Lorna Watson, Kerry Godliman and Greta Scacchi also discuss what it’s like playing the lead in some of the UK’s biggest crime dramas.
Our fascination with crime is not new, as our columnist David Hepworth reminds us in this issue, referring to George Orwell’s essay Decline of the English Murder, written in 1946. But neither is television’s appetite for covering the crime beat.
Of course, crime stories come in many guises, from cosy flights of fancy where no one dies horrifically and everybody gathers in the drawing room for a final reckoning over afternoon tea, to terrible accounts of the human cost of real-life murder.
As our cover story suggests, there is a new crime wave unfolding on television in which female sleuths, often of a certain age, bring criminals to book in a style that owes much to Agatha Christie. To some this is perfect comfort viewing – exactly what crime on TV should be.
Although beware of labelling them “cosy”. As the star of The Marlow Murder Club, Samantha Bond, tells us: “There isn’t much that’s cosy about The Marlow Murder Club – it’s a really complex, funny, intriguing murder mystery.”
At the other end of the spectrum is the true story that the Oscar-winning writer Dustin Lance Black tells us in his drama Under the Banner of Heaven. Researching the story of a killing in a tight-knot Mormon community in Utah in the 1980s, he came face to face with a murderer.
It proved to be a moment of revelation and reckoning. “I understood what sociopathy looks like,” he says. “I could see how pleased he was to have the opportunity to tell his story again.”
This, of course, is the trap that awaits anyone consuming a crime story. In real life it’s the victims’ stories that are not often told. To that end, in this week’s Radio Times magazine, we also hear the harrowing account of a mother who lost her daughter in a brutal murder. Read Yasmin Javed’s story in this issue.
Also in this week’s Radio Times:
- Ray Winstone discusses filming The Gentlemen with director Guy Ritchie, young actors in Hollywood, and his time in Marvel movie Black Widow
- Author and historian Benjamin Woolley chats about the Sky Original Mary & George, explicit scenes for television and the love triangle between James, George and Mary
- Speaking to The Radio Times Podcast: Dame Joanna Lumley on co-star Roger Allam, the success of her marriage, changes in the industry since starting out in the ’60s and performing sex scenes
The Marlow Murder Club airs on Drama and UKTV Play on Wednesday 6th March and Thursday 7th March at 8pm.
If you’re looking for more to watch, check out our TV Guide and Streaming Guide or visit our Drama hub for more news and features.
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