While Alan Cumming is about to share deeper looks into several true crime stories on The Killer Among Us, he exclusively revealed to Us Weekly which true crime story first piqued his interest during his childhood.
After Cumming, 61, was asked if true crime was a popular topic during his childhood in Scotland, he told Us that it was “absolutely” not.
“We still don’t have as many true crime shows at all, ratio wise,” Cumming said.
However, he did share one true crime story that took over his childhood hometown.
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He said that when he was “a little boy” in Scotland, there was a story about a woman who “was having an affair, she went missing, her body was never discovered.”
“They think it was kind of those roadworks being, you know, a new part of the roads we made. I think she was buried under the concrete, and it went [on for] years and years and years and years, until they finally found out who did it,” he shared, adding that the story was recounted on a BBC Scotland special.
“I always, as a little boy, was fascinated by that sort [of thing], because it was kind of rare that it would be something so sort of dramatic and glamorous happening, and it happened near where I lived,” Cumming said.
While he said he was “fascinated” with the story, he reiterated that true crime is “not so much part of our culture” in Scotland.
Despite not growing up an avid true crime fan, Cumming has embraced the genre as the host and producer of Oxygen’s The Killer Among Us.
Throughout the first season, Cumming will share stories of devious and deadly deception in which the victims were killed by people within their own social circles.
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While speaking about the new show, Cumming told Us that he’s drawn to stories with a good “twist.”
“I like this one because of the idea that we all know that somebody’s being murdered, but the thing is, we are seeing … the person in the course of the story being told because we know at the start that the killer is among us,” he said of the project. “So I just love that extra twist. It makes you pay more attention, and it makes you much more, sort of, analytical, I think. It’s also much more shocking because of that.”
The Killer Among Us premieres on Oxygen on Sunday, May 17, at 7 pm ET.
