WIRE IN THE BLOOD

'''Wire In The Blood''' is an ITV television series which teams a university clinical psychologist, Dr. Tony Hill (Robson Green), with a tough female Detective Inspector, Carol Jordan (Hermione Norris). The series is based on characters created by Val McDermid, and is distributed on DVD by Koch Vision.
Only the first two episodes of the first series, "Mermaids Singing" and "Shadows Rising", are based on her books, with the rest having been written by others, however, the second episode of series four, "Torment", is an adaptation of Val's latest Tony Hill novel, "The Torment of Others". The series have appeared in America on the cable channel BBC America, in Australia on the public channel ABC, in France on NT1, and in South-East Asia on the cable channel the Hallmark Channel.
The title of the series is taken from a line in T.S. Eliot's poem Burnt Norton, one of the Four Quartets. The name of the first episode comes from The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, as does the first episode of the fourth series.

Contents

Plot

Characters

Episodes

DVD releases

Award nominations

References

External links

Plot

The series is set in the fictional town of Bradfield, assumed to lie within West Yorkshire. However, the filming location is the cityscape and surrounding countryside of Newcastle upon Tyne and Northumberland. Each episode usually involves a serial killer. The offbeat Asperger-like behaviour of Robson Green's Tony Hill is rather disconcertingly reminiscent of the behaviour of the traumatised detective Dave Creegan, the character that Green played in the 1997 ITV series ''Touching Evil''.

Characters

Character	Artist	Role(s)	Duration
'Dr. Tony Hill'	Robson Green	Clinical Psychologist	1x01-
			2002-
'Carol Jordan'	Hermione Norris	Detective Chief Inspector	1x01 - 3x04
			2002 - 2005
'Alex Fielding'	Simone Lahbib	Detective Inspector	4x01 -
			2006 -
'Kevin Jeffries'	Mark Letheren	Detective Sergeant	1x01 -
			2002 -
'Paula McIntyre'	Emma Handy	Detective Constable	2x01 -
			2003 -
'Don Merrick'	Alan Stocks	Detective Sergeant	1x01 - 4x03
			2002 - 2005
'John Brandon'	Tom Chadbon	Chief Inspector	1x01 - 2x04
			2002 - 2004

Episodes

===Series One (2002)===

#	Title	Original airdate	##
1x01	'The Mermaids Singing'	14 November 2002 & 21 November 2002	01
Clinical psychologist Tony Hill is teamed up with DI Carol Jordan in the hunt for the torture killer of several men. Based on McDermid's book of the same name.
1x02	'Shadows Rising'	29 November 2002 & 5 December 2002	02
Tony suspects that a serial killer is at work when the bodies of two young girls are discovered. Meanwhile, the stalker of TV celebrity couple Jack and Amanda Vance appears to be escalating dangerously. Based on McDermid's novel The Wire in the Blood.
1x03	'Justice Painted Blind'	12 December 2002 & 19 December 2002	03
When two of the former jurors in a high-profile murder case are killed in the same fashion, it seems that someone is pursuing their own brand of justice.

===Series Two (2003)===

#	Title	Original airdate	##
2x01	'Still She Cries'	17 December 2003	04
A deceptive and predatory serial killer fixates on Carol.
2x02	'The Darkness of Light'	21 December 2003	05
The discovery of three buried murder victims killed 500 years apart and a fire in a nearby hotel points to a mysterious and secretive religious cult.
2x03	'Right to Silence'	28 December 2003	06
Associates of an imprisoned gangland boss are being killed one by one.
2x04	'Sharp Compassion'	11 January 2004	07
A killer is targeting patients at the Bradfield Cross hospital.

===Series Three (2005)===

#	Title	Original airdate	##
3x01	'Redemption'	21 February 2005	08
Tony suspects a serial killer when the bodies of three boys are discovered.
3x02	'Bad Seed'	28 February 2005	09
Newly released killer William "Mack the Knife" MacAdam is Tony's prime suspect when a series of brutal murders send Bradfield reeling.
3x03	'Nothing But the Night'	7 March 2005	10
Tony is bewildered by an apparently schizophrenic killer whose methods fluctuate wildly.
3x04	'Synchronicity'	14 March 2005	11
A sniper appears to be killing at random, leaving deck cards at the scenes of crime. Meanwhile, Tony has to deal with his own mortality when he is diagnosed with a brain tumour.

===Series Four (2006)===
Hermione Norris does not return as Carol Jordan in series 4 but will remain a character in the books. Simone Lahbib of ''Bad Girls'' joins the cast as D.I Alex Fielding.

#	Title	Original airdate	##
4x01	'Time to Murder and Create'	20 September 2006	12
As a rape case ends in failure for Tony, a sadistic serial killer is at work.
4x02	'The Torment of Others'	27 September 2006	13
The grisly murder of a prostitute recalls a series of similar murders years ago - ones whose perpetrator is locked up in a mental asylum. Based on McDermid's novel The Torment of Others.
4x03	'Hole in the Heart'	4 October 2006	14
Tony is troubled by the attempted suicide of one of his students as well as the mystery of a series of deaths that are tied to a suicide cult. This episode takes many twist and turns including the possibility of a tie with the Masons.
4x04	'Wounded Surgeon'	11 October 2006	15
Tony has no doubt the first killer he helped catch, recently released from prison, has started killing again.

===Series Five (2007)===

#	Title	Original airdate	##
5x01	'The Colour of Amber'	11 July 2007	16
Dr Tony Hill (Robson Green) and DI Alex Fielding (Simone Lahbib) are in a race against time when a young girl is seen being snatched by a man in a car.
5x02	'Nocebo'	18 July 2007	17
A teenage girl and a young boy are found dead and they appear to have been victims of a ritual killing. Alex (Simone Lahbib) is upset by the lack of care shown by their bereaved families as she’s having problems of her own with her son Ben.
5x03	'The Names of Angels'	25 July 2007	18
Tony is troubled by the attempted suicide of one of his students as well as the mystery of a series of deaths that are tied to a suicide cult. This episode takes many twist and turns including the possibility of a tie with the Masons.
5x04	'Anything You Can Do'	1 August 2007	19
The murder of an elderly woman, suffocated in her own home, seems too deliberately staged to be an accident or robbery.

DVD releases

Region 2 is distributed by Revelation Films, Region 1 by Koch Entertainment and region 4 by Magna.

DVD name	Release dates
	Region 2	Region 1	Region 4
Wire in the Blood - The Complete Series 1	5 May 2003	22 June 2004	8 June 2004
Wire in the Blood - The Mermaids Singing	22 March 2004	11 November 2003	16 July 2003
Wire in the Blood - Shadows Rising	22 March 2004	13 January 2004	16 July 2003
Wire in the Blood - Justice Painted Blind	22 March 2004	16 March 2004	16 July 2003
Wire in the Blood - Still She Cries	N/A	17 August 2004	14 May 2004
Wire in the Blood - The Darkness of Light	N/A	N/A	14 May 2004
Wire in the Blood - Right to Silence	N/A	N/A	14 May 2004
Wire in the Blood - Sharp Compassion	N/A	N/A	11 June 2004
Wire in the Blood - The Complete Series 2	5 March 2004	12 July 2005	9 September 2004
Wire in the Blood - The Complete Series 3	6 October 2006	7 February 2006	1 November 2005
Wire in the Blood - The Complete Series 4	22 October 2007	TBA	TBA

Award nominations

Year	Ceremony	Awards	References
2006	Edgar Allan Poe Awards	'Best Television Episode Teleplay' - Guy Burt (Redemption)	[1]
2005	Edgar Allan Poe Awards	'Best Television Feature or Mini-Series Teleplay' - Alan Whiting	[1]

References

1. "Awards for ''Wire in the Blood''", ''IMDb''. URL last accessed 2007-08-04
2. "Awards for ''Wire in the Blood''", ''IMDb''. URL last accessed 2007-08-04

External links

★

★ BBC America's ''Wire in the Blood'' Page

★ Robson Green - ''Wire in the Blood''

★