Crime

A writer friend of mine defines a gripping documentary as “great drama” telling “a compelling story with a character we can root for”. There’s no doubt that mass audiences are there for documentaries, but what are the storytelling techniques that keep them hooked?

We’re living in an age when documentaries are everywhere, shown across broadcasters and streamers. From science to survival, travel to true crime, the storytelling techniques are now more sophisticated than they have ever been.

Brenda Blethyn first pulled on the distinctive fishing hat, scarf and gabardine coat back in 2010, when episode one of Vera started filming in the North East for ITV. Now, after 14 years and more than 50 episodes, the award-winning actor has confirmed that she is stepping down from the role of DCI Vera Stanhope, after filming for her final two shows wrapped in May.

In her spare time, she makes films: last year, she produced the Second World War action movie Fortunes of War.

What does your job involve?

Alongside the drama director, I break down a documentary’s script to work out what needs dramatising and find suitable locations. The two of us also watch audition tapes together to decide on the actors we’re going to use in the reconstructions.

The six-part series stars Anjli Mohindra (Bodyguard) as Grace Narayan, a once successful police sergeant who has been forced into a “punishment post” on an obscure and sequestered island. When Narayan begins investigating the unsolved case of a missing teenager, what at first glance appears as a gritty police thriller, drifts into folk horror upon the unearthing of a bygone cult called True Way. Narayan comes to realise the cult, and its dedication to pagan god the ‘Red King’, are not as confined to the island’s past as it first appears.

The “speed-networking” format, where industry professionals visited tables with seven minutes to speak to attendees, was used again at the packed-out event at BBC Studios in Glasgow.

Tony Wood, CEO of Buccaneer Media, spoke about his decision to expand the company to Scotland: “Television is controlled by London and that seemed to me to be a shame. So, on the spur of the moment, I agreed with Screen Scotland to set up a production company here.

The six-part series will see Dougray Scott reprise his role as troubled detective DI Ray Lennox, after his unhinged portrayal in series one garnered a recent nomination for an International Emmy.

Following his breakdown after bringing Mr Confectioner to justice in series one, Lennox returns to Edinburgh Serious Crimes ready to prove his recovery. But in the interim, Chief Superintendent Bob Toal (Ken Stott) has lost his mojo and Lennox's partner Amanda Drummond (Joanna Vanderham) has been promoted.

The People v Climate Change 

Tuesday 16 November 

BBC Two, 8pm 

The UK government has made bold claims and promises about the changes we need to make to help reverse climate change and save the planet.

This documentary follows the members of the UK’s first ever Citizen’s Assembly on Climate Change, which saw 108 ordinary people come together to decide what needs to be done to meet our climate change goals. 

The series will reveal the inside stories of some of the UK’s most complex major crime cases, and how expert witnesses helped crack them using forensic science.

Each episode will see Baptiste explore two different cases, and hear from those who solved them. Among those featured are The World’s End murders of 1977, one of Scotland’s longest running investigations, the Rochdale Ripper, who was captured using forensic imaging, and two crimes solved by the examination of pollen at a murder, and fibres in a car crash.

Based on the novel by William Landay, the series was created and written by Mark Bomback.

The series is set in small Massachusetts town, and focuses on assistant district attorney Andy Barber (Chris Evans), whose life is thrown into disarray when his 14-year-old son Jacob (Jaeden Martell) is accused of murdering another child from his class.

The crime has consequences for the whole town and witnesses who claim Jacob did it say he looked “smug and remorseless”.