Life of Crime is a British television crime drama series first broadcast on ITV1 in May 2013. The three-part serial stars Hayley Atwell as Denise Woods, who tries to solve the murders of three seemingly connected victims across three decades, each of which she believes has been committed by the same offender, Mike Holland (Julian Lewis Jones). Declining ratings across the series resulted in a second run not being commissioned; the series was however received well by critics and viewers.[1]
| Life of Crime | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Crime drama |
| Created by | Declan Croghan |
| Written by | Declan Croghan |
| Directed by | Jim Loach |
| Starring | Hayley Atwell Richard Coyle Julian Lewis Jones Con O'Neill Joel Beckett Ray Panthaki |
| Composer | Ray Harman |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Original language | English |
| No. of series | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 3 |
| Production | |
| Executive producers | James Flynn Douglas Rae |
| Producer | Emma Kingsman-Lloyd |
| Running time | 60 mins. (w/ advertisements) |
| Production company | ITV Studios |
| Original release | |
| Network | ITV1 |
| Release | 10 – 24 May 2013 |
The complete series was released on DVD on 27 April 2015.[2]
Plot
ITV's initial plotline of the series was as follows:
"Denise Woods starts her career as an idealistic WPC, fighting sexism and ignoring her mother’s disappointment at her career choice. She’s seconded to work with handsome young plain clothes Detective Sergeant Ray Deans. One September morning, she accompanies him to a crime scene in a narrow lane behind a Brixton nightclub where the battered and strangled body of teenager Amy has been discovered. Having had a previous encounter with the teenager, Denise is determined to bring Amy’s killer to justice. She works against the clear instruction and advice of her senior officers and follows her own lines of enquiry. As the investigation progresses Denise’s fervour for the case leads her to fall foul of her senior officer, DCI Ferguson. But Denise stays single-minded in her pursuit of the killer and at that point makes her fateful decision."[3]
Cast
- Hayley Atwell as WPC/DS/DI Denise Woods
- Richard Coyle as DS Ray Deans
- Julian Lewis Jones as Mike Holland
- Con O'Neill as DCI Ferguson
- Joel Beckett as DI Gainham
- Ray Panthaki as DS Nabeel Kothari
- Amanda Drew as Beverley Reid
- Lara Rossi as DC Jay Tomlin
- Ruth McCabe as Rose Woods
Episode list
| # | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date | UK viewers (millions)[4] | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Episode 1" | Jim Loach | Declan Croghan | 10 May 2013 | 4.38m | |
|
1985. WPC Denise Woods starts work at Brixton police station and immediately encounters sexism and hostility from piggish DCI Ferguson. One friendly face is DS Ray Deans, with whom Denise teams up to investigate the rape and murder of teen-aged Amy Reid, a girl Denise befriended after a disturbance at the Subotica club and who told Denise her father Paul disapproved of her dating black men. Ferguson is keen to arrest Paul Reid, but Denise learns from Amy's friend Ellen that Amy left in a car with the club's DJ. When Denise and Ray visit the club they find bouncer Mike Holland with scratches on his face and wearing a medallion identical to Amy's. Denise seeks out Jay, a woman Holland was accused of raping though he was acquitted and, as the Brixton riots start, Ferguson allows Denise to take the credit for Holland's arrest. | ||||||
| 2 | "Episode 2" | Jim Loach | Declan Croghan | 17 May 2013 | 3.53m | |
|
1997. Denise is now a detective inspector and married to Ray with a daughter Charlotte. She is investigating the rape and murder of Lauren Hinds, but when DNA on Lauren is cross-checked it matches unknown samples found on Amy Reid twelve years earlier. This enables Holland's solicitor to push for an unsafe conviction and the man is released. Denise then has to admit to Ray that she planted evidence on Holland, as she was convinced he killed Amy and wanted a conviction at any cost. Another night club bouncer is arrested for killing Lauren, but he is impotent and could not have raped her, leading Denise to conclude that there was an accomplice. However she is subject to a hearing after her confession and demoted to sergeant, moving out of her house as Ray asks for a divorce. | ||||||
| 3 | "Episode 3" | Jim Loach | Declan Croghan | 24 May 2013 | 2.96m | |
|
2013. Denise, her rank restored and about to interview for superintendent, reacts badly when ex-husband Ray tells her that Charlotte is pregnant and throws herself into investigating the murder of Joanna Andrews. To her surprise, she finds DNA connected to Mike Holland and discovers from CCTV footage that he was in a van near the murder scene. She works out that there was another man with him at the gig Joanna attended, justifying her view that all three of the murders over the years involved an accomplice. Denise's protégée DC Jay Tomlin offers herself as bait at the club where Holland works and flushes out the identity of the accomplice, who is arrested. Jay is snatched by Holland but rescued by Denise, who, the case resolved, gets her promotion and reconciles with Charlotte, who comes to stay with her. | ||||||
References
- ^ https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/tv-and-radio-reviews/10048944/Life-of-Crime-ITV-review.html [bare URL]
- ^ https://www.amazon.co.uk/Life-Crime-DVD-Hayley-Atwell/dp/B00U2HNWAQ/ref=sr_1_2?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1462375161&sr=1-2&keywords=life+of+crime [bare URL]
- ^ http://www.itv.com/presscentre/ep1week19/life-crimeM[permanent dead link]
- ^ http://www.barb.co.uk/viewing-data/weekly-top-30/ [bare URL]