Murder in the Outback

Joanne Lees: Murder in the Outback
ITV promotional trailer
Genre	fiction
Written by	Kate Brooke
Directed by	Tony Tilse
Starring	Joanne Froggatt John Wood Laurence Breuls
Theme music composer	Guy Gross
Country of origin	Australia United Kingdom
Original language(s)	English
Production
Producer(s)	Spencer Campbell Matt Carroll
Editor(s)	Martin Connor
Running time	94 minutes (120 minutes including advertisements)
Release
Original network	Network Ten (Australia) ITV1 (United Kingdom)
Original release	Australia: 18 March 2007 United Kingdom: 8 April 2007

Joanne Lees: Murder in the Outback (also known as Murder in the Outback) is a television film produced by Channel Ten and ITV Productions, which first aired in Australia on Channel Ten on 18 March 2007 and in the UK on ITV on Sunday 8 April, where it was titled Murder In The Outback. It is based on the real life disappearance of Peter Falconio.

The film begins in 2001, when backpackers Joanne Lees and Peter Falconio were travelling around the outback in Australia in a camper van. On the Stuart Highway, near Barrow Creek, in the Northern Territory, they were waved down by Bradley John Murdoch, who was later convicted of assaulting Lees and murdering Falconio.

The opening scene is Bondi Beach in Sydney. The backpackers climb into their Kombi van and embark upon their journey into the outback. When driving on the Stuart Highway late one night, they are flagged down by a bearded man driving a ute. Falconio disappears around the back of the Kombi with the man, and tells Lees to rev the engine. She does so, and a gunshot can be heard. Lees cries out for Falconio, but he does not answer back, and he is not seen again after this point.

The bearded man then appears at the front of the vehicle brandishing a gun, and attempts to kidnap Lees, tying her up in the process. Managing to escape from capture, she hides in nearby bushes.

After four hours of hiding she is finally rescued by a driver of a road train, who takes Lees to a hotel, where the police are called.

Immediately, the press from the UK and Australia began gaining interest in the case, throwing doubt onto Lees's story and focusing on intense rumours that she murdered Falconio. Later, however, Bradley Murdoch is arrested and charged with Falconio's murder after Lees identifies him as the bearded man who kidnapped her.