Teams of amateur detectives compete to crack a grisly case and win £50,000. So far, this new hybrid reality show seems half-baked and unpropitious
It’s possible that the timing is not propitious for the launch of a new entertainment series centred on the investigation of a young woman’s murder. The outrage surrounding the conviction of a serving Metropolitan police officer for the rape and killing of Sarah Everard, and the visibility it has given to the endemic violence against women, is a hurdle to overcome. Channel 4’s six-part offering Murder Island also has a further point of connection with the case and the context. One of its participants is former chief superintendent Parm Sandhu, who last week gave an interview to Radio 4’s World at One about her experience in the Met. She discussed female officers’ unwillingness to report sexist and misogynist behaviour for fear that the men will close ranks, and said that “the fear that most women police officers have got is that when you are calling for help, you press that emergency button on your radio, they’re not going to turn up and you’re going to get kicked in the street”.
On the other hand, the vulnerability of women to rapists and murderers is not exactly new information and it hasn’t curbed appetites for its exploitation as entertainment before now. So maybe this is by the by. Plus, Murder Island’s USP is that it is a new genre – a hybrid drama/reality show that keeps the involvement of police proper to a minimum. Instead, four pairs of amateur detectives will compete to solve a murder mystery written by Ian Rankin, about the stabbing of Charly Hendricks in a cottage on a remote Scottish island by a person or persons unknown. One team will be eliminated at each stage of the investigation – the winners get a £50,000 prize.