Waking the Dead (TV series)

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Waking the Dead
Waking the Dead.jpg
Genre Crime drama
Created byBarbara Machin
Starring
ComposerJoe Campbell
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Original languageEnglish
No. of series9
No. of episodes92 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producersAlexei de Keyser
Patrick Spence
Susan Hogg
Anne Pivcevic
ProducerColin Wratten
CinematographyMike Spragg
EditorAdam Trotman
Running time60 minutes
Production companyBBC Drama Group
Original release
Network BBC One
Release4 September 2000 (2000-09-04) 
11 April 2011 (2011-04-11)
Related
The Body Farm

Waking the Dead is a British television police procedural crime drama series, produced by the BBC, that centres on a fictional London-based cold case unit composed of CID police officers, a psychological profiler and a forensic scientist. A pilot episode aired in September 2000, and a total of nine series followed. Each story is split into two hour-long episodes, shown on consecutive nights on BBC One. A third series episode won an International Emmy Award in 2004. The programme was also shown on BBC America in the United States, though these screenings are edited to allow for advertising breaks, as well as UKTV in Australia and New Zealand and ABC1 in Australia. A total of 46 stories aired across the nine series. The show aired its final episode on 11 April 2011. A spin-off from the series, titled The Body Farm , revolving around forensic scientist Eve Lockhart (Tara Fitzgerald), was announced by the BBC in January 2011 and ran for just one series.

Contents

In 2018, a five-part radio prequel to the series, The Unforgiven, was broadcast on BBC Radio 4, with Sue Johnston, Claire Goose, Wil Johnson and Holly Aird reprising their roles. All five episodes were written by series creator Barbara Machin. Anthony Howell replaced Trevor Eve in the role of Peter Boyd. [1]

Plot

Overview

The programme follows the work of a special police team that investigates cold cases, which usually concern murders that took place a number of years in the past, and were never solved. The team, composed of head officer Detective Superintendent Peter Boyd (Trevor Eve), psychological profiler Grace Foley (Sue Johnston), Detective Inspector Spencer Jordan (Wil Johnson), as well as a number of other supporting characters, uses evidence which has recently come to light, as well as contemporary technology to examine former evidence.

Initially, Boyd, Grace and Spence were accompanied by junior DC Mel Silver (Claire Goose), and stern forensic scientist Frankie Wharton (Holly Aird), however both left after the end of the fourth series. Felix Gibson (Esther Hall) and Stella Goodman (Félicité du Jeu) replaced them in the fifth series, before Eve Lockhart (Tara Fitzgerald) replaced Felix from the sixth series onwards. Katarina Howard (Stacey Roca) replaced Stella in series eight, while Sarah Cavendish (Eva Birthistle) replaced Katarina in series nine. Although the plotlines generally centre around the case, other storylines have been incorporated across the years, including Boyd's anger management issues and his being re-united with his son, Grace suffering from cancer, Spencer being shot at the hands of one of his former colleagues, and Mel's death, which creates a chain of events lasting across two series.

The show also addressed sensitive issues such as fanaticism within different religions, international organised crime, child abuse within the Catholic church, war crimes in Bosnia, forced child labour, torture, homophobia and racism. The BBC issued disclaimers twice on the show when it touched upon issues sensitive to the Labour government of the time (once about banking frauds within the City of London establishment and once about the involvement of the UK in the Iraq war). Some of the issues were dealt with through the conflicting views of Peter Boyd (a white middle-class liberal) and Spencer Jordan (a black working-class conservative).

The Body Farm , a spin-off revolving around forensic scientist Eve Lockhart (Tara Fitzgerald), produced by Trevor Eve and made by his production company Projector, was commissioned by the BBC. However, after poor ratings and reviews, it was cancelled after one series.

Cast

Main cast

Recurring cast

Characters

Police

Doctors

Episodes

Reception

The first series secured strong ratings, with "Burn Out" receiving 8.4 million viewers and a 38% audience share. [4] Persistently high ratings meant the programme was recommissioned each year for either the summer or winter schedule. The sixth series began with strong ratings, with "Wren Boys" achieving 9.2M viewers and a 35.2% audience share. [5] The second part dropped to 8.6M, but still gained a 33% audience share. [6] Following the successful transmission of the third series and an International Emmy Award nomination for "Special Relationship" written by Stephen Davis and directed by David Thacker, a further two series were commissioned with the number of stories expanded from four to six. [7] Waking the Dead won an International Emmy Award the following year for "Breaking Glass", written by Stephen Davis and directed by Maurice Phillips, and "Multistorey", written by Ed Whitmore and directed by Bob Bierman. [8]

Home media

All nine series have been released on DVD in the United Kingdom via 2 Entertain Ltd, under the BBC DVD banner. All nine series are also available in a complete boxset. Series one to seven have been released by BBC Video in the United States, while all nine series have been released in Australia via Roadshow.

DVD nameRelease dates
Region 1Region 2Region 4
Series One24 October 200612 September 20052 March 2006
Series Two16 October 200726 June 20061 April 2010
Series Three20 January 200925 September 20061 June 2010
Series Four19 January 201029 January 20074 August 2010
Series Five18 January 2011 [9] 10 September 20075 October 2010
Series Six17 January 2012 [10] 19 May 20082 December 2010
Series Seven15 January 2013 [11] 3 May 20103 February 2011
Series Eight17 September 201312 July 20103 May 2011
Series Nine20 May 20142 May 20113 June 2012
Series One-Nine2 May 2011

See also

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References

  1. "BBC Radio 4 - The Unforgiven". BBC. Retrieved 25 March 2020.
  2. "About the Show". BBC. Retrieved 22 September 2009.
  3. "Series 6 Episode Guide". BBC. Retrieved 22 September 2009.
  4. Digital Spy author (22 June 2001) Feltz return grabs 4m , Digital Spy, retrieved 2007-01-06
  5. Waking the Dead returns to BBC1 with 9.2m , Broadcast Now, retrieved 2007-01-10
  6. Waking the Dead rouses 8.6m , Broadcast Now, retrieved 2007-01-10
  7. Wilkes, Neil (4 November 2003) 'Waking the Dead' gets two new series , Digital Spy, retrieved 2007-01-06
  8. BBC News (23 November 2004) UK sweep up at global Emmy Awards , bbc.co.uk , retrieved 2007-01-06
  9. "Waking the Dead DVD news: Announcement for Waking the Dead - The Complete 5th Season - TVShowsOnDVD.com". Archived from the original on 22 August 2016. Retrieved 18 June 2016.
  10. "Waking the Dead - The Complete 6th Season DVD Information - TVShowsOnDVD.com". Archived from the original on 22 August 2016. Retrieved 18 June 2016.
  11. "Waking the Dead DVD news: Announcement for Waking the Dead - The Complete 7th Season - TVShowsOnDVD.com". Archived from the original on 22 August 2016. Retrieved 18 June 2016.