"Blue Murder"
Pilot (2003)

Director:

Paul Wroblewski

Writer:

Cath Staincliffe (creator)

TV Series:

"Blue Murder" (2003)

Original Air Date:

18 May 2003 (Season 1, Episode 0)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Mystery

Plot:

Plot Keywords:

Children | Conflict | Family | Murder | Police

Cast

Caroline Quentin	...	DCI Janine Lewis
Ian Kelsey	...	DI Richard Mayne
Paul Loughran	...	DS Butchers
Nicholas Murchie	...	DS Shap
David Schofield	...	DCS Hackett
Joe Tucker	...	Pete Lewis
Geoff Breton	...	Michael Lewis
Catherine Jenkins	...	Eleanor Lewis
Ceallach Spellman	...	Tom Lewis
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Andrew Abrahams	...	Jack Tulley (as Andy Abrahams)
Peter Ash	...	Colin
Tim Barlow	...	Stubbins
Nicky Bell	...	Gary
Sally Bretton	...	Grassmere
Maxine Burth	...	Sarah
Rosy Clayton	...	Dean's Neighbour
Susan Cookson	...	Emma
Andrew James Davies	...	Journalist
Bryan Dick	...	Dean Hendrix
Rachel Grant	...	DC Chen
Dinah Handley	...	Connie Tulley
Mary Healey	...	Grandma
Carla Henry	...	Paula
Geoff Holman	...	Mr. Deaking
Jeni Howarth Williams	...	Ferdie's Mum (as Jeni Williams)
Gillian Kearney	...	Lesley Tulley
Paul Kynman	...	PC Durham
Frank Lauder	...	Ferdinand 'Ferdie' Gibson (as Frank J. Lauder)
Wyllie Longmore	...	Mr. Vincent
Nicola Maxfield	...	Jade's Mum
Andrew McHugh	...	Journalist (as Andre McHugh)
Simon Molloy	...	Mr. Corkland
Lee Oakes	...	Douggie
Gavin Paul	...	Priest
Louise Pout	...	Solicitor 1
So Rahman	...	Newsreader
Matt Rutter	...	PC 1
Richard Sinnott	...	Solicitor 3
Mia Smith	...	Jade
Malcolm Tomlinson	...	Solicitor 2

Filming Locations:

Manchester, Greater Manchester, England, UK

Murder cold and blue in Manchester, England

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

The story is simple but tricky enough to let you get lost in some contradictory details. You are all the more lost because the obvious elements are leading you astray, along the path of a serial killer, when it is not, along the path of rotten young people when it is the adults, teachers and school-principals mind you, who are. You are phased out by love when that love can find some real soil in a relation of the master-slave type. And of course we are in England, so no deluxe free scientific police or forensics because it is expensive, and hurry up because we have to fulfill our targeted objectives in efficiency and productivity, as if crime and criminal investigations had anything to do with efficiency, productivity and nothing to do with high level technology and patience, a lot of patience. The Detective Chief Superintendent is a blind idiot creating stress with his whip that wants to beat some clear water into mayonnaise. Add to it that the poor Detective Chief Inspector is a woman, pregnant, divorced and with three kids, one already in his mid-teens and you have the perfect overdose of stress to end up in a hospital. And she manages, with a lot of luck it is true, to get a culprit, with hard evidence and a confession. The crime is sordid, like life, but the series is British so the actors are regular actors who do act properly and convincingly. They even know how to cry without looking or sounding like mooing cows or meowing cats, both with a sore throat. And that is what I like in British series. The good acting and the intricate plot. What's more the series is long enough for us not to be rushed through the action at a TGV or Eurostar speed. And of course the solution is not necessarily what we were expecting and it avoids the worst worn out humdrum pedophile outcome, since for once teachers and school principals, at least those implied in this case, were not child molesters not teenager rapists. Good entertainment.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne & University Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines