The first recording today is Waking the Dead – Undertow part 1. The recording starts just as the programme starts, missing the titles, and I’m getting a flashback to a couple of days ago, as that’s Stephen Moyer, last seen in Empathy, running a bath, then flashing back to murdering a woman. Doesn’t seem much of a whodunnit.
The victim is Suzy Jenkins, a third year law student who was strangled some years ago. The reason her case has suddenly got warm is that her credit card, which was in her wallet, that was never recovered, was just used to try to sign up to a porn site called “More Mamas”. I’m not saying the programme was playing into stereotypes with their portrayal of the website admin. Who has to be told that he can check the website logs to find who tried to use the credit card by Stella.
Suzy’s housemate Chloe Martin discovered Suzy’s body upstairs when the water from an overflowing bath starts leaking through the ceiling.
They were featured in the local paper.
Felix gets an address from the website logs for the man who used the card. Her handwriting is lovely.
The man is a dead end. He’d found the wallet after a flood in the grounds around his house, where they’d recently moved. So they check with the estate agent to find previous owners. The woman who handled the sale, Bryony Watts, isn’t at the last address they had, but the woman there knows who her boyfriend was – and he’s been in prison for nine months for benefit fraud. Spence goes to see him to see if he knows where Bryony is, and it’s Stephen Moyer again, playing Steven Hunt, and boy is he a dick. He sounds like he’s auditioning for the Apprentice. Talking about the officer who arrested him, “he lied about me at my trial. How can a clerical error be my fault? It was ridiculous. I was an estate agent, I was selling houses. I mean, ten grand was nothing.”
Analysis of a handkerchief found with the wallet finds some DNA, but not of Suzy. It leads them to another dead woman, Phillipa Carrington, who was pulled from the Regent’s Canal, a death that was suspected suicide but left open. She worked as a waitress in a local Greek restaurant, so Boyd and Grace go there for kebabs, and to ask the owner if he know anything more about Phillipa. The decor is a bit busy, but Boyd loves the food.
Grace finds a newspaper story which features a picture of Phillipa. It’s the same paper that had the picture of Suzy.
Back in prison, Hunt has a visit from his parents. His mother is played by Cheryl Campbell.
Spence and Stella go to the newspaper to see if they have other photos of women who were attacked over the time period the killer was operating. The reporter there, Sarah Baker, is clearly intrigued by what they’re looking for, although they’re tight lipped.
They find matches to four women. “One indecent exposure, one sexual assault, one attempted rape and one missing person.” And as they’re going through them, we see flashbacks to the incident, and it’s definitely Steven Hunt.
The missing woman is Sophie Raikes, so they interview her partner Ben Elwes. “Tell us what happened the day she disappeared.” “She was on nights. She left for work. She never got there and she never came home.” “And what did you think had happened to her?” “People said she obviously wanted to be somewhere else. All I knew was that wasn’t true.”
Sarah Baker tries to get information from Boyd about the case, but he doesn’t seem to like reporters. What am I saying, he doesn’t seem like he likes anybody.
When they plot the area where the woman were assaulted or murdered, Spence realises that the estate agent Bryony Watts lived near the centre, which reminds Spence of Steven Hunt, who was Bryony’s boyfriend. They talk to the estate agent, who doesn’t have a high opinion of Steven. “When he arrived he was going to be the top salesman in the office within three months, the best in the company within six.” “Did it last?” “About a week. Then he started missing days, wouldn’t turn up at all for a while. Then he’d be back with all the same plans. He had this great scheme for marketing the agency, a new solution to this a different version of that. What he didn’t have was any sales.” “Did he sell any houses at all?” “One in the 18 months he was here. To his parents.”
Boyd and Grace visit the parents. But when they ask to see his things, they get angry and throw them out. They’re very defensive.
They find Bryony Watts. She tells them of Steven Hunt’s sometimes strange behaviour, and, contrary to what he told them, about never reading the local newspaper, she told them that he was always writing to the newspaper “…how the council should be doing more to help local businesses.” “Were they published?” “Some of them. Not with his name on them though. He signed them Cedric Z Centianno.” “Where does that come from?” asks Stella. Grace clearly does crosswords. “It’s an anagram. ‘A concerned citizen’.”
Felix has been trying to match Hunt’s teeth with the bite marks on one of the victim’s hands, But they don’t match up.
They interview Hunt again, but without any firm evidence, they can’t arrest him. And Grace thinks, now he’s out of prison, he’ll kill again.
Media Centre Description: Police drama series based around cold cases. The CCHQ team discover the existence of a serial killer, Steven Hunt, who is serving nine months in prison for benefit fraud and is about to be released. The team must solve the murders he committed in the past in order to prevent him from committing any more, but with nothing other than coincidences and hunches they can’t stop him from leaving prison and beginning a killing spree.
Recorded from BBC ONE on Tuesday 7th August 2007 20:58
BBC Genome: BBC ONE Tuesday 7th August 2007 21:00
After this, there’s a trail for The Inspector Lynley Mysteries.
There’s also a football trail and a trail for BBC News 24 online.
Plus a BBC Proms trail.
Then the recording stops with the start of the news, leading with more on the outbreak of Foot & Mouth looking like it was spread from people working at a nearby vaccine laboratory, plus yet more Maddie McCann news, Britain being accused of abandoning Iraqis, and the new Eurostar terminal at St Pancras.
The next recording is another Life on Mars repeat. I looked at this one from its first showing on BBC Four.
Media Centre Description: Drama series about Sam Tyler, a Manchester detective who suffers a near-fatal car crash and wakes up in what seems to be 1973. When a bomb warning is reported, A-Division go on red alert. According to the caller, the IRA have brought their mainland bombing campaign to Manchester. Being from 2007, Sam realises the bomb warning reported doesn’t fit with his understanding of IRA methods. However when Sam’s modern know-how fails and ends up putting his team at risk, they turn their back on him.
Recorded from BBC FOUR on Tuesday 7th August 2007 22:00
BBC Genome: BBC FOUR Tuesday 7th August 2007 22:00
There’s a trail for Dangerous Knowledge and a trail for Wainwright Walks.
And another trail for Stephen Fry’s Weekend
Then the recording ends with the start of The Book Quiz.