Blue Murder: Series 5 - Episode guide
Caroline Quentin returns as DCI Janine Lewis in September in six new episodes of ITV1's police drama Blue Murder.
> Buy Series 5 on DVD.
> Buy the Complete Series 1-4 boxset.
The episodes see Janine juggling the demands of her hectic home-life with running an under-pressure murder investigation team. Janine’s close to her team and the sharp sense of humour among them helps to preserve her sanity and theirs. Solving murders at work and screaming blue murder at home, it’s a tough life and it’s about to get tougher – can Janine hold it all together?
DI Richard Mayne (Ian Kelsey) finds himself supporting Janine both at home and at work as she struggles to cope after the departure of ex-husband Pete who has built a life for him and his new family in Spain. As this story develops, Janine finds herself making some tough decisions about her future career.
> Read our interview with Caroline Quentin.
> Read our interview with Ian Kelsey.
Episode 1: Having It All
When cheerleading coach Helen Gaskell (Carolyn Backhouse) is found dead in her garage by her daughter Melanie (Natasha Thompson-Wild) and husband Alan (Chris Gascoyne), the team are surprised by the ferocity of the attack. Initial suspicions falls on Alan, especially when his bloodied clothes are found dumped nearby. As Janine and the team dig further they uncover a bitter rivalry between Helen, her sister Anita (Siobhan Finneran) and their two teenage daughters Melanie and Jess (Holliday Grainger). The discovery of Helen's affair with Jess's boyfriend Kyle (Chris Hall) suddenly gives Jess the strongest motive, but are the team missing a motive that goes much further back than anyone could have imagined?
Janine (Caroline Quentin) and the children are unsettled by the recent and sudden departure of her ex- husband, Pete. As Janine struggles to engage with Tom (Cellach Spellman), who has fallen out with his best mate over a girl, Richard (Ian Kelsey) agrees to have a man-to-man talk with the troubled teen.
Episode 2: Inside
Shortly after being granted the right to appeal, Bernard Aspen (Rennie Krupinski) is found dead in the prison washroom. He had been convicted of the murder of teenager Marianne Cale over a decade ago and Bernard’s death sends the team back to investigate the original case.
Inside the prison no one will talk to them and the team quickly realise that this could be a long haul. With the investigation stalling, Richard (Ian Kelsey) is sent in undercover by DCS Hogg (Saskia Wickham), unbeknown to the rest of the team including Janine (Caroline Quentin). Bernard’s cellmate, Neville Notts (Mark Benton) has a watertight alibi from Prison Officer Keeler (Jason Furnival) and although the team can find links between other inmates and the Marianne Cale case, they’re struggling to piece the case together.
Vicious inmate Donnie Shoreham (Lee Boardman) had connections to Marianne Cale and her friend Alison Aspen (Bernie’s daughter) but his alibi is validated by half a dozen inmates. Meanwhile another inmate Vic Denton (Andrew Turner) is discovered to have a relationship with Laura Cale, Marianne’s sister. Richard begins to piece together the evidence on all three suspects but is in increasing jeopardy as Donnie becomes convinced he recognises Richard. If his cover is blown Richard could be a dead man walking.
Janine (Caroline Quentin) is distracted from this case when her own personal crisis takes hold. She’s shocked when her son Michael (Geoff Breton) is arrested after his car hits another car, seriously injuring the other driver. Michael claims to have been behind the wheel and refuses to change his story, but Janine’s instinct tells her he wasn’t the driver and is covering for his friend. Unable to convince him to change his story she’s at a loss as to what to do and calls Richard unaware he’s in prison. How will she feel when she discovers he’s gone undercover behind her back?
Episode 3: Tooth & Claw
Out in the hills north of Manchester the discovery of local vet Ruth Turner’s (Sophie Rickman) body thrusts the team into a community reluctant to open its doors to them. As they uncover Ruth’s plans to leave her husband, fire-fighter Gavin Turner (Anthony Flanagan) and her lover, Yvonne (Lara Cazalet), they meet some interesting locals including mad old Peggy Gaumont (Sylvia Sims). However, it’s the fragile existence of local farmers Dunwoody (Neil Bell), Martin Heald (Roger Morlidge) and his son Rowan (Sam Darbyshire) that finally leads the team to the discovery of more complex relationships, an arsonist and eventually to the murderer.
Meanwhile, Butchers (Paul Loughran) has an assessment with Richard (Ian Kelsey) in which the issue of whether he’s ‘fit to fight’ is raised.
Episode 4: This Charming Man
Jack Taylor (Michael Winniczuk), lead singer of Rule 7, is found dead at the bottom of the stairs in his apartment. The team uncover the manager Matt’s (Danny Cunningham) doubts about the band’s latest album and a desire to get ex-band member Billy Radford (Liam Garrigan) back on board. But the case is complicated by the discovery that Jack had a fractious relationship with just about everybody with whom he was close.
His grieving girlfriend Amy (Tina O’Brien) saw him with another woman the night of the murder, Jack’s brother Sam wasn’t tucked up in bed at his parents’ house as he claims and Jack didn’t see eye to eye with Liam Whittick (Chris Coghill), photographer and maker of the band’s latest promo. With so many suspects, will Janine (Caroline Quentin) and the team ever discover who killed Jack?
Janine’s relationship with teenage daughter Ellie (Eden Garrity) is at a low ebb until Ellie finally takes an interest in her mother’s work. Rule 7 is Ellie’s favourite band and her fascination with Janine’s current case brings mother and daughter closer together, but for how long?
Episode 5: Private Sins (Part 1)
Janine (Caroline Quentin) and the team are riding high when Shap’s (Nicholas Murchie) evidence convicts a high-profile murderer. However, their reverie is short-lived when the body of private investigator Peter Williams is found in a car park. The team soon uncover the dodgy dealings of Paul Faber’s (Collin Wells) PI company which Williams worked for. The disappearance of Peter’s friend and colleague Tanya Lucas (Vera Filatova) has the team digging further into this world.
Shap makes it his mission to find her while the rest of the team look into clients that Peter had been working for. It comes to light that he’d been following Sally Jowell (Heather Peace) and her daughter Hannah (Felicity Grant) on behalf of her ex-husband, convicted criminal Terry Camerton (Kieran O’Brien). Camerton quickly becomes a suspect, but furtive Shap is a few steps ahead of his colleagues and, having found Tanya and brought her in, he begins privately pursuing Camerton and secretly employs Tanya to work for him, desperate to get to him first. What is Shap hiding?
Meanwhile, Janine is under pressure at home coping with the repercussions of ex-husband Pete moving away. She’s furious when she discovers Tom (Cellach Spellman) has been truanting from school and finally agrees to take a couple of days off to sort things out.
Back on the case, Richard (Ian Kelsey) is horrified to learn Shap had become personally involved with Tanya, who’s been found dead. As Shap’s career hangs in the balance will he tell Richard what he’s up to?
Episode 6: Private Sins (Part 2)
The team question Camerton’s (Kieran O’Brien) ex-wife Sally (Heather Peace) and it becomes clear that all is not well with her new husband Derek (Brendan Coyle). They suspect she’s the victim of domestic abuse again. Ex-copper Derek is now a cabbie and after discovering that his cab was seen near the site of Wilson’s murder, he becomes a suspect.
Meanwhile, Shap (Nicholas Murchie) finally catches up with Camerton who convinces him that there is another explanation for his conviction of GBH on Sally and for the domestic violence already suspected in the Jowell house. With Richard on his case Shap finally reveals his link to Camerton and tells him what he knows. How will Janine feel when she discovers Shap’s underhand investigation? Can they find enough evidence to bring in their suspected murderer?
Meanwhile, DCS Hogg (Saskia Wicham) becomes aware of the pressure Janine (Caroline Quentin) is under juggling her role of single parent with being a DCI and encourages her to apply for promotion to DCS. It’s more sociable hours and more money but will Janine sacrifice her job and team she loves in order to spend more time at home?
