Blue Murder (UK TV series)

Blue Murder
Genre	Crime drama
Created by	Cath Staincliffe
Starring	Caroline Quentin Ian Kelsey Paul Loughran Nicholas Murchie Saskia Wickham Rhea Bailey Belinda Everett
Theme music composer	Kevin Sargeant
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language(s)	English
No. of series	5
No. of episodes	19
Production
Running time	90 minutes (series 1–4) 60 minutes (series 5)
Production company(s)	ITV Studios
Release
Original network	ITV, STV, UTV
Picture format	16:9 (576i SDTV)
Original release	18 May 2003 – 12 October 2009
External links
Website

Blue Murder is a British crime drama television series based in Manchester, originally broadcast on ITV from 2003 until 2009, starring Caroline Quentin as DCI Janine Lewis and Ian Kelsey as DI Richard Mayne. Five series of the programme were broadcast over the course of six years.

Blue Murder centres on a single mother of four, DCI Janine Lewis (Caroline Quentin), trying to balance a demanding career with raising her young family, whilst constantly battling with her ex-husband, who has since started a new family of his own.

The series was created by Cath Staincliffe, a novelist and radio playwright. Staincliffe pitched the idea for Blue Murder to ITV and a two-part first series was commissioned by the network. The first series began broadcasting on 18 May 2003. Due to strong ratings, a second series of four episodes was subsequently commissioned and began broadcasting in 2004. Staincliffe was principal writer for the first two series, with John Fay, Jeff Povey and Matthew Hall also contributing scripts for the second series.

The fifth and final series debuted on 7 September 2009. The series was regarded by the cast as the best series yet, and Quentin described the series as having "finally cracked it". The final series included a number of guest stars Mark Benton, Lee Boardman, Kieran O'Brien, Brendan Coyle, Heather Peace, Tina O'Brien, Sylvia Syms and Anthony Flanagan.

Blue Murder began as two 90-minute (advertisements included) episodes first shown in May 2003, which gained enough viewers for a full series. This two-part pilot later became known as series one and released as such on DVD in the UK.

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