Bain murders subject of $5m primetime TV drama series

David Bain leaves court following his not guilty verdict passed down in 2009 at the Christchurch High Court. Photo / Getty Images

The Bain murders will be the subject of a five-part multi-million-dollar primetime TV drama series.

Black Hands will depict the month leading up to the murders through the eyes of the victims and the accused.

It will leave it to viewers to make up their own minds as to who was responsbile for the death of five members of the family in 1994, according to a press release from New Zealand on Air, who are spending up to $5.2 million on the series.

NZ on Air are also funding an action-thriller film based on the 2007 Tuhoe Police raids.

Muru will follow the plight of a local cop trapped between opposing sides, and explore themes of race, identity and individual self-worth. It will air on Three and has been given $200,000 funding.

Robin and Margaret Bain and three of their four children – Arawa, Laniet and Stephen – were killed in Dunedin in June 1994.

The only suspects were David Bain, the oldest son and only survivor, and Robin Bain, the father.

David Bain was charged with five counts of murder and in May 1995 convicted on each of the five counts and sentenced to mandatory life in prison with a minimum non-parole period of 16 years.

His case was taken up by Joe Karam and in 2007, the Privy Council in London, then the highest court to which New Zealanders had access, declared there had been a substantial miscarriage of justice.

Bain was released on bail in May 2007 and acquitted on all charges after a retrial in 2009.