More CPRL work with the BBC in 2021 - Dr Zoe Walkington

Once again we have been lucky enough to work with the BBC on two very exciting projects of potential interest to CPRL members.  Dr Zoe Walkington tells us more...

The Detectives – Fighting Organised Crime -  BBC2 (Minnow films) 

This project is, at the time of writing, one that remains unfinished.  Myself, and two colleagues from the Law Faculty (Hugh McFaul and Francine Ryan) were invited to contribute as academic advisors to five episodes of the programme, which in this series focusses on organised crime.  Stalwarts of the CPRL will remember that we previously worked on series 2 of the programme which followed the Murder Investigation Team at Greater Manchester Police. 

At the time of writing two episodes of the show have aired, and will be available on BBC I-player.  However, there will be more forthcoming.  The Covid pandemic has meant that the content is being split, with two episodes being shown initially in March 2021, and then three following later in the year.  Episode one was quite a difficult watch as it focussed on a harrowing case involving kidnappings and torture.  The focus of episode two was a daytime shooting (and murder).  The  storytelling in both episodes was fantastic, and the range of footage that the production team obtained of the investigation team carrying out their work in solving the cases was exceptional.

 
Bad People – BBC sounds podcast 

Bad People is a BBC Sounds podcast presented by a psychologist Dr Julia Shaw who specialises in criminal psychology and her co-host, comedian Sofie Hagan.  It explores true crime cases but turns to psychological science to try to explain, or understand, why people do bad things.  In early 2021 myself and my colleague (also an active CPRL academic) Camilla Elphick were approached to act as nominated academics on 10 episodes of the podcast which were to be a BBC/OU co-production.  It was an exciting prospect.  Normally working with the BBC at the Open University involves working on Television or Radio shows, but this was something a bit different.  The podcast targets a younger demographic and there was a need to tie in each episode with a particular case. 

The production team were also keen to capture something of our specialist academic interests in the shows.  Consequently, we were able to be heavily involved in some episodes, even personally appearing in one each, as well as facilitating other colleagues from the OU to shine in their own episodes (e.g. Stephen Akpabio-Klementowski from the Students in Secure Environments team in an episode about prisoner education).  I was able to steer “my” episode to be about my knowledge exchange work in police suspect interviewing and Camilla was able to share her expertise in understanding why witnesses to sexual harassment in the workplace often fail to report what they have seen (both episodes will be available to download from here)  

We both thoroughly enjoyed our involvement in the show, and hope that it has led to some episodes that might interest CPRL members and perhaps their offspring/younger relatives – the show is ideal for capturing the interest of those interested in studying criminology, psychology or related subjects.