The film has a wonderfully methodical cool to it as we watch Gideon Turner, accompanied by voiceover, adopting and putting into use the methodology from the killer’s book. But then part way in, The Stalker's Apprentice abruptly becomes a policier as we follow detective Peter Davison and assistant Peter Forbes as they piece clues together. These scenes hold one’s attention, although not as absorbingly as the stalker element. Eventually the film works through a tight plot filled with sharp twists and considerable tension. It becomes particular good with the introduction of James Bolam’s Zanker/Kranze where the story takes on a level of meta-fiction that vies between the truth, Zanker’s book, which Gideon Turner comes to realize is actually Zanker confessing about the murders he conducted, and the mirroring of the murders in Turner’s own actions. There is a considerable cleverness in the play between these levels of the story.

Gideon Turner, an almost completely unknown actor when the film aired, had a wonderful handsomeness. Indeed, he seems almost too good-looking to convincingly be the nerdy socially maladjusted stalker the script requires him to be. But one soon warms to Turner in the part. He is especially good at displaying a cocky smoothness during the interrogation scenes. James Bolam, a veteran of numerous British tv series, here hidden behind a pair of Coke bottle glasses, gives a wonderfully cold performance as Zanker/Kranze. Former Doctor Who (1963-89, 2005– ) Peter Davison, determined to prove himself the dullest actor in England, is serviceable as the detective.