The Murder Game (TV series)

The Murder Game
Genre Reality / Murder mystery
Created by George Verschoor, Robert Fisher, Jr., and Gordon Cassidy (for FOX)
Developed by FOX/BBC
Directed by Ewen Thomson
Starring Bob Taylor (The Chief)(Author of Crimebuster)
Narrated by Rupert Smith
Composer(s) Sophia Morizet, Helene Muddiman
Country of origin United Kingdom
Original language(s) English
No. of seasons 1
No. of episodes 9
Production
Executive producer(s) Conrad Green
Producer(s) Ewen Thomson, Nichola Hegarty, Aidan Hansell (reality producer), David Newcombe (drama producer)
Location(s) Maldon, Brentwood, Essex, England, UK
Cinematography Janet Tovey
Editor(s) David Tibballs
Running time 60 mins
Release
Original network BBC One, BBC Three
Picture format PAL (576i)
Original release 29 March – 17 May 2003
Chronology
Related shows Murder in Small Town X
External links
Website

The Murder Game was a British reality television series that aired on BBC One from March through May 2003. The show was based on the American FOX television show Murder in Small Town X. Though classified as a reality television series, it was more accurately a hybrid of reality TV, game show, and mystery drama. The series was narrated by Rupert Smith. Although there was no host in the traditional sense the Chief, Bob Taylor, acted as a sort of host for the show.

Premise

In the town of Blackwater a fictional woman named Catherine Prior had been murdered. Ten contestants from the British public were set the challenge of becoming investigators and finding the killer. The investigators were led by Bob Taylor, known as the Chief Investigator or Chief, who was in real life a retired Detective Chief Superintendent from the West Yorkshire Police.[1] The people from the town, played by actors, formed the suspects, some of whom later became victims.

At the beginning of each episode, one investigator would be appointed as the Lead Investigator, who would have specific responsibilities and powers. The investigators would be split into teams by the Lead Investigator, and sent down different lines of inquiry determined by the Chief. These lines of inquiry would involve hidden tests, which the teams would either pass or fail as judged by the Chief. The investigators from all the failing teams would be put to a group vote, where one of them would be chosen as a contestant to play the Killer's Game. All of the living investigators could cast a vote, with the exception of the Lead Investigator. The Lead Investigator would then choose a second contestant for the Killer's Game.

At the end of each episode, in the Killer's Game, the two selected contestants would be sent to two different remote locations completely alone, with their movements recorded only by a head-mounted camera. One of the contestants would discover a further clue to the mystery, whereas the other one would be eliminated from the show as a "murder" victim, with his last seconds seen from the point of view of the "killer" in the manner of classical slasher films like Psycho.

The eliminated contestant would choose the Lead Investigator for the next episode, by means of a prerecorded "last will and testament".

Voting history

Episode 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Finale
Murdered Christine Sarita Samantha Mervin Meryl Ruairi Richard Nick Melanie
Group's Pick Sarita* Sarita* Andrew Andrew Andrew Ruairi Andrew N/A
Lead Investigator's Pick Christine Andrew Samantha Mervin Meryl Richard Richard
Group Voting
Andrew Meryl Meryl Melanie Mervin Nick Melanie Richard Six Failed Winner
Melanie Ruairi Sarita Andrew L.I. Andrew Ruairi Andrew Four Failed Runner-Up
Nick Sarita L.I. Ruairi Mervin Andrew Ruairi* Andrew Five Failed
Richard L.I. Ruairi Nick Andrew Nick Ruairi Melanie
Ruairi Meryl Meryl Melanie Andrew L.I. Melanie
Meryl Ruairi Sarita Andrew Andrew Andrew
Mervin Nick Richard L.I. Andrew
Samantha Sarita Sarita Andrew
Sarita Ruairi Meryl
Christine Sarita
     The investigator's team passed their line of inquiry.
     The investigator's team failed their line of inquiry.
     The investigator was the lead investigator.
     The investigator was the lead investigator and failed their line of inquiry.
     The investigator was spared from playing the Killer's Game due to having the fewest failed lines of inquiry.
     The investigator played the Killer's game because they did not have the fewest failed lines of inquiry.
     The investigator became the runner-up.
     The investigator won the game.

Sarita* = In both of the first two votes, a tie occurred, first between Sarita and Ruairi, then between Sarita and Meryl. In both cases, a revote was performed, and Sarita received the most votes both times.

Ruairi* = The group vote resulted in a tie between Ruairi and Melanie. As Lead Investigator, Nick broke the tie and sent Ruairi out to play the Killer's Game.

Teams

Teams Episode 2 Episode 3 Episode 4 Episode 5 Episode 6 Episode 7 Episode 8 Finale
Team 1 Christine, Nick, and Samantha Mervin and Richard Meryl and Richard Meryl and Nick Melanie, Meryl, and Richard Melanie and Ruairi Melanie and Nick Andrew, Melanie, and Nick
Team 2 Andrew, Melanie, and Mervin Meryl, Samantha, and Sarita Andrew, Nick, Ruairi Richard and Ruairi Andrew and Nick Andrew and Richard Andrew and Richard No Team 2
Team 3 Meryl, Ruairi, and Sarita Andrew, Melanie, and Ruairi Melanie and Samantha Andrew and Mervin No Team 3
Lead Investigator Richard Nick Mervin Melanie Ruairi Nick Andrew No Lead Investigator
     The team failed their line of inquiry
     The team passed their line of inquiry
     There are no fails nor passes

The Investigators

Investigator Finish Location
Christine Rose 10th The Power Museum
Sarita Raval 9th The Tyre Yard
Samantha Matthews 8th The Grain Silos
Mervin Merchant 7th The Fortress
Meryl Holt 6th The Old Docks
Ruairi McNally 5th The Quarry
Richard Sharrocks 4th The Bottling Plant
Nick Sykes 3rd The Nuclear Bunker - Living Quarters*
Melanie "Mel" Sainz 2nd The Grain Store
Andrew Weaver 1st The Construction Warehouse

Suspects

Suspect Job Outcome Notes
Frank Prior Catherine's and Goldie's father 1st suspect cleared At a petrol station doing a dodgy deal
Vanessa March The Babysitter 2nd suspect cleared Was buying a pregnancy test
Tina Wells The Vicar's Wife 3rd suspect cleared Murdered while retrieving her husband's inhaler
Dean Garretty The Best Man 4th suspect cleared At his showrooms sending an e-mail
George Hawick The Music Teacher 5th suspect cleared Was chopping wood at his home
Jennifer Wilmington Jay's Mother 6th suspect cleared Was visiting her solicitors about the Wilmington jewel
Gillian "Goldie" Prior The Bride and Catherine's sister 7th suspect cleared At a cash point withdrawing £50 to buy flowers for Jennifer
Jay Wilmington The Groom 8th suspect cleared In a telephone booth trying to call Trevor
Trevor Dobie The Builder Not Cleared The Murderer

Lines of Inquiry

Episode 1

In this was first episode of the show, the investigators were under training for five days, learning the ins and outs of police investigation work. No lines of inquiry were given and no killer's game played either. We also got to learn about who the investigators were as they took part in the training session before the show began.

Episode 2

Lead Investigator: Richard

The team started gathering evidence when there was a bang at the door, outside was a noose with a message on from the killer. They continued to bag evidence until they heard a mobile phone ringing. On Richard's advice they answered the phone. Later, when asked directly by the chief if his team had answered the phone, Nick denied having done so; this initially went unnoticed but the matter was brought up on the second day after a review of the teams work.

The team went to the morgue and met Jay and Goldie there. The suspects pumped them for information but they didn't give anything away.

Mel took the lead in questioning the family but Mervin advised against keeping the child in the room whilst doing so and the team requested to talk to the father and sister of the victim in private. They questioned both on their movements throughout the day.

The team asked Frank of his movements a second time but this time he left out the fact he had gone to a petrol station 35 miles away. Viewing this as suspicious the team requested CCTV footage from the petrol station in question.

Meryl started questioning Dean but Sarita became agitated and wanted to get the video camera off him. Dean realized the camera had been stolen but in the confusion Sarita allowed him to leave the scene.

Upon arriving at Dean's house the missing wedding car shot out of the drive way. The team were quick to pursue the car until the driver stopped at a disused railway and threw an object off the bridge into the wilderness. Sarita called to stop but Ruairi wanted to follow the car but this was denied as a tractors cut off their route. After a long search Ruairi found Dean's missing video camera and was tempted to tamper with it but Meryl convinced her team mates not to.

Episode 3

Lead Investigator: Nick

(Frank Prior is cleared as a suspect for dodgy deals)

the forensics found out that the finger prints were from Jay Willmington, the owner of the boat and Catherine Prior

Episode 4

Lead Investigator: Mervin

Team's Pick: Andrew

Location: The Deserted Railway

Lead Investigator's Pick: Samantha (for not being fully prepared for the press conference)

Location: The Grain Silos

Investigator Murdered: Samantha

Killer Clue: Andrew returns with an old newspaper clipping of Catherine's birth.

Note: Before the press conference, the Lead Investigator told Melaine and Samantha only to answer questions concerning Catherine's last movements and nothing else.

Episode 5

Lead Investigator: Melanie

Team's Pick: Andrew

Location: The Hospital

Lead Investigator's Pick: Mervin (for (in the Lead Investigator's opinion) causing divides amongst the group and poor decision making in the past)

Location: The Fortress

Inestigator Murdered: Mervin

Killer Clue: Andrew returns with the necklace Catherine from the murder video. It is the Wilmington Jewel, but the center jewel is missing.

Episode 6

Lead Investigator: Ruairi

During the night of Day 1 the team are sent to protect Tina Wells but during this time Tina is murdered and dragged out through a back door

Bob's policemen took Dean's Computer. and saw on that Email. that he sent an email at the time of the murder he was at the carshow rooms. Dean is cleared.

Team's Pick: Andrew

Location: The Dark Woods

Lead Investigator's Pick: Meryl (for tactical purposes as the Lead Investigator perceived Meryl to be the strongest Investigator)

Location: The Old Docks

Investigator Murdered: Meryl

Killer Clue: Andrew came back with a strip of 4 passport photos of Anya, Trevor and Catherine's daughter they believe that catharine is taking Anya somewhere.

Episode 7

Lead Investigator: Nick

Team 2 found out that the photo was cropped but uncropped seeing George Chopping the wood. George can not kill Cathranine. Team 2 cleared George Hawick.

Team's Pick: Ruairi (Both Melanie and Ruairi were tied) Note: The tie was broken by Nick, who chose Ruairi as he believed that Melanie did better over the last two days than Ruairi.

Location: The Quarry

Lead Investigator's Pick: Richard (due to process of elimination; Ruairi was already picked, Andrew had already done four and was given a 'night-off' and Melanie for a successful negotiation on Day 2)

Location: The Derelict Barn

Investigator murdered: Ruairi

Killer clue: Richard returned with a Jeweler's drawing of the Wilmington Jewel. The original design of the jewel.

Other: Goldie Prior was kidnapped, the message given to the investigators saw Goldie in trouble and said to bring the necklace, the chief and the investigators in a serious kidnapping situation. The kidnapper demanded to give the necklace in exchange for Goldie. Team 1 placed a bug in the bag with the necklace, they succeeded in the trade off but lost the kidnapper afterwards.

Episode 8

Other: They looked at the kidnaper's message again of Goldie pior and found out there was a box saying "Box pills" and also heard clocks

Lead Investigator: Andrew

Note: The Lead Investigator was not eligible in the group vote and could get picked.

Team's Pick: Andrew

Location: The Boathouse

Lead Investigator's Pick: Richard (for not asking relevant questions during Day 2's line of enquiry)

Location: The Bottling Plant

Inestigator Murdered: Richard

Killer Clue: Andrew returns with a picture of a sort code and account number from a joint account belonging to Gillian "Goldie" Prior and Jay Wilmington.

Finale

No lines of inquiry and no lead investigator for the finale. Instead the final three investigators (Andrew, Melanie, and Nick) went together to confront the final three suspects (Goldie, Jay, and Trevor).

Final Three

During the morning briefing, the Chief, Andrew, Melanie, and Nick discuss about the clue Andrew found at the last Killer's Game. It was an 8-digit number, which is the bank account shared by both Goldie and Jay. It also shows a withdrawal of £50 the morning of Catherine's murder. The investigators then figure it may or may not clear Goldie or Jay. The Chief declares they would be no lines of inquiry, no passes, no fails, and no lead investigator. They would only have to gather more information to solve the case.

Andrew, Melanie, and Nick first went to hear the last will and testament of Tony Wilmington. Also attending were suspects Goldie and Jay. Tony gives Jennifer and Jay the entire estate, and Catherine the Wilmington necklace. However, it is revealed that Anya would inherit the necklace afterwards. Then, Tony says Trevor is the one person who should not receive anything. Jay then calls Trevor a "bastard" and hastily leaves before the investigators got a chance to talk to him. Goldie then asks to talk to the investigators at the café. She confesses that Jay wanted the necklace badly, but Catherine wouldn't give it to him. Later, she asked Catherine for the necklace herself, but again the same result. Goldie then overheard a telephone conversation between Catherine and Trevor, but only knew it was just an argument. When questioned about the joint bank account between her and Jay, she stated that she forgot to buy a gift for Jennifer and withdrew £50 for flowers. She also declares that it was Jay's idea to come up with the fake kidnapping. Afterwards, she asks to leave.

Next, Trevor is seen hurridley moving out of Creeksea and driving off. Jennifer spots this and immediately calls the investigators. They investigate Trevor's living area, and find that one of the rooms has been boarded up. After they disassemble the blockade, they find it is a room prepared for Anya. This further strengthens the possibility of Trevor being the killer.

The investigators then go to Jay's barge to find Jay. Inside, they find familiar polaroids. Then, they find a new telephone message sent by Goldie, who tells Jay that she told the investigators everything. Melanie then takes the tape. Andrew and Nick find a bulletin board with pictures of Goldie, but only to find pictures of Catherine on the back. The investigators decides to bring the entire bulletin board back with them.

Back at headquarters, the investigators find out that the killer has broken in and created a mess. He/She had left chilling messages in blood, a hanged Barbie-doll, and two pictures with the locations for the next Killer's Game. The lights then go back on. The Chief arrives for the evening briefing and reads out the locations: Nuclear Bunker - Living Quarters, and Nuclear Bunker - Operational Zone. The two investigators who must play the Killer's Game will be, instead of a vote the ones who failed the most lines of inquiry. Andrew failed six, Melanie failed four, and Nick failed five. Andrew and Nick are sent out to the Operational Zone and Living Quarters, respectively. In the end, Andrew survives for the sixth time, and he and Melanie proceed to the final two.

Final Two

Andrew and Melanie look over the clue brought back by Andrew from the last Killer's Game "who am I, if you are right you live. if you are wrong you die", which is a set of Polaroids challenging them to find out who the killer is and warning them of their fate should they fail to identify the killer. The Chief reveals that the bank have sent them security footage from the cash point of Goldie making a withdrawal. This confirms Goldie's story of withdrawing £50, and she is cleared. Jay and Trevor are the last two suspects both jay and trevor both had the opportunity to kill Catherine but why would they. Andrew and Melanie are given the rest of the time to figure out who is the killer, and why he killed Catherine. Andrew decided it was Trevor, and Melanie chooses Jay. The Chief announces he knows who the killer is, and for the final Killer's Game, the locations are determined by where the suspects were last seen. Jay was last seen at the Disused Airfield, and Trevor was last seen at the Yacht Club. Andrew and Melanie, are sent to their locations. Both pursue their suspects, only to lose them due to closed gates. The killer leaves them both a message, "Coming out to play one last time?". Andrew goes to the Construction Warehouse, and Melanie goes to the Grain Store. In the end, Andrew survives the final Killer's Game, and Trevor turns out to be the killer.

But Andrew found out the two key questions, who killed Cathrine Prior and why?

Here is how Catherine Prior was Murdered.

By being given £20,000 and the Wilmington Jewel by her father Tony, Catherine plans to leave the town of Blackwater forever taking her daughter Anya with her, but Trevor Dobie heard about Catherine's plans on leaving and started to threaten her, Catherine left home and broke into Jay Wilimgton's barge where she would spend the night taking the navigation dividers with her as protection. The following day Goldie was due to marry Jay Wilmington. Catherine was picked on the way to the church by Jennifer Wilmington and she saw that Catherine was wearing the priceless neckless that they thought it was missing, she called Jay to try to get it back but failed. Jay called Goldie and tried to get her to persuade Catherine to give her the necklace but Catherine refused. Meanwhile, Trevor was still pestering Catherine over Anya.

Later Trevor arrived at the church to get Catherine as she practiced for the wedding to admit on camera that he is Anya's father. As he entered the church his phone rang and he rejected the call. The call was from Jay in the phone box calling Trevor to stop hassling Catherine. Jay was the guy in the brown checked shirt seen by witness Edward Green. Jay was wearing the same shirt when Sam, Nick, and Christine saw him at the morgue the day after Catherine was attacked and he said then that he hadn't changed for twenty-four hours. Jay had had an alibi without realising it. Trevor demands that Catherine admit that Anya is his daughter which she does. However, she tells him that he's never been a proper father to her and he never will as her and Anya plan to leave Blackwater. When Trevor asks how she can afford to do this she tells him that Tony Wilmington is her father and he has given her the money to get away. Trevor has always hated the Wilmingtons because Felicity Wilmington killed his mother's baby to try to save the family name. He attacks Catherine who tries to defend herself with the navigational dividers she stole from Jay's barge, however Trevor manages to get them off her and use them to stab her. He then took the necklace hoping to use it to frame Jay or Jennifer and he's had the necklace ever since the murder.

Andrew solved the mystery and won the £25,000 reward.

Killer's Game

The unique part of the show's premise was the Killer's Game. At some point during the investigation days in each episode the killer would leave some form of message, consisting of polaroids with the two locations attached, usually accompanied by the taunting words 'coming out to play?'. At the end of each set of two days the investigators were passed or failed on their lines of enquiry and those who failed were put up for a group vote. Every investigator except the lead investigator could vote and the investigator with the most votes would be chosen as the first person to play the Killer's Game. The Lead Investigator would then choose any investigator to be the second person for the Killer's Game. The two chosen investigators pick from two envelopes to decide who will go to either of the two locations given, for example the first locations for the show were "The Old Oaks" and "The Power Museum". "The Chief" then says to the players that they have one hour to pack their bags and get ready to play the "Killer's Game". In Episode 9, as the finale episode, two killer games were played. The game with the final three had a different approach to the selection process. The Chief decided that the investigators who failed their enquiries the most would play the "Killer's Game", Nick and Andrew had more failed lines of inquiry than Mel did, so both of them had to play the game, while the final game was used to determine the winner between Andrew and Mel.

In the Killer's Game, the two selected investigators would be sent to two different remote locations completely alone, with their movements recorded only by a head-mounted camera and a flashlight, they also had to follow a map to where the "clue" would be located. One of the chosen investigators would discover an important clue that would help solve the mystery, whereas the other investigator would be eliminated from the show as a "murder" victim, with their last few seconds being seen from the view of the "killer" rushing towards the investigators in the manner of classical slasher films like Psycho. After shaking up the investigators up, both camera feeds are cut off signalling the end of the game for one investigator, then the survivor of the two comes through the doors at the entrance and notifying that he or she chose correctly and will continue on. The eliminated investigator chose the next lead investigator the following day via prerecorded video as a part of their "Last Will".

Andrew Weaver won the game, despite being sent to play the Killer's Game seven times (including the final Killer's Game against Melanie "Mel" Sainz). He currently holds the record for the most times a person has been sent out the Killer's Game, breaking Kristen Kirchner's record of five times in the US version Murder in Small Town X. Andrew is the only investigator to fail his line of inquiry while being the lead investigator. In addition, he had received the most votes against him throughout the entire season, 10. He correctly identified builder Trevor Dobie as the killer, whereas Melanie chose groom Jay Wilmington. Andrew was sent to the Yacht Club, where Trevor was last seen, and found Bob Taylor at the end, who proclaimed him as the winner of the £25,000 grand prize. Had both Andrew and Melanie chosen Trevor, they both would have won and earned £12,500 each.

Production

The town of Maldon, Essex was used as the fictional town setting of the series, Blackwater (named after the river upon which Maldon resides).[2] The Kelvedon Hatch Secret Nuclear Bunker was also used in the series, where Andrew Weaver and Nick Sykes went to the Operational Zone and Living Quarters respectively during the second-to-last Killer's Game. Before playing the game, the investigators were sent on a four-day training course at the Police Training Centre in Wakefield.

Viewer Interaction

Using Sky, Cable or Freeview, viewers could watch additional parts of the show using BBCi's digital interactive features. One feature entitled Blackwater TV was based around reviewing the case and showing mock television news reports. The React feature was where viewers could vote for who they thought was the killer; the voting results would then be shown the following week. The Investigators section featured exclusive footage from the Chief commenting on the contestants' current handling of the case. The fourth interactive feature was the Case File which held all of the details of the case which had currently been uncovered, including timelines, locations, relationships of suspects, and evidence.

References

  1. ↑ "The Murder Game Press Kit" (PDF). BBC. 11 March 2003. Retrieved 30 August 2008.
  2. ↑ "The Murder Game". UKGameShows. Retrieved 30 August 2008.
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