Original subtitles

Blue murder.

Basically, it works like this.

At the beginning, someone dies.

Richard. Morning, Janine.

I've got a body for you in the airwell.

We then go and find the crime scene.

Do you give any vital statistics?

White female, 20s, dark hair.

Pick up some clues.

Oh, sweet Jesus, no.

Interview loads of people.

He killed her, didn't he?

No, I didn't touch her.

And then solve the crime.

I'm Arresting You on Suspicion of the Murder of Rosa Milich and Jeremy

And then we all live off the other.

You are such a show -off. Well, if you got it.

Every week.

Guaranteed. Right. What have we got?

Blue Murder became a TV success story when it first aired in May 2002.

No known suspects at this point.

Death in all its glory.

Over 8 million viewers tuned in to see Caroline Quentin play Janine Lewis.

It's Detective Chief Inspector Lewis, actually. And her trusty team. Yes,

Butchers. Dear Richard Mayne, back from far -flung parts. He'll be my second -in

-command. Viewers in 24 countries watched the team solving murders.

Have you had your dinner yet?

No. Just give me out.

I just thought you'd better see this on an empty stomach.

And unravelling mysteries with their probing questions.

Out walking your dog, I see.

Wow.

You must be a detective.

Join us on the set of the fourth series.

We go dancing with the cast and crew.

Talk to the guest stars.

I've been stabbed to death and shot to death.

It's quite a scary feeling.

And go behind the scenes to reveal the truth.

That's rubbish.

About the making of Blue Murder.

Blue Murder is the story of DCI Janine Lewis and the way she juggles running a

very busy Manchester murder squad with the demands of being a single mum with

four kids.

Fine, because I have got a dead man on my death butchers and I want him off it

before the maggots start to hatch.

Can't get the star. Because you've got Caroline Quentin in the lead, it has a

lighter touch. It's more accessible for the audience. There are lots of other

police shows, but the distinctiveness of this one is that...

We could have a bit of humour in it. Dr Barron concludes that the weapon was a

sharp knife with a slightly curved blade, all -purpose type used by

gardeners, murderers.

Thank you.

Sorry, boss.

I'm in a group called Murder Squad, a group of crime writers, and one of my

friends from that group emailed me and said, Granada wants some new ideas with

strong female leads. Why don't you send something in?

So I have this unpublished novel about a detective inspector who gets promoted

and has to carry out her first ever murder case.

I got it.

The controller of drama at the time, Caroline Reynolds, really liked it, but

also liked the sort of domestic detail I had in my other book.

And so we looked for melding the two, if you like. So Janine acquired three

children and an errant husband and the face of Caroline Quentin, who she was

hoping to interest in the role.

Michael, get a move on, you're going to be late.

I was sent the very first script and I just really liked it. I liked the

combination of the comedy and the drama and the humour

and the sort of...

proper murder investigations as well.

And I also really liked the fact that you see a bit more about the workings of

the police force.

When the leading lady was on board, she needed an opposite number, and who

better than her old partner in crime -fighting? Richard!

Hello, stranger.

What are you doing on my part?

Whatever you say, boss. I'm out of your service.

I didn't even know you were back.

First day.

Never really felt at home down south. Different planet.

Realised what you were missing?

Something like that. The back story is that they nearly got it together and

forced them apart. So when Richard returns to Manchester, she's climbed the

ladder quicker than him and ends up under her management.

So there's a little bit of friction, sexual tension going on, and there

will be, I think.

Yeah, take the knife out.

That's our first splash of blood.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.

So, she falls again.

Yeah, you stagger.

Stagger back.

Okay. Yeah.

Right. Into here. Yeah.

That's where the blood's gone. Yeah.

Soaking into the killer's chest. Yeah.

Looks down. Panics.

Doctor. Here.

Yeah.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

You can stop hugging me now.

Their relationship built to a crescendo at the beginning of the third series.

Janine and Richard were thrown into a situation where

we both witnessed the death of a friend and we

were both emotionally distraught.

And that's pretty much what it was like.

What goes on between them, some of it's scripted, most of it is something that

comes out of the fact that they just get on very well and they like each other

very much.

It sounds like the odd thing to say, but they're just good mates, and it makes

television drama -making just so much easier.

They have a real rapport and a real friendship off -screen, which sort of

translates very nicely on -screen, and it's very funny and very warm, but also

is a peace story, so it's gritty and it's dramatic, and hopefully it's...

Boss, moving and exciting, but you also get a laugh along the way.

We heard it were a ritual killing, boss, that you were disembowelled.

Bollocks. No, they were intact, actually.

OK, but the wound was large enough to release the intestine.

I'm off track for the duration.

It's early morning and the team are almost ready to start work.

But first things first.

It's early.

and uh everybody's getting breakfast and um but today i'm having a wholesome

apple i don't wear makeup

No, that's not mine. That was there for somebody before me.

And these aren't mine. She didn't do anything with them at all.

It's all incident room stuff today, so it's all stuff in a small airless room.

And we pray for cold weather, which we're not going to get today, because

otherwise we can't open the windows in there and we'll slowly cook.

I'm just going to get James.

Can we come?

While Ian gets changed, the crew put the finishing touches to lighting and props

for today's shoot inside the vacant office block that's used as a police

incident room.

Kelsey and Paul and Nick and myself are very, very close and were joined last

year by Ria Bailey as well. So that little police team is a very close

family.

Ria Bailey joined the cast in 2005 as DC Lisa Goodall, the most junior member of

Janine Lewis's team.

Enjoy being a member of the team?

Oh, yeah, thoroughly.

DCI Lewis not giving you too hard a time? No, I mean, yeah, but...

Well, I'm learning a lot from her. I came to audition for one of the guest

roles, but I didn't actually read in for the part. They just had a chat with me,

and I was like, oh, okay, you know, left, and they rang me and said, oh,

not quite right, and I was really gutted, so I thought, they didn't even

read. They said, we like her, so we want to put her in as one of the officers,

and they said, we've got a male officer written in, and we want to change it to

a female for Ria.

So I was like, oh, wow.

I got really excited about that. The script came through, and it was only

four lines.

So what's she going to do?

We have to go see the family.

In her first couple of films, she's got very fleeting appearances.

Really, there's not much there.

But what she gave us, I think, was very good, was very different. I think it

really added something to the team.

The fourth member of our fishing group, Vince Hollinsworth, is still missing.

I found out he was getting treatment for stomach cancer when he disappeared.

He missed an appointment. It was a week after Luton died, and he never turned up

again. So this year, they've invited me back because he said...

They really like the change of dynamic and having another female on the team

stuff. So I'm out and about and I'm doing, like, exploring and, like,

stuff. It's very exciting.

How we doing?

It's OK.

He's gone.

He's already come.

Get him up. I don't know anything about no murder, man. I took the gun before I

went down. I might as well put a target on my back. Put him in the car.

Back on set in the incident room, the horseplay has already started.

I love all the stuff, things like the banter that kind of goes into that, you

know, stuff that's not in the script, but just how we're going to get this to

work and how we're going to sort of come into this scene, you know what I mean?

So there's always lots of comedy.

Not only is Nikola Kiyoshi a fine actor, he is in the Olympics for next year for

typing.

I've probably spent too much time laughing on set, but it makes the

go very quickly and we have a really good time.

There are four scenes to shoot today, but Manchester City Council have thrown

spanner in the works.

Their men are setting up roadworks right outside the building, which will be so

noisy filming will be impossible, so there's more hanging about than usual

the cast.

Fortunately,

they're not delayed for long. After some behind -the -scenes negotiations and a

compensation payment, the councilmen call off their work and the day's

can finally begin.

Were your word against his, you should have just prompted it out.

Ten years ago, no -one would have given a toss.

Oi!

Tender didn't hear that.

Chap is angry with Lisa because she failed to complete a caution on a

suspect and so he will basically get off. And Chap is saying, you should have

lied. You should have said that you did complete the caution because who's the

court going to believe, you or...

The suspect.

His method of policing is quite old school, and obviously Lisa's not been

out of being on the beat and being a policeman, so she's so, like, into the

regulations and new rules, and also she's just really keen.

She's like, oh, wouldn't it be nice to say that? You know, she wants to do

things by the book, and he's just like, whatever.

And you learn after a while you've got to be a bit flexible.

He thinks it's all right to tell a few fibs in order to get a conviction.

And who's to say he's wrong? He is wrong.

Butchers and saps.

But it's great. They're my double act, I think, really.

Is your brother in, please?

No.

Well, do you know when he'll be back?

No, not really.

Do you know when we might find him?

Shall we start with some easier ones and work up?

When I first started doing Butchers, I thought, oh, yeah, you know, he's one of

them kind of soft guys, you know, who sort of would help anyone out and stuff

like that.

Then you work with an actor like Nick Murchie, who plays Shapp, and he

oh, right, well, I'll be one of those blokes. It's always sort of antagonising

that person.

If a woman goes out to buy something to top herself with, she usually comes back

with a bag full of pills.

That sounds a bit sexist, that, to me, boss. You want to get yourself some

diversity training.

She was bulimic.

She probably didn't think she'd be able to keep him down. And you know all about

that, wouldn't you?

Because, of course, he's bulimic amnesiac.

Eats and eats and eats.

Forgets to be sick.

In the last series...

He was making a lot of remarks about my weight.

Have you seen the price of that?

I could eat for a week on that.

You couldn't.

I don't know.

On what he based it, you know, being such a self -like figure.

Play cards right.

Might get a doggy bag.

There was a lot of mention of food and how much I ate and stuff like that.

You know the way you make jokes about my eating the whole time?

Yeah.

Sometimes you cross the line.

What? Your waistline?

I think Budger's just snapped, really, and he's only little.

He's going bald, and I picked him up and threw him against the wall.

Sorry if I offended you.

It's okay.

No, no, it's not okay, not if it bothers you.

It doesn't bother me all the time.

Just sometimes, when the cracks keep coming, it really gets to me, Tony.

He was out of control, you know.

Right.

All right.

They're very antagonistic to each other, but I think underneath it, I think

they're very fond of each other, really.

Anything I can do to make it up to you?

You can buy me a pork pie.

Well, they're sort of fairly well established.

Big cop, little cop, good cop, naughty cop pairing.

This isn't a formal interview, it's just a chat about Tracy.

I've got nothing to say then.

Of course we could make it official, couldn't we, Sergeant Butchers? I don't

why not.

Who's good cop and bad cop? Kind of, they can swap around quite easily.

I mean, there could even be a charge in it. With all the evidence, for all it

is. And I'm guessing that you don't get to go overseas with a police record.

Hey, that's blackmail.

No, it isn't, is it?

No.

Not officially.

They bicker all the time. They're almost like an old married couple.

You can't have feet, Butchers.

No, not me.

Hold her, Eaters.

I think I'll try the showers in a minute. No towels.

No hot water either.

It's like starlight on a muddy seventh evening.

Hey, as a matter of fact, some POW camps have very good facilities.

The idea of them ever being split up is unthinkable because they rely on each

other an awful lot for their banter.

I'm not really tired.

Hope we're still open.

No carbs.

Big day tomorrow, boys.

Good night, Sergeant.

Good night, young boy.

Good night, Inspector. Shut up, butchers.

It's Sunday morning, and the cast and crew of Blue Murder are in the

suburb of Didsbury.

The crew are setting up, but they had to wait until 8 .30 to unload the

equipment to give the neighbours a bit of a lie -in. Not that anyone would be

able to sleep through this.

Sunday morning in Disprey.

While the props department add the finishing touches to the next scene, Ian

already finished one.

We've just interviewed somebody that's... We've just interviewed

that's... I really haven't got a clue.

Just interviewed somebody that's told a few lies to the police. So I've

re -interviewed him.

And then I still think he's lying and Caroline doesn't. She believes him this

time. Can I have central casting for you? Oh, God!

She's behind me all the time.

Forget about it. He's lied before and he's lying now. Yeah, what if he isn't?

What if Porter and his mate didn't stab Dwayne?

We've got CCTV footage of the fight and you're willing to ignore that on the

word of a witness who's clearly full of crap. What if someone else came from the

other end of the alley to avoid the CCTV?

The first take of this scene had a technical fault on it, so they need to

reshoot Richard playing football in the garden with Janine's son.

Ian, competitive as ever, gets some last -minute practice in against a willing

volunteer.

Did you get that? I didn't get it. Yeah, OK. Against me? You saw it. That's

evidence. I scored.

It may be the one and only time he does.

Second goal, second take, and this time the scene's in the can.

But sometimes shooting with Ian can go into extra time.

Yeah, there's an episode in which we all go to the army barracks and Ian was,

I think, giving some evidence about one of the soldiers who had been having an

affair with somebody else and there was an expression which was in the script

which said he had gone over the side with someone else's wife. Have you ever

heard of that?

Oh, he's obviously over the side with her, which means having an affair with

her. You're taking me back to a very dark place.

Um,

do you have footage of this?

Oh, my God.

It's not an expression any of us has ever heard before. Over the side, over

side. And clearly Ian has never heard of it before because he just couldn't

remember it.

Heard definitely our man.

His wife's the other side with a colleague and he admits nobody saw him

office or leaving the base. He could have easily gone over there.

Grabbed the tool, dumped Pettigrew, out of his car.

And he said almost every variation of over the side.

His wife's the other side with a colleague.

He thought it was over the other side with her. While he's over the other side

with her, he kept on saying, which obviously means he's passed on.

His wife's the other side with a colleague, and he admitted nobody saw

the bed.

All right.

Over the side.

I didn't know what it meant in the first place, so it didn't make sense for me

to say the words.

His wife's on the other side with a colleague.

What?

Over the side, not the other side. I can only describe it as I'd learnt it

wrong. His wife's on the other side with a colleague.

We were there for days, actually, trying to get it shot.

His wife's on the other side with a... Then,

because he didn't know the expression over the side, his brain sort of stopped

when he came to that moment to say over the side.

His wife's over the side with a colleague, and he admits... Oh, dear.

Inside, I was going, I said it right!

But by the end, Caroline was sat opposite him going, over the... I

really don't want to talk to him all about that.

His wife's over the side with a colleague, and he admitted nobody saw

bed, or leaving his office.

I mean, he could have easily gone over there, grabbed the tool out of his car,

gone back...

Hit him on the head. Whack, whack, whack.

But, of course, if you watch it in its final cut, who would know?

Why is her husband's car? Why not her own?

Well, she said in case anyone spotted it. They think it was her and not her at

the sports hall. That was definitely our man.

His wife's over the side with a colleague and he admitted nobody saw him

office or leaving the base. He could have easily gone over there, grabbed the

tool out of the car, whacked Pettigrew, then gone back to work.

That's what we know about the affair.

Well, let's find out.

It's a summer's evening and the cast and crew of Blue Murder are preparing to

film the first episode of the new series.

And that's likely to be the first of many because this is no ordinary

day. They'll be working through the night too.

Shooting at night can be quicker because you've got less interruption from the

general public. On the other hand, people...

Their body clocks don't run that way, so things can go a bit more slowly.

When you're doing night, you have to use a lot of light, because you light from

a long way away.

And it's expensive and it's tiring.

It's a large -scale operation for what started out as a simple idea.

I started thinking about my dad, actually, and what my dad would like to

Blue Murder, and I thought, well, it's football, so the inspiration was my dad,

actually. That's where it came from.

Neil Jones came to us with an idea for the new series.

The idea became Not a Matter of Life and Death.

He wanted to do something that involved the kind of fringes of the world of

glamour and money that we kind of see now with footballers, young footballers

who kind of suddenly got all that money to spend on fast cars and flashy

apartments. Well done today, everybody.

Everyone pulled their weight on the stand. That was a good result.

I wanted the first 15 minutes of the episode to be absolutely mad, basically,

be as fast as it possibly could. So it's about trying to investigate a murder in

the middle of this episode. chaos of Friday night in the city centre.

The final lighting rig is raised, and the extras make their way to where the

scenes are being shot in Manchester's gay village.

To minimise disruption, they're filming on a Monday night, but roads still have

to be closed, and although the neighbours have a bird's eye view,

going to get much peace tonight.

And background action!

You're wasting your time on me. You should be doing them.

Dad, go away.

I'm leaving Kent. That's my brother Dwayne there.

He's going to be all right.

We go to great lengths to make sure that the portrayal is as accurate as

possible. What we do is we take good police advice, they tell us exactly what

would happen, and then we adapt that, but we try to stay as close as possible

what would really happen. Graham, excuse me. Do you want more blood here?

Well, there's quite a lot down there already. No, I think we've got enough

there, really.

Actually, young ones. They're coloured around here.

It's just been stabbed. It's unconscious.

So we're just putting the blood on it. Because the knife left the wound,

lots of blood and it's in the chest, so it pumps out. So it's a bit gory.

Lee,

I'm DCI Janine Lewis.

I'm telling him.

It's my brother Dwayne. He's going to be all right, yeah?

The story of Dwayne Kent stabbing leaves Janine with a lot of questions to ask.

But maybe she's asking the wrong person. There's someone making a getaway.

Who's already got form.

Over 12 million people tuned into Coronation Street to watch Tracy Barlow

Charlie Stubbs and face the consequences.

Guilty. No!

And in Kate Ford's first job since leaving the street, it looks like she's

trouble with the police again.

I play Adele Chambers, who is married with two children, and

she's going through a little bit of post -natal depression, really, and she's

not feeling that good about herself.

She's going out a lot, trying to flirt with loads of guys, trying to make

herself feel attractive again, and it all goes hideously wrong for her.

I did nothing to Dwayne Kent.

He did something to me.

I sympathise with what you've been through, Adele, and I'm going to make

you get all the support you need.

But it's not going to stop me getting to the truth.

The truth?

On May 23rd, in his apartment at Borodell Towers, I was raped by Dwayne

It's quite intimidating when you do a guest in a series that... All the other

actors are regulars, so obviously they have rapport because they know each

and they're all friends and they feel comfortable. So I didn't sleep much the

night before.

Why didn't you report it?

Because I'd gone back with him to his flat. I'd been kissing him.

I thought that it was going to be the end of my marriage.

It probably will be now.

You might be surprised, Adele.

You know, I dealt with this.

I had to learn to live with it, but...

You couldn't live with it, could you?

Cut it.

The most important thing when we're casting our guest characters is to have

best possible actors.

There's no point in casting a famous face if they're not going to be right

the character, not going to give us a wonderful performance.

But that said, of course it's nice to have recognisable guest stars. Of course

they get extra publicity for us, they generate interest, and people will tune

to see, oh, you know, look, they've got Kate Ford. It's the first thing she's

done since Coronation Street.

Dwayne was one of those blokes, though.

Once he'd bought a girl a drink, I thought no meant yes.

I said that I wanted to leave, but he wouldn't let me.

He got me on the floor.

I think what we've discovered is that she's actually a very, very good

instinctive actress.

There's something inside her that can take a role like Adele Chambers and

really... play it.

And I have to say, I was absolutely knocked out by what she did. I really

couldn't believe it.

There's another household name making a guest appearance in episode two of the

new series.

In desperate measures, a middle -aged GP is found.

shot outside his surgery and at first it looks like this could be um a gangland

killing as the story goes on and we look at more and more suspects emerging

either this doctor wasn't quite the knight in shining armor that was first

thought to the case and we do find that there are a number of people who sort of

had issues with him you'll be all right darling i'll see you later yes

I would like to extend my sympathy to Jasmine Young's family.

The loss of this young woman is a tragedy for all.

I play a character who we get to know very early on in the episode, Dr Don

Halliwell. You see him leaving for work and very quickly you realise there's

something a bit strange about his marriage and a bit strange about the

relationship he has with the other people in the practice.

It's my decision whether we offer you a partnership or not.

You can't do this to me. I need that partnership, OK? I was relying on it.

totally screwed now. Fraser, calm down.

See, this isn't about my competence. It's about you wanting to rule your own

little empire, but there's only your way of doing things and no -one else will

allow an opinion.

Enough! Son of a... The story culminates for John Halliwell

with him being shot and, um...

There are two kinds of shooting, obviously, on location. There's the film

shooting and then there's gun shooting as well.

And one is much simpler than the other because the whole point is you feel

something odd going on and you see him leaving the office and there's something

a bit eerie.

And then out of nowhere, an unseen hand fires a gun and there's blood on the

wall and poor old Don Halliwell bites the dust.

We're here today to do a bullet hit on a principal actor.

He's shot three times in the chest, and the director wanted an exit wound on the

back to throw blood up the walls, so that's what we've been rigging and

and shooting today.

Simon, can we just flip you into something less comfortable?

It's quite a paraphernalia getting ready to be gunned down, especially I'm shot

by three different bullets.

First of all, it means you have to have earplugs in your ear.

to protect your eardrums. Then they have to have makeup put on them so they

can't be seen.

Then you have to put on kneecap defenders for when you fall down dead.

And then you have to put on a jacket that is wired up with no amount of

bits of explosive so the jacket will explode in the front where the bullet

in. Don't look down.

It's very directional, coming out right angles to your body.

But we've had instances, I haven't, but we've had instances where people have

either put their hands in front or looked down because they felt it. Yes.

And got a bit of, it's only cardboard and plastic, but it will break the skin.

Yes. But we'll be watching you, so if you do anything like that, we won't fire

you. Before they go for a take, there's time for a last quick rehearsal.

And then it's time to put the explosive jacket through its paces.

And then there's sort of a mighty bang, and it's quite a scary feeling.

And then they say action, and of course you can't hear them say action because

you've got the ear defenders on.

And action!

Everything's gone to plan.

But with one take in the can, the director needs another shot of the same

sequence. So while the blood is cleaned off the wall,

Colin Gorry rigs up another jacket and the crew are set to go again.

Action!

I've died in all kinds of different ways on screen. I've been stabbed to death

and shot to death and kicked to death.

But nothing quite as graphic as this. This is really...

If the people aren't hooked on the series already and they see the opening

this episode with me being shot down quite so early on, I think they'll be

hooked.

Actually,

I took the part because I thought it would be very brief to film it, and I

thought at that time it might be during the Old Trafford test match.

I could be up here, dead and buried by midday, and see a day's cricket, but it

hasn't turned out like that.

A, because the schedule changed, and B, because of the weather.

With Simon finished for the day, the serious work of solving his murder

continues. Right, shoppers.

Donald Alleywell, 62, general practitioner.

Plane has found him.

Still warm.

Caused the death?

Three gunshot wounds to the chest. Might have something to do with it. Oh,

you're good. You wasted here.

There seems to be absolutely no motive at all for his murder.

And as with all good murder stories, the more you scrape away at his place of

work, his family surroundings and the wider community that he lived in, the

suspects you find.

With several scenes already in the can, one important member of the cast has

only just arrived.

I'm a little bit delayed today because some food things started yesterday

afternoon. Thank you very much. And I had to have emergency dental work done

today. Group now.

With the team back together again, they go for a rehearsal.

It's near the beginning of the episode where we come to the surgery for the

first time, all of us, the whole team come, and we find out that the doctor's

been murdered, so we've been called in, and Caroline and Ian are already here,

kitted up in their Socko suits.

I'm auditioning for the musical Teddy Toot. It'll be Lala.

Oh, Pinky Winky, you seem as if Pinky Winky's doing.

I've never seen myself as Pinky Winky.

Yeah, that's about right. It's been four years since Ian, Caroline and the team

first hit our screens in Blue Murder and the programme remains as popular as

ever.

Why do you think people like it so much? I think people like it so much because

it's got a little of everything.

It's got drama, it's got murders, it's got blood, it's got funny, it's got

it's got warmth, a little bit of sexual tension, good locations.

It's very well shot.

Very awesome. Good sound.

Very well lit. And beautifully lit. Great costumes.

Good hair.

Good, lovely, well, excellent hair.

Big hair.

Yeah. And great cast.

And good handbags.

Lovely handbags.

Very good handbags.

This isn't a sort of grim, sour, you know, breeze block into a few rooms and

nothing out, you know, dripping through. It's actually, you know, a family show

in many ways.

And one of Janine's family is the team.

And the way, the banter of the team, the sort of way you get through the day.

Don't do that to him again.

What? Wink at me like that. Why what?

You know like what.

Don't do it. Especially not in front of that lot.

It's only a friendly wink.

You know what was going on in there.

I don't.

It wasn't just the wink, it was the way you winked.

Great minds, eh?

You wouldn't do that if I was a man.

What the hell's wrong with a wink? It under... Undermines me.

Undermines you? If anyone was undermining you in there, it was Shaft.

just harmless banter. It was up for getting you on the roof with your kit

can handle that. I can give as good as I get. But you and me, no matter what's

gone on in the past, we're colleagues.

That's all.

You work for me. You don't wink at me, OK?

OK.

I'm holding up two fingers to you now. Is that allowed?

Fine. You're off your head. You're an arrogant winker.

One of the reasons Blue Murder is very popular is that there's a lot of heart

the stories.

Obviously, Caroline is a fantastic draw.

I also think the fact that you've got a police officer who's got such a

wonderfully warm, very real kind of domestic life with the four kids and the

husband who's gone off with the younger woman, all of that stuff. I think these

are things that people can kind of recognise and understand and empathise

and identify with.

Drink, Detective Chief Inspector.

No, I want a surprise, Pete. Champagne breakfast.

Is it lunchtime?

No, he's on nights.

You're up already.

Janine Lewis, I hope, is a sort of every woman. You can imagine her being your

mate or your sister or someone you know, because she's human, I think, and she

brings a sort of humanity and warmth to her work and to her family life.

I think people relate to Janine because she's a working mum and she understands

how important family is to people.

And the stories, the murders in Blue Murder, it's always about the effects on

family, the effects on a small community.

It's because Janine understands what these things do to the families that are

involved that she's so good at her job.

I'll host the girls and get fish and chips on the way back. All right,

love.

Which one of mine was like that?

How many have you got?

Two girls, two boys.

Husband? Once upon a time.

At the end of the day, with a blue murder mystery, I like to think you can

of have some understanding of what drove the killer to do what they did.

You wouldn't say, OK, I'd do that myself, but you might say, I can

how, in extreme circumstances, on a particular day in my life, I might have

driven to some kind of extreme action.

Making these extreme actions believable is not just about the actors getting

their performance right.

Everyone in the crew has to be in exactly the right place at the right

with almost 50 people with a different job to do, each shoot has to be planned

with military precision.

You have to do a massive amount of homework.

You can't buck it on the set. You can't go, oh, I'm not sure what I'm going to

do now. I'm just going to...

oh let's do this because it doesn't work because if it doesn't work everybody

goes yeah and your next idea is so you have to plan fairly minutely i think but

also be willing to accept other people's ideas i'll always listen to the best

idea in the room

I'm arresting you on suspicion of the murder of Raymond Pettigrew. You must be

joking, Jack.

Mark didn't kill anybody.

You understand that?

The three new films in this series are fantastic and they're all very strong.

If I had to look back over previous series and try and pick out one

might go for Steady Eddie.

Steady Eddie was a really interesting episode.

For lots of reasons. It explored the police from the inside out, which is

fascinating. We had a wonderful cast.

I played Eddie Carter in the episode... I've forgotten it already!

What's it called? Steady Eddie.

Eddie Carter.

No!

It's bloody hell.

Do you think they'd bring out the big guns for this?

Flattery will get you everywhere.

It was a story about... A guy feeling inadequate, a guy worrying about his

having an affair, a guy who was trying to prove something to her, who wanted to

pay for a cruise and who desperately needed the money to get it. And those

of small things that anyone can identify with led to something as big and tragic

as a man arranging to have himself killed.

Hello. Hello, darling.

It's Ellie.

Well, could I go to Sarah's? Sarah?

Which Sarah?

He was killed off by page 14.

I remember that.

He was just a policeman coming to the end of his

career, really, and things went badly wrong for him.

OK, OK.

When you talk to police officers, the worst thing they ever have to

is the killing of a fellow officer. They're shattering experiences because

could so easily be you.

And our cast went through that trauma of what it's like to investigate the death

of another officer. It makes good drama, it makes good television.

When Laura asked me to make this speech, I wasn't sure I was the best person to

do justice to Eddie Carter.

I suppose for me the hardest scene to film, and yet somehow the most fun, was

there was an obituary scene in the cathedral where the police force would

together to say goodbye to a colleague. And it was a wonderful scene. It's a

beautiful cathedral. And we were all there. And it was the last day of

so it was sort of wonderful.

A lot of people who know police officers are aware that there's a constant

conflict in our lives, which means more to us, job or family.

I've played lots of policemen, but mainly old nice policemen. I mean, Eddie

nice, but he got caught up in personal tragedy. I've never played a policeman

that's been shot, shall we say, and killed by page 14.

Blue Murder might have intriguing stories and fabulous guest stars, but

the series' main attractions is undoubtedly its leading lady.

Hello, dear.

What are you saying about me?

Actually, I wasn't talking about you. Well, talk about...

Everybody can imagine themselves doing Caroline's job in this because she

such a sort of human fallible air to what she does.

I think it's partly that combination she has of being very warm and very

likeable, but also being very tough and businesslike, and she can kind of switch

from one to the other in her performance.

You'll have to note an error of judgement on your records, but you keep

stripes. Now, you pull a stunt like this ever again, and you're suspended.

Thank you.

I know it was wrong, whatever the reasons.

I just...

Ever since the first day, I for one was really nervous when we first started

this, five years ago, about Caroline, because she's a very well -known person.

She's done a lot of stuff that I think has been fantastic.

And yes, she's lovely to work with.

And she's so beautiful.

Hi, Caroline.

Hi. What are you doing here?

Sat and stared.

And I filmed her.

And I started chatting.

Shall I think about you?

I'll have to go back to checking out the single dads at parents' evening.

Come on, you can do better than that. Who, your friend?

In your dream.

Got the best half in Manchester, remember?

Best half to cheer you on. I've seen you lucky.

What? I have. I checked it out ten minutes ago. I've never... She's a great

leader. Off screen as well as on screen. She's always full of energy, always

full of...

Great insight into the, not just the script, but how it should be done and

the best way to tell the story is.

And her enthusiasm is always there and her energy is always there.

Come on, then.

Impress me.

One of them has got a club foot.

One of them has got an injured leg box. Yes, thank you. Probably limping quite

badly. They're going to need painkillers, bandages.

I'll call doctors, surgeries and outpatients. I'm treating this as a hit

run.

It's a very believable performance. Someone who really has four kids, who is

great mum, who can be tough and who can be tender, who could credibly do that

job and have a laugh with the team but actually get to the bottom of solving a

murder. I think she pulls it off brilliantly.

Caroline and the boys have been in Manchester filming Blue Murder for the

three months.

And hard work it is. They're all at it 12 hours a day, six days a week, and

today they're filming another scene, but this one's a little bit different.

So it's not surprising that there's a definite end -of -term feel on set.

To me.

588, take one after four stars.

Thank you, and action.

Miss Link, we know that Dr Halliwell was a very popular GP, but did he ever have

any threats made against him?

Oh, well, we all get our share of abuse here, and it comes with the territory.

But it's only in a small minority.

How did Dr Halliwell get along with the rest of the staff?

Fine.

Well, except for Fraser.

Cut and set, thank you.

It might be Caroline's last day on set, but is it the last day ever?

We're very excited about the new series of Blue Murder.

Obviously, it's up to the viewers to decide how much they like them, but I'm

hoping this series is going to be a great success, and we're already

more, and we're very much hoping we'll have the opportunity to make more next

year. So that is a release and a complete on the film for Caroline. Thank

very much.

I still feel there's lots of places we haven't been with her yet and with her

team. And we're also finding out more about them as a group of people. And so

there's some more laughs to come to.