Claremont killer TV drama revisits painful chapter

A dark and painful chapter in Western Australia's recent past is being reopened with a miniseries dramatising efforts to hunt down the Claremont killer.

Bradley Robert Edwards terrorised Perth's suburbs for almost a decade during the late 1980s and '90s before finally being arrested in 2016 and later jailed for life.

He was convicted of abducting and murdering childcare worker Jane Rimmer, 23, and solicitor Ciara Glennon, 27, in 1996 and 1997.

Edwards was acquitted of the 1996 murder of 18-year-old secretary Sarah Spiers, whose body has never been found.

All three women disappeared after nights out with friends in affluent Claremont, with the bodies of Ms Rimmer and Ms Glennon discovered in bushland weeks after they were killed.

The marathon police investigation which ultimately brought Edwards to justice is dramatised in The Claremont Murders, a two-part miniseries which will premiere on the Seven Network on Easter Monday.

AAP has been told the WA police force was not involved in the program and there is unease among senior police over the portrayal of the investigation and the re-traumatising effect it could have on the victims' loved ones.

WA Police and the Rimmer, Glennon and Spiers families did not wish to comment.

Director Peter Andrikidis opts against graphic depictions of the violence carried out by the killer, instead largely focusing on the gruelling efforts of the Macro task force and the grieving families' search for answers.

Mr Andrikidis said he had followed the Claremont story in the 1990s and been moved by the "incredible and enduring strength" of the victims' families and the perseverance of detectives.

The veteran director, whose previous credits include miniseries about serial killer Ivan Milat and the Bali bombings, believed depicting such stories was important "to ensure that we learn from the past and honour the enduring Australian spirit".

"As always, my approach to telling these stories is to have respect and sensitivity to everyone involved and this series was no different," he said.

"It is incredibly important to me that we honour the memories of Sarah, Jane and Ciara and have complete esteem for their families."

Edwards, now aged 54, will almost certainly die in prison after being jailed for at least 40 years.

Justice Stephen Hall said the confessed rapist's propensity for violent abductions made it "more likely" that he also killed Ms Spiers, but it could not be proven beyond reasonable doubt.

Edwards pleaded guilty on the eve of his judge-alone trial to sexually assaulting two young women in 1988 and 1995.

The police investigation was the longest-running in the country, dealing with almost 18,000 suspects.