Murderland with Robbie Coltrane ITV1 – Preview

Harry Potter Star in First Cop Drama Since Cracker

Oct 15, 2009

Robbie Coltrane gives the kid's roles a rest to play a tormented detective in a twisting, suspenseful new three-part drama.

Murderland is one of British TV’s most compelling crime thrillers of recent years, the story of a girl suffering the trauma of her mother’s murder told from three different viewpoints.

It’s been a while but Robbie Coltrane has found himself a serious acting role that will grab TV audiences by the lapels. It’s hard to look away as his detective, Douglas Hain, squirms and manoeuvres through a murder investigation that is all too emotional for him.

Bloody Crime Scene

In 1994, 13-year-old Carrie (Bel Powley) returns home to a bloody crime scene. She may have been in the house earlier at the same time as her mother’s brutal killer, may even have seen him.

Carrie can never free herself of the horror and wrench in her emotional life. As she grows to adulthood as Carol (played by Amanda Hale), she has to revisit the past to free herself of it so she can move on and marry the man she loves.

The second viewpoint, explored in episode two, is that of DI Hain (Robbie Coltrane), bagggy-eyed and crumpled, like a larger-than-life Columbo, but with terrible problems in his private and professional lives. Like Carrie, he is haunted by the murder 15 years later.

Mother Worked as Prostitute

Finally, the audience gets the murder victim’s take on the crime. Sally (Lucy Cohu) has not told her daughter she works as a prostitute. She dreams of freeing herself from sex work and making a better life for Carrie.

The title Murderland refers to a disturbed psychological state that can affect children who have been close to a violent crime. Carrie suffers a heightened crime-obsessed state that makes her want to reconnect with her mother.

The drama’s writer, David Pirie, cites crime writer James Ellroy’s extraordinary account of his own mother’s murder, My Dark Places, as an example of this.

Hitchcock, Obsession and Love

Pirie’s friendship with Coltrane was one of the factors that sparked the series’ creation. ‘Both of us shared a passion for film noir and had often talked of the sort of things we wanted to see on TV,’ Pirie says in publicity material for Murderland. ‘But Robbie was always more critical of Hitchcock than I was, feeling the man’s flaw was that he dealt in obsession and not in love. In Murderland we wanted to have both.’

Shades of Hitchcock permeate this thriller, particularly when Carol retreads her mother’s footsteps (even dressing like her) to delve into the past, recalling James Stewart in Vertigo trying to remodel Kim Novak to resemble a dead woman with whom he is obsessed.

Meanwhile, Murderland’s multiple narratives, showing the same scenes from different perspectives that unveil secret sides to the characters, are cleverly done and gripping.

Robbie Coltrane from Cracker to Murderland

Coltrane had a huge success as criminal psychologist Fitz in Jimmy McGovern’s powerful Cracker between 1993 to 2006 (remade in the US with Robert Pastorelli). But in Murderland he is older, less robust and self-destructive, but very vulnerable.

Having been in danger of becoming known simply as the bloke who played Hagrid in Harry Potter, and for voiceovers in fantasies such as The Tale of Despereaux, Gooby and The Gruffalo (coming to BBC1 this Christmas), it is good to see Coltrane in a first-rate drama again.

His character’s bond with Carol is fraught but touching, and their journey to the truth of her mother’s murder is must-see TV.

Murderland ITV1: starts Monday, 19 October 2009, 9.00pm-10.00pm

Robbie Coltrane – DI Douglas Hain

Oliver Nicholas – Gleaves

Rachel Lorraine – Ashbourne

David Westhead – Tony Philips

Andrew Tiernan – Whitaker

Yasmin Page – Jess

David Gyasi – Will

Steven Robertson – McGrath

Mali Harries – DC Hart

Paul Thornley – Connor Mackie

Guy Henry – Crawford

Michael Bertenshaw – Tobias

The copyright of the article Murderland with Robbie Coltrane ITV1 – Preview in British TV is owned by Robin Jarossi. Permission to republish Murderland with Robbie Coltrane ITV1 – Preview in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.