Maureen Sowerbutts



Maureen Gail Sowerbutts is David's mother. She looks after him and acompanies him throughout the programme.

Characterization
Maureen shares a flat with him in Wood Green, North London. While not as interested in serial killers as her son (she prefers jigsaws), she indulges his passion. She is a caring mother. Her relationship with her son could be described as more than a little close.

She will do anything for her slightly slow son... from chewing up his food for him, to helping him dispatch his string of targets in various murderous ways. In her spare time she likes to play on her Bontempi keyboard. She sits for hours on end playing tunes with her headphones on.

Early Life
Maureen Gail Crabbe was born in Hull, and the youngest of nine children. Her father, Thomas Crabbe - was a trawler man and her mother was named Enid.

Maureen met John Sowerbutts, David's father, after she moved to London in the late 50's. He was a bus driver on the number 29 from Wood Green to Tottenham Court Road, and she used to ride on the bus with him every day on her way to work. They married after a couple of weeks and went on Honeymoon to the Isle of Dogs. No pictures remain of this. David was then born but unfortunately John Sowerbutts died from being gradually poisoned by Maureen.

Series 1
Years later, in 2009, one night at his work as part of a murder mystery evening, David, Maureen's son, ad-libs a far more gruesome murder scenario (including disembowelment) and is fired. Upon returning home, Maureen believes her son has actually killed someone. She finds the blackmail note saying "I know what you did", and mistakenly believes it is from Graham (Nicholas Le Prevost), David's boss. She asks him not to go to the police, but (knowing nothing about the note) Graham mistakenly believes Maureen is blackmailing him about his conviction for molestation. When he tries to call the police but, Maureen and David take him hostage. Graham escapes, but gets run over as he flees. Maureen decides they must kill everyone who knows about the "murder" (not realising it wasn't real), and she and David kill Cheryl, another member of the company, by electrocuting her.

In the fourth episode they strangle another company member, Martin Pike. David feels guilty for killing his own father many years before by giving him too many sleeping pills to help him sleep. Before they can leave, a man claiming to be a police inspector arrives, mistaking David for Martin Pike. He wants to interview Pike about recent murders in the area. While Maureen is out of the room, the "inspector" reveals that he is really auditioning for a role in the murder reenactments. David goes to fetch their car and Maureen, who believes the inspector knows about their murders, confesses the truth about her husband's death; she had been poisoning him for months and let David take the blame. That was why David was institutionalised. The actor thinks she was improvising in the scene and breaks character, revealing that he isn't a real inspector. He starts to tell David what she said, but Maureen covers for herself with excuses. When the actor leaves, David says he doesn't want to commit any more murders. However, the actor returns to collect his coat and sees Martin Pike's body, so David has to then kill him. The episode then finished with an enthusiastic Maureen, encouraging David to dance to the'Superman Song'. They then dance around the room.

David and Maureen's next victim (Robin) is to meet him at a wax museum, in the section devoted to famous serial killers, but after meeting him there, all the wax works come to life in a musical number and convinces David that the real monster is his mother, so he lets Robin go free. Maureen leaves with David, believing that Robin was killed. Their last victim is supposed to be Lorraine, and Maureen suggests that they barbecue her corpse to "celebrate." David has a flashback to Ravenhill, with a horrified Joy exclaiming that he killed Nurse Kenchington; and refuses to kill anyone else. Maureen locks him in and goes to murder Lorraine herself. She goes to where Lorraine works. Lorraine recognises her and lets slip that the "murder" David committed was just an enactment. Realising the implications of what she and David have done, Maureen takes a drug overdose. She tries to smother David with a pillow, as she thinks he is asleep under a sheet, but realises too late that he has escaped. Maureen collapses.

Series 2
In series 2, Maureen is in hospital because of the overdose. Maureen survived her suicide attempt, but has a tumour in her liver, giving her only months to live. Returning home, they find another blackmail letter, again reading "I know what you did". They immediately suspect Robin, the one person who they didn't murder and confront him at an audition. Failing to get their point across, Maureen invites Robin for dinner and he reveals he has a peanut allergy. After eating pudding laced with crushed peanuts Robin simply suffers severe gastric reactions, rather than death. He tells David he didn't send the blackmail letter. Meanwhile, Maureen performs an embarrassing Tina Turner act, leading David to reveal that she has cancer. She goes to bed, leaving David to clean up.

A few weeks later, David decides to treat Maureen to a fun experience before she dies. Maureen hopes for wine-tasting in France, but David thought she wanted to go zorbing, which she enjoys anyway. Afterwards, she begins to cough up blood and is admitted to hospital. The doctor tells David that she won't make it through the night and sends them home. David recites a John Donne poem to her and Maureen dies peacefully. David then uses her corpse to perform a last dance - "Oops Upside Your Head" by The Gap Band, which was one of two cheerful songs Maureen wanted at her funeral.