| Genre: | Crime drama |
| Creator: | Cath Staincliffe |
| Starring: | Caroline Quentin Ian Kelsey Paul Loughran Nicholas Murchie Saskia Wickham Rhea Bailey Belinda Everett |
| Theme Music Composer: | Kevin Sargeant |
| Country: | United Kingdom |
| Language: | English |
| Num Series: | 5 |
| Num Episodes: | 19 |
| Runtime: | 90 minutes (series 1 - 4) 60 minutes (series 5) |
| Channel: | ITV |
| Company: | ITV Studios |
Blue Murder is a British crime drama television series based in Manchester, originally broadcast on ITV from 2003 until 2009, starring Caroline Quentin as DCI Janine Lewis and Ian Kelsey as DI Richard Mayne. Five series of the programme were broadcast over the course of six years. Reruns have aired on ITV3.
Blue Murder centres on a single mother of four, DCI Janine Lewis (Caroline Quentin), trying to balance a demanding career with raising her young family, while constantly battling with her former husband, who has since started a new family of his own.
The series was created by Cath Staincliffe, a novelist and radio playwright. Staincliffe pitched the idea for Blue Murder to ITV and a two-part first series was commissioned by the network. The first series began broadcasting on 18 May 2003. Due to strong ratings, a second series of four episodes was subsequently commissioned and began broadcasting in 2004. Staincliffe was principal writer for the first two series, with John Fay, Jeff Povey and Matthew Hall also contributing scripts for the second series.
The fifth and final series debuted on 7 September 2009. The series was regarded by the cast as the best series yet, and Quentin described the series as having "finally cracked it". The final series included a number of guest stars Mark Benton, Lee Boardman, Kieran O'Brien, Brendan Coyle, Heather Peace, Tina O'Brien, Sylvia Syms and Anthony Flanagan.
| Series | Number of episodes | First airdate | Last airdate | DVD release (R2) | DVD release (R1) | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 18 May 2003 | 19 May 2003 | 18 October 2004[1] | 12 June 2007[2] | ||
| 2 | 4 | 6 September 2004 | 27 September 2004 | 18 October 2004 | 12 June 2007 | ||
| 3 | 4 | 20 October 2006 | 10 November 2006 | 20 November 2006 | 29 January 2008[3] | ||
| 4 | 3 | 3 December 2007 | 17 December 2007 | 7 January 2008 | 12 August 2008[4] | ||
| 5 | 6 | 7 September 2009 | 12 October 2009 | 19 October 2009[5] | 30 June 2009[6] | ||
Blue Murder began as two 90-minute (advertisements included) episodes[7] [8] first shown in May 2003, which gained enough viewers for a full series. This two-part pilot later became known as series one and released as such on DVD in the UK.
| Series No. | Episode No. | Title | Written by | Directed by | Original airdate | Viewers (millions) |
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| Series No. | Episode No. | Title | Written by | Directed by | Original airdate | Viewers (millions) |
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Roy Mitchell also contributed to the script for episode one, "Steady Eddie".
| Series No. | Episode No. | Title | Written by | Directed by | Original airdate | Viewers (millions) |
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| Series No. | Episode No. | Title | Written by | Directed by | Viewers (millions) | Original airdate |
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Beginning with this series, the format changed from 90-minute episodes to 60-minute episodes.
| Series No. | Episode No. | Title | Written by | Directed by | Viewers (millions) | Original airdate |
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