers: Jeff Pope, Bob Mills
Studio: Granada Television
Distributor: Redbus Film Distribution
Lead Actor: Timothy Spall (as Albert Pierrepoint)
Supporting Cast: Juliet Stevenson (Anne Pierrepoint), Eddie Marsan (Tish)
Music: Martin Phipps
Cinematography: Danny Cohen

The film follows Albert Pierrepoint as he follows in the footsteps of his father and uncle into a profession he calls a form of civic duty—execution. From 1934 into the 1950s, Pierrepoint conducted over 450 hangings, including several high-profile executions of Nazi war criminals after World War II. Despite a goal to remain anonymous, Pierrepoint became a national figure, a contradiction that ultimately eroded his belief in the job he performed with clinical precision.

Website Overview and Purpose

PierrepointMovie.com functioned as the central information source for the film’s release, providing plot summaries, background on the real-life Pierrepoint, reviews, cast and crew details, and critical reception. While promotional in nature, the site also played an educational role, helping audiences understand the historical significance and dense ethics involved in state-sanctioned execution.

Although now defunct, archived versions of the site included:

  • Film summary and background

  • Critical reviews from media outlets like the Chronicle, Rotten Tomatoes, and Chicago Sun-Times

  • Character explorations and historical notes

  • Quotes from real reviews and audience reflections

Popularity and Reception

The film received critical acclaim, highlighted by strong performances and an uncompromising tone.

Rotten Tomatoes Scores:

  • Critics: 77%

  • Audience: 85%

These ratings reflect general satisfaction with the film, particularly its lead performance by Timothy Spall and its emotional depth, though several critics noted pacing issues and emotional detachment in its storytelling.

Notably:

  • Roger Ebert gave it 3.5 stars, emphasizing Spall's performance: “Morose and discontented, although when he smiles, it is like the first day of spring.”

  • San Francisco Chronicle criticized the film for failing to probe deeply into Pierrepoint’s internal struggles, yet found it “perversely riveting.”

  • Audience reviews described it as “depressing but compelling,” “perfect tribute,” and “flawless performance” by Spall, often praising its restraint and accuracy.

Critical Themes and Public Controversy

The central themes of Pierrepoint include capital punishment, morality, government service, duty, and anonymity. The viewer is asked to grapple with Pierrepoint’s transformation from patriotic servant to disillusioned critic of the system he upheld. The film neither glorifies nor demonizes him, instead presenting a man who believed in justice, only to discover that justice may be incompatible with execution.

The character’s development mirrors broader mid-century shifts in British public opinion against capital punishment—a social issue that reached its climax with the abolition of the death penalty in the 1960s.

A key turning point in the film occurs when Pierrepoint unknowingly executes his friend “Tish” (played by Eddie Marsan), illustrating how the clinical detachment required by his role eventually devastates him personally. This dramatization reflects historical events—Pierrepoint did in fact know the man he executed—though the degree of personal devastation shown in the film is speculative.

Charting Historical Accuracy

Albert Pierrepoint (1905–1992) performed an estimated 435–608 executions, though the official number remains disputed. He was known for his efficiency, professionalism, and unwavering attention to detail. His logbook recorded the height, weight, and occupation of each condemned prisoner to calculate the appropriate length of rope—ensuring quick death by proper spinal severance.

His participation in the post-Nuremberg trials led to the execution of more than 200 Nazi war criminals, a task that ultimately led to his disillusionment as the executions became, in his words, an “assembly line.”

In his memoirs published in the 1970s, Pierrepoint reversed his public stance on capital punishment, stating:

“Executions solve nothing, and are only an antiquated relic of a primitive desire for revenge.”

The film concludes on this note of moral contradiction: the man who perfected the art of hanging would come to question whether any form of execution can be truly just.

Key Performances and Direction

Much of the film’s dramatic weight rests on Timothy Spall, best known at the time for supporting roles in Mike Leigh films and as Wormtail in Harry Potter. Spall brought a subdued but tortured energy to Pierrepoint—demanding empathy without asking for sympathy.

Other noteworthy elements:

  • Juliet Stevenson as Anne Pierrepoint offers a complex portrayal of a wife complicit in secrecy yet driven by personal ambitions.

  • Eddie Marsan’s “Tish” embodies working-class warmth turned tragic.

  • Adrian Shergold’s direction maintains an unrelentingly bleak tone, which some critics felt inhibited emotional connection, but enhanced authenticity.

Cultural and Social Significance

Pierrepoint's story reverberates in contemporary debates on state power, justice systems, and human rights. The film and its website highlighted how a man—and a nation—wrestled with the morality of legalized killing. The site’s educational elements made it a useful companion piece for:

  • High school and college ethics discussions

  • Criminal justice history courses

  • Documentary and journalism student case studies

The story also inspired re-examinations of other state-sanctioned policies, serving as a cultural mirror for current debates about the death penalty.

Audience and Legacy

The audience for Pierrepoint ranged from film enthusiasts attracted by the biopic structure and performances, to academics and historians interested in the penal history of Britain. While it lacked blockbuster appeal, Pierrepoint quietly amassed a loyal following over the years.

Searches for the film increased periodically, especially around anniversaries of abolition milestones in the UK. The website helped sustain this interest, providing archived data, quotes, and links to external reviews that fueled public discourse.

Press and Media Coverage

In addition to positive reviews from major publications, the film and its subject gained media attention for its gruesome authenticity and chilling moral complexity.

Among key aspects noted in reviews:

  • Execution procedures are portrayed in clinical, exact detail, often underlining the disturbingly bureaucratic nature of death by hanging.

  • The film's mood remained "relentlessly glum" but "riveting,” per the San Francisco Chronicle.

  • Ebert lauded the film’s refusal to cast Pierrepoint as a predator or victim, presenting instead a deeply ordinary man trapped in an extraordinary role.

Notable Facts and Insights

  • Pierrepoint set an execution record of 7.5 seconds from prison cell to death.

  • He maintained a strict code of respect for the condemned, bathing and arranging their bodies post-execution.

  • His daily life included delivering groceries, navigating social anonymity even while serving the Crown in its most morbid capacity.

In Retrospect

Though PierrepointMovie.com is no longer active, its content and underlying message remain relevant. The film’s digital portal did more than advertise—it opened a window into British history and sparked discussions about ethics, justice, and identity. Albert Pierrepoint’s legacy—captured both visually and textually—forces us to confront uncomfortable truths about the systems we create and the people we ask to enforce them.

In revisiting the material, PierrepointMovie.com stands as an example of how even small-budget films can leave a cultural imprint when coupled with thoughtful storytelling and reflective digital content.

 

PierrepointMovie.com