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The Cold Case Squad is a crack team of specialists set
up by the Metropolitan Police with the specific brief of reopening
the files on unsolved cases. They re-examine the evidence
and requestion witnesses. If anyone can track down a killer,
years after a murder, they can...
Series
One of Waking the Dead sees the Cold Case Squad
take on the challenge of five unsolved crimes: the kidnapping
and murder of a young woman; the suspicious death of a war
photographer in a car accident; a skull buried for 20 years
in a church crypt which shakes the local Catholic community
to its core; a double murder to which a woman confessed and
has served 25 years in prison; and who killed a well-known
policewoman - a stalker, her estranged husband or the father
of her unborn child?
Leading
the hunt is Detective Superintendent Peter Boyd. Haunted by
the disappearance of his own teenage son years ago, his is
committed to getting at the truth at all costs. Dr Grace Foley
brings a psychological insight into the killers, Dr Frankie
Wharton analyses the forensics, and doing the ground work
are detectives Mel Silver and Spencer Jordan. They are the
best minds in their field and dedicated to their jobs.
The
pilot episode sees the team reopen a five year old murder
investigation. A young girl was kidnapped and killed and her
murderer was never caught, but now it appears he may have
struck again. Boyd and his team must stay one step ahead of
the killer in order to save another girl from being murdered.
Burn
Out sees Boyd and his team tackle a case that is not,
on first appearance, a cold case at all. Boyd tackles a young
woman, Marina, as she sets fire to an abandoned car. It transpires
that Marina's father died in a car accident a few years earlier
at the same spot, and Marina refuses to accept that his death
was an accident. Frankie runs forensic tests on Marina's father's
car and discovers that he was still alive after the crash
and could have escaped. So who killed Marina's father and
why?
Blind
Beggar sees a skull being unearthed in a church crypt
when workmen are excavating the site. Nothing odd there you
might think, but it soon becomes apparent that the skull is
a fairly recent addition.
A
Simple Sacrifice follows the case of a woman who has already
served 25 years in prison after she confessed to killing her
husband and her son's friend. The case is reopened when someone
starts sending in forensic evidence that proves that the killer
is still on the loose. Boyd sets about trying to uncover why
a woman would spend the best years of her life in prison if
she is innocent.
Every
Breath You Take sees Boyd investigating the murder of
a policewoman after her body is found in the Thames a year
after she vanished. But with so many people who have motive
for killing her (a couple of stalkers, her ex-husband and
the father of her unborn child) the clock is ticking for Boyd
and his team.
While
all five two-parter episodes have their merits, I personally
found A Simple Sacrifice and Every Breath You Take
to be the most satisfying. It's not that the murders are incredible
difficult to work out - in fact of all the episodes in this
collection these two are the easiest (it's pretty obvious
in Every Breath You Take but the writer has tried to
confuse the viewer by introducing the murder into the story
as late as possible. But once they are introduced it's fairly
obvious). No, the reason I enjoyed these two stories is that
there is a lot more going on than you normally expect in this
sort of drama.
While
you may not guess who the murderer is in A Simple Sacrifice,
you will easily be able to work out why the mother confessed
so readily. This story works incredibly well, tugging at the
heart strings only when really necessary. And the identity
of the person sending the clues into Boyd is incredibly well
conceived.
But
it is Every Breath You Take that really sees the show
hit its stride. This episode also has some very subtle humour
that works really well. When one witness is questioned he
gives the police a photofit of the guy he saw hanging around
the policewoman's house. The result is a comical man who would
stick out in a crowd. It's obvious that this man never existed...
or is it? There are so many suspects and so much going on
that it quickly becomes a bit of a mess and the viewer will
change their mind every five minutes about who they think
the murderer is.
The
first series of Waking the Dead is an incredible success.
Clever writing and some of the best acting seen in a drama,
make this a must own collection.
Nick
Smithson
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