Behind the Crimes with Robert Murphy

Gone - the series finale: Director Richard Laxton

Subscribe for FREE: robertmurphy.substack.comRichard Laxton discusses how he directed the ITV drama Gone.Why did he want to tackle the subjects of male repression and coercive control?What strengths did the lead actors Eve Myles and David Morrissey bring to the show? And how did his experience as a young gay man who didn’t come out until he was 21 inform this drama about an institution which has a public and private face?Richard also discusses his previous crime series including, Joan, Honour and The Thief, His Wife and the Canoe?If you enjoyed this episode, we have much more about the hit ITV drama in the last two episodes:The writer:In this episode series creator George Kay describes which true crimes influenced his writing - and his career more widely, including the hit shows Hijack, The Long Shadow and Lupin.The inspiration:Former detective Julie Mackay led the team which solved the 30-year-old murder of the teenager Melanie Road.In this episode, she describes what it was like starting her policing career in the 1980s and 1990s, juggling being a detective with being a mother and solving a high-profile cold case.If you want to learn more about the award-winning book, To Hunt a Killer, which Julie and I wrote - about that inquiry - you can grab a copy here. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit robertmurphy.substack.com/subscribe

ITV's Gone: Screenwriter George Kay and the crimes that shaped a drama

Subscribe for free: robertmurphy.substack.comHow - and why - did celebrated screenwriter George Kay take a true crime story and create a tense, claustrophobic thriller set in an English private school?‘Gone’ stars Eve Myles as overlooked detective sergeant Annie Cassidy brought in to investigate the disappearance of the wife of domineering headmaster Michael Polly (David Morrissey.)In this interview, George describes how he was inspired by the detective Julie Mackay (last week’s episode) and her book To Hunt a Killer.But the series was influenced by two other real-life investigations.George speaks about how he moved from writing episodic scripts for Killing Eve and other series to becoming one of the UK’s most bankable and acclaimed drama showrunners.And he touches on some of the big themes raised in Gone: masculinity and how some institutions fail to nurture generations of boys.George has featured in two previous episodes of Behind the Crimes. He talked about how he created The Long Shadow, about the crimes of Peter Sutcliffe:And of his previously unknown connection to the Lord Lucan nanny who evaded the murderous earl: This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit robertmurphy.substack.com/subscribe

Julie Mackay: The real-life inspiration behind the ITV drama 'Gone'

Julie Mackay is the former detective superintendent who led the inquiry into the cold case of Melanie Road.For more than three decades, the killer of the 17-year-old schoolgirl evaded justice.For the final seven years, this inquiry was led by Julie Mackay at Avon & Somerset Police.Julie and I wrote To Hunt a Killer - an award-winning book about her tireless hunt for the murderer.The book was optioned by New Pictures, the creators of Gone. Screenwriter George Kay created a fictional world, using the book as inspiration, rather than making a straight adaptation.Gone centres on the domineering headmaster Michael Polly (David Morrissey) whose wife Sarah vanishes from his prestigious West Country school. Det Sgt Annie Cassidy (Eve Myles) is brought in to find her. Instead of being allowed to lead the hunt, she’s sidelined as the Family Liaison Officer. But her new position gives her unique access to the Polly family home. And the more she sees of this dogmatic, repressed and powerful man, the more she questions whether he was responsible for his wife’s vanishing.In this podcast episode, Julie describes starting as the sole woman on her police team, what it was like to work undercover, to have a loaded sawn-off shotgun pointed at her head, reflects on the challenges of the Melanie Road inquiry, and what it was like to run a team of nearly 200 detectives when she finally got the top job leading a regional Murder Squad.Gone is aired on ITV in the UK on Sundays and Mondays throughout March with all episodes appearing on ITVX on March 8th for the binge-watchers among you.Gone is written by George Kay and directed by Richard Laxton. It stars Eve Myles and David Morrissey and co-stars Jennifer Macbeth, Arthur Hughes, Nicholas Nunn, Elliot Cowan, Billy Barrett, Rupert Evans, Jodie McNee, Oscar Batterham, and Clare Higgins. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit robertmurphy.substack.com/subscribe

Luther & The Iris Affair: the crime creations of Booker Award-nominated Neil Cross

Subscribe for free: robertmurphy.substack.comDoctor Who, Spooks, Luther: some of Britain’s best-loved TV crime dramas have scripts written by Neil Cross.The Bristolian who now lives in New Zealand created Idris Elba’s beloved London detective on a spur-of-the-moment during a meeting with BBC managers.And, more recently, he devised the fast-paced, twisty, laugh-out-loud thriller The Iris Affair, featuring Niamh Algar and Tom Hollander.In this interview, Neil describes how his life changed in a chance-moment at a careers advice meeting at university.He describes the difference between writing for an established show with an engaged following - like Doctor Who - compared with creating his own series.And, in this open, confessional interview, he talks about his tough upbringing in Bristol and Scotland, being expelled from school, spending years unemployed, before getting into university and embarking on his writing career.You can find out more about Neil here: http://www.neil-cross.com/ This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit robertmurphy.substack.com/subscribe

The women serial killers of Papal Rome: The Book of Secrets with Anna Mazzola

Subscribe for free: www.robertmurphy.substack.comImagine you are a woman in 1659 Papal Rome. You can’t choose your husband, your job, your home. If your family had no money, you’d most likely end up in a convent or on the streets.And what if your life was ruled by a brutal husband, father or brother?Divorce? No chance.Anna Mazzola discovered the true case of Gironima Spana who supplied women with a potion known as Aqua Tofana to sort the problem: to kill the men.But the corpses didn’t decay as they should, and the authorities were alerted.‘The Book of Secrets’ reimagines this story from three perspectives: the poisoner, a survivor of domestic abuse and the prosecutor entrusted with catching the killers.The Book of Secrets won the 2025 Crime Writers Association Gold Dagger Award - one of the biggest accolades in crime writing.In this interview, Anna Mazzola describes the inspiration and research for the novel, how her work as a human rights lawyer informs her work, and her new venture writing crime/political thrillers set in the modern day under her pen-name Anna Sharp.You can find out more about Anna Mazzola here: https://annamazzola.com/ This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit robertmurphy.substack.com/subscribe