Catch up TV: The Murder Detectives and Catastrophe (Dec 4)

Alastair McKay picks the best of this week’s TV to catch up with online
The Murder Detectives: the three-part documentary series is one of this week's top picks
Channel 4 / Films of Reco
Alastair McKay4 December 2015

One of the pleasures of listening to Serial, Sarah Koenig’s podcast about a 1999 murder case in Baltimore, was the way it exposed the thin sinews of crime and punishment.

The guilt, or otherwise, of the man at the centre of the story was by definition arguable — that’s the nature of the justice system — but the tests of his innocence were often quite banal.

Serial spent a lot of time thinking about mobile-phone masts and whether there was a payphone in a shopping mall at the time of the murder. The crime wasn’t explained by extraordinary acts of intuition or the dreamy time-flashes of CSI. It unfurled in ways that were banal, small and logical.

It wouldn’t be strictly accurate to say that The Murder Detectives (All 4) is Serial reworked for television but it shares some of its grammar. Shot over 18 months and reduced to three hour-long episodes, David Nath’s documentary shows two sides of an investigation into the senseless murder of 19-year-old Nicholas Robinson in Bristol in 2014.

Mostly it is about the search for the killer and the dogged police work that goes into a criminal investigation. But it also throws light on those who are left behind, most notably Nicholas’s mother, who had already lost two sons — one to meningitis, a second to murder in Jamaica in 2013. Then there is Nicholas’s fiancée Shannon, who was talking to him on the phone when he was attacked. In his dying moments Nicholas managed to call the police and say, “I’ve been stabbed really bad.”

Oddly for a documentary of this type the cops themselves are not caricatures. If anything they seem to be restraining themselves in front of the cameras. There is no hero, though PC Ifor Williams stands out as a one-man advertisement for the efficacy of community policing.

Televisually, the existence of CCTV is a great help, so there is footage of the murderer before and after the crime, though the pictures are indistinct and offer false leads. Social media provides handy clips of the suspects mimicking gangster rappers and provides a kind of alibi for one, showing that he had a driving lesson, did some wheelies on his bike and went out to buy chicken on the day of the murder. Were those the actions of a cold-hearted killer?

Best TV dramas 2015 - in pictures

1/9

There is no glamour. The investigation is a plod of lifting drain covers, raking in the undergrowth, trawling online. A suspect issues a veiled threat on Facebook, the high-tech team guess an iPhone password, someone Googles for news of the crime before it has been reported. Over the full three hours the sense of tragedy multiplies and the grief of Nicholas’s mother comes to the fore. “One word,” she says, “why?” An extraordinary piece of television.

Series two of Catastrophe is complete. Happily the ending implies a further catastrophe is about to befall Sharon Horgan and Rob Delaney’s smart-but-romantically-inept couple. Why is it great? Well, the writing is emotionally uncensored and comes close to articulating the terrible thoughts we all have about our relationships, so it’s funny as well as painful to watch.

It also has a fantastic supporting cast, notably Mark Bonnar and Ashley Jensen, as Chris and Fran, the couple who do allow themselves to fall apart. Jensen has a great way of making her face look like an angry cinnamon roll, and Bonnar gets the best lines. I laughed, perhaps a little too hard, as he sat in the children’s playground, vaping desperately.

Follow Alastair McKay on Twitter: @AHMcKay

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in