ebmarshie So, 'Murder: Joint Enterprise'. For some reason the BBC decided to schedule this in somewhat of a death slot - 10pm on a Sunday. This is an original take on the murder mystery and I want more of them. A girl has been murdered in her flat, her sister calls the police from the bathroom, where she's locked herself in, a man is arrested driving away from the scene in the victim's car. Throughout the hour the characters address the camera, giving us their various testimonies as we move through the initial questioning, charging and the court case. As we move through the days new information comes to light, we learn of new circumstances surrounding the night of the murder, new background to our characters, and with each monologue we must reassess what we thought we knew. I believe the concept came from watching cases unfold in court, and the way a jury hear the story of a crime from witnesses, the accused, the police, and lawyers. This creates a constant flux in opinions as gradually ideas solidify and we come to our own understanding of the case. It demonstrates how little one can really 'know' when being told not shown.The monologue style is a challenge on television. The actors cannot feel the audience reaction as they can onstage. Their utterances cannot be provoked by dialogue, or another character's physical behaviour. Visually the scene is static, something addressed here by the use of crime scene photographs, CCTV footage and video from a camera-phone intercut throughout the speeches. The monologues are entirely successful, mainly because the actors are great. Joe Dempsie was always the most talented of his 'Skins' generation, and he continues to prove so here. Karla Crome as Coleen plays vulnerable yet dangerous perfectly. As the only two people who know what happened on the night in question, and the entirety of their own backstories, they maintain the suspense, but brilliantly leading us further into the mystery.After the jury's judgement has been passed, we finally see the night of the crime in full. I doubt I'll be alone in thinking that this explicit resolution was unnecessary. There is a final hint from one character that I think allows us to come to this conclusion without being shown the scene, but equally some people will crave a clear, unquestionable solution. Robert Jones (the writer) being interviewed on Front Row before transmission said that if they make more dramas in the style of 'Murder', they might not show the solution. However they end them, with or without 'solving', I really want more of these. Please BBC, commission a series.

bob the moo I had not heard much about this one-off show other than it was by the maker of the original version of The Killing and that it had gotten good reviews from most critics. The manner of delivery is retrospective and almost entirely in the form of to-camera monologues by individuals, there is really only one scene where the characters directly interact and that comes right at the end. This means that, like most real life cases, you have the statements of those involved to go on and the writer makes this work really well, spinning perception to the point where you are not quite sure who did what to whom.As the case approaches we also get to see the manipulative nature of "justice"; the presentation, the little touches of coloring done by the lawyer and the way the facts are hard to get. It is a simple crime – a couple of sisters in a working man's club on their way to get matching, tacky tattoos but instead get picked up by a bloke and end up back at their rather dingy little flat, drunk, fighting and having fun. It is tawdry in nature and in a way is pretty representative of low-end crimes rather than the bigger complex affairs we see in season-long murder-mysteries. This does rather color the viewer but the film is careful not to judge the characters for where they are from, but instead lets them do the talking. The delivery is clever because it draws you in with different stories which are added to by the policeman, the lawyer, the mother, all adding perspective and opinion.The actual solution to the crime is satisfying but it is the total delivery that works so well. The cast are a big part of this working because they convince as characters – their anger, their tawdriness, their hate, their past hurts all seem part of them. Crome and Dempsie are both excellent in the two central roles and they hold attention effortlessly. Support from Pugh, Rushbrook, Dillane and the few others is almost as good and everyone gets the approach and follows the lead of Larsen and Jones. It is downbeat and it does deliberately lack the slickness of weekly crime dramas, but this is to its credit because the case is messy and isn't easily resolved.Well worth a look because it is engaging, intelligent, rewarding and grimly honest.

jc-osms Much hyped and anticipated as the first production by "The Killing" director Birgir Larsen in English, I must admit I was bitterly disappointed by it.A prismatic narrative, similar to "Rashomon" and "Accident" in depicting a dramatic event from different perspectives, being the co-accused of the murder of a young girl after a drunken night goes wrong, the familiar Nordic Noir devices of unusual camera angles, well-lit city-scapes, new-age background music for atmosphere and naturalistic acting are rolled out again, but I was unmoved.For one thing, I didn't care for the characters, low lives all of them and watching their tawdry doings was akin to viewing rats in a barrel. I didn't like the acting either, as if staring at the camera and talking in monotone can be called acting.The denouement was underwhelming too, by which time anyway I was bored and couldn't care less. This programme was all flash and no content and was as entertaining as a dose of the measles.How do you say "The Emperor's New Clothes" in Norwegian?

Tweekums Most murder mysteries begin around the time of the murder then follow the police as the question witnesses and examine clues and end when the culprit is exposed and arrested; the few that don't follow the trial and the truth will be exposed in court… this is not like either of those though. This one hour story takes the form of a succession of people talking directly to the camera; suspects, police, witnesses a barrister, a pathologist and the victim's mother. They each tell us part of the story; what they think happened or what they want us to think happened. We see neither the investigation nor the trial.The case involves the murder of Erin, a twenty seven year old woman who was battered to death with an Amaretto bottle. At first the only suspect is Stefan, an ex-squaddie who was arrested while driving off in her car in a drunken state; later it becomes apparent that the victim had a fight with Coleen, her sister in the pub earlier so she becomes suspect number two. Both Stefan and Coleen tell us their stories; each is plausible… just about. D.I. Sheehy gives his views of them and suggests what he things might have happened and when the trial begins Coleen's Barrister, Heskett Jupp, tells us what his strategy will be. As the story draws to an end one of the suspects will go to gaol and then we will finally see what happened on 'Day 0'; the day that Erin was killed.When I sat down to watch this I wasn't sure what to expect; all I knew about it was that it was directed by Birger Larsen; the director of the superlative Danish thriller 'The Killing'… this couldn't be like that though as it was one hour long rather than twenty. I don't think I'd want to sit through twenty hours of people talking to camera but as a one hour show I thought it worked very well; giving the proceedings a documentary feel. The cast did a solid job and felt real; I suspect this was helped by the fact that apart from Robert Pugh they were all unknown to me. Most of the programme was filmed in fairly stark rooms but we did get the occasional outdoor view and these were filmed in a way that gave a interesting feel to the setting; the city of Nottingham looked deep orange or even red in the various night time shots. If you enjoy murder mysteries and don't mind the large amount of swearing then you'll probably enjoy this.