I have never been one to watch programmes that involve murder and mayhem, I know pathetic isn't it, I feel there is enough death and devastation in this world without making it the focal point of a drama, do you believe me…… no and you shouldn't! The real reason I don't usually watch these sort of programmes is because they frighten me, there is nothing more frightening and disturbing than real events.

Against my better judgement however I began watching a new police drama, the premise for the show was based around a team of investigators, trying to solve "cold cases", which are unsolved murders.
I was surprised and alarmed at how quickly I became addicted to this show, even though I still feel disturbed and frightened at most episodes I can only assume it's the cast that keep me coming back for more.

The product I will now review is "Waking the dead, the complete first series, including pilot episode"

~~~~~~ CAST ~~~~~~

I will start with the cast, as they are the building blocks to any half decent programme, there are a group of five "regular" actors featured in every episode, these are -

TREVOR EVE - who plays Ds Peter Boyd, who was once a no nonsense copper who was allocated the resources of a new department and a small group of staff specifically to solve the unsolvable. He has a year to prove his departments worth.
Trevor Eve's character is funny, sharp, intelligent and at all times there is an underlying current of sadness, which the reason for this becomes apparent a little further on in the series. He always also gets far too attached to every case, only being dragged back from the edge by his side kick and friend Grace Foley.

SUE JOHNSTONE - who plays Grace Foley, is a profiler. She takes any evidence available and begins to build profiles of killers, she can pinpoint emotions that spur people on to kill, even to their supposed age, from nothing more than a proposed location of death, truly incredible.
Grace Foley is the calming force in the team and also acts as a buffer between Boyd and the lower members of the team, even after seeing her as part of "the Royle family", she is completely believable in this role, just proving what an incredible and understated actress she really is.

WIL JOHSON - plays Spencer Jordan, one of the two police staff who are part of the team, he performs a high number of investigative duties that Boyd allocates out to him, ie door to door questioning, file searching and going over old cases from the original investigations.
Spencer is a dedicated and intelligent member of the team who is also very quick tempered, he is very often clashing with Boyd due to Boyd's sharp and sometimes condescending tone. Spencer also clashes regularly with Frankie the teams pathologist, due to her inability to interact with the murder victims family's.

HOLLY AIRED - plays Frankie Wharton, the teams pathologist. She only took the position in the cold case squad on the understanding she would have a free reign within her department, investigating her aspects of her role in the precise manner she is accustomed to, this causes many arguments as she feels sometimes the evidence gets compromised, especially by family members of victims who want access to crime scenes, this in turn riles Spencer, as he is of the understanding the victims family's should come first.
Frankie is methodical and truly incredible, many of the cold cases that get solved are solely down to her amazing methods of detective work.

CLARE GOOSE - plays Mel Silver, who is the second of the two police staff in the team, again she is responsible for the foot work involved.
Mel is another calming influence on the team, but will never get trampled under foot, she places herself in the firing line on many of the investigations, proving how completely dedicated she is to her position in this team.

~~~~~~ THE PILOT EPISODE ~~~~~~

This episode was first aired in 2000, it was originally intended as a one off two part drama, but as it attracted so many viewers, ended up becoming a series in June 2001, this may explain why until I purchased this box set, I had never seen this episode before.

The basic plot for the episode is - the newly formed cold case team have been asked to investigate a five year old case, a sting in the tail for Boyd as this was one of his old cases when a regular detective and due to a balls-up on his part was never solved!
The team have to investigate the abduction, rape and murder of a young girl, the re- opening of the case and highly publicized "new team", prompts the murderer to strike again, seemingly to get into the mind of Boyd, but for what reason?

This is a very good episode considering it was the pilot, the characters, even though their new, are explained and introduced quickly and efficiently, the story line has you on the edge of your seat from the onset, with the murderer being a hateful yet pitiful creature, not only does it show the mind of a murderer, but also goes a way to explain how they became that way, thanks to Grace. This is a great first episode, one that really whets your appetite.

~~~~~~ EVERY BREATH YOU TAKE ~~~~~~

The plot for this episode is - a golf bag is found in the river Thames, upon opening it the gruesome remains are discovered of a well known missing police woman, who disappeared a year previously. This of course sparks outrage, that the police are not seen to be helping one of there own. The police woman, just before her disappearance, had saved two young children from drowning, thus making her a minor celebrity and drawing the attention of every stalker and fruit loop out there, so who could have killed her, her estranged husband, one of her many stalkers, or maybe it was the father of her unborn child?

This is another incredible episode, there are so many people who you convince yourself is the murderer, the stalkers are particularly good, they are played so cleverly that you find yourself believing every thing that comes out of their mouths (as they do!), right up until the end I never guessed the murderer and was gob smacked to find out who it actually was!

~~~~~~ A SIMPLE SACRIFICE ~~~~~~

The plot for this episode is - After spending 25 years in jail new evidence is brought to light bringing in to dispute the cut and dry conviction on so called murderer Annie Keel. 25 years ago the bodies of Annie's lawyer husband and the her son Sam's best friend, a 9 year old boy called Giles are discovered stabbed to death in their beds. Annie immediately admits to their murders, and due to the fact she was a former prostitute and has alcohol and copious amounts of cocaine in her system, the police take her at her word without too much investigating .
25 years on, the case is thrown into disarray when a toy that was not found on scene after the murders, is sent in anonymously, the toy is covered in Giles blood, along with the blood of another person not previously identified at the scene.

This is a clever and interesting episode as you think you are given the murderer from the start, as the episode develops you almost follow the story in reverse, culminating with the murder scene from the beginning!
There is a particularly clever scene, where the whole bedroom where the murdered child was found, is reconstructed from the thousands of pieces of evidence collected at the time, from carpet to wallpaper. They even make the bed with original sheet on the bed, this is to help with the forensic aspects of the case, very clever!

~~~~~~ BURN OUT ~~~~~~

The plot for this episode is - The team have been allocated an old cold case involving a person who poisons certain foods within a specific supermarket, they have thousands of pieces of forensic evidence to sift through and only three weeks to complete it, the team are pushed to their limits and Boyd is somewhat distracted. The only information given about his son is the fact it would have been his 25th birthday, so when Boyd is approached by a young girl who claims her father died in a so called car crash, his resolve is slightly weakened, causing great arguments between the other members of the team due to the amount of work they already have.
After much persuasion by Boyd, the team finally back him up and the investigation takes a turn for the worse, finally determing that the death of the young girls father may not have happened quite the way they had all first thought.

This was another in depth and disturbing episode, much of the case revolves around the atrocities that happened in Yugoslavia at the beginning of the conflict, much of the genocide is documented in the form of photographs, but very disturbing none the less, not one of my favourite episodes, but interesting to watch.

~~~~~~ THE BLIND BEGGAR ~~~~~~

The plot for this episode is - upon renovations taking place in the catholic church of St Josephs, a body is discovered in the crypt, not too unusual you may think to find a body in a 18 century church crypt, until it is determined that the body has only been there for 20 years and has been buried in concrete.
The plot thickens and the most unlikely of people are dragged into the investigation, the most unlikely being Moira, the most dedicated of St Joseph's parishioners, her seemingly unrelenting cleaning of the church for her up and coming renewal of marriage vows soon reveals more than just a demented addiction to cleaning.

This is a great episode, the so called religious people who for some reason will only go to the former priest of the church, even though he is at deaths door, reveal that religion hides many secrets that even confession cannot wash away!

~~~~~~ MUSIC ~~~~~~

There are no musical underscores to speak of aside from the very distinctive theme tune, there is however music in the final episode to reiterate the religious aspect of it, there is a beautiful and haunting version of Requiem played on and off throughout the church scenes.

~~~~~~ DVD AND EXTRAS ~~~~~~

The pilot episode contains only one disc, which holds the two parts of the programme on, each running for an hour.

The other two cases hold two discs a piece, each as the pilot episode, holding two one hour parts.

There are no extras on these discs, aside from the usual, scene selection, subtitles or the option to play part one, part two or the entire two hour episode in full.

~~~~~~ PRICE AND AVAILABILITY ~~~~~~
These are available from amazon.co.uk, (which is incidentally where I purchased this from), admittedly it was £20.00 when I bought it, but is now available for £10.98, annoying!

~~~~~~ CONCLUSION ~~~~~~

I can only apologise for the length of this review, but felt it necessary to go through the episodes in detail, as they deserve no less. This is a wonderful, entertaining, scary, disturbing and addictive programme well worth watching, highly recommended.

Thanks for reading x