Murder City | |
---|---|
Genre | Crime drama |
Created by | Robert Murphy |
Written by | Robert Murphy Stephen Plaice Danny Miller |
Directed by | Richard Spence Ashley Pearce Ian Knox |
Starring |
Amanda Donohoe Kris Marshall Connor McIntyre Laura Main Tim Woodward Amber Agar Geff Francis Alexis Conran |
Composer(s) | Mark Russell |
Country of origin | United Kingdom |
Original language(s) | English |
No. of series | 2 |
No. of episodes | 10 (list of episodes) |
Production | |
Executive producer(s) |
Andy Harries Francis Hopkinson |
Producer(s) | Mark Hudson David Boulter Tony Dennis |
Running time | 90 minutes |
Production company(s) | Granada Television |
Distributor | ITV Studios |
Release | |
Original network | ITV |
Picture format | 16:9 |
Audio format | Stereo |
Original release | 18 March 2004 | – 26 April 2006
Murder City is a British crime drama series produced by Granada Television, first broadcast on 18 March 2004 on ITV, that focuses on two mismatched detectives — DI Susan Alembic (Amanda Donohoe) and DS Luke Stone (Kris Marshall) — who scour London solving complex cases. The first series consisted of six episodes. A second and final series of four episodes was subsequently commissioned, which began broadcast on 5 April 2006. Following declining viewing figures, a third series of Murder City was not commissioned. BBC America began airing the complete series on August 17, 2006, and it was subsequently released in a Region 1 four-disc DVD box set by Image Entertainment on August 14, 2007.
Whilst the premise of the show features a murder squad investigating complex cases in and around London, the drama created is centered around the re-alignment of character team-ups. Although DI Susan Alembic (Amanda Donohoe) and DS Luke Stone (Kris Marshall) are the lead characters and partners, writer Robert Murphy frequently separates them at the beginning of each episode, by providing them with their own case to solve. While Alembic is typically partnered with DI Adrian Dumfries (Geff Francis), Dumfries also possessed his own cases which the episodes followed.
Additionally, character personality alignment frequently varied. Episodes either switched between Stone and Alembic uniting against Dumfries' personality, or Dumfries and Alembic conjoining to discourage Stone's theories. However, one episode showed all three sharing a laugh, despite DCI Sebastian Turner (Tim Woodward)'s chagrin. Despite showing the personality failures of each character, the series did not overtly lampoon any character or favour one crime solving style over another. Both the 'out of the box' and the 'by the book' characters contribute to the solution of their individual cases through their unique approaches.