The final series of BBC’s crime drama Waking the Dead is due to start on Sunday 13 March 2011. This will be ninth series of the long-running drama about the Metropolitan Police’s cold case unit and sees the return of Detective Superintendent David Boyd (played by Trevor Eve) leading the team.
Written by Ed Whitmore, Timothy Prager and Richard Warlow, the series will also see the return of Grace Foley (played by Sue Johnston), Eve Lockhart (played by Tara FitzGerald) and Spencer Jordan (played by Wil Johnson), but they will be joined by new recruit Sarah Cavendish, played by Eva Birthistle. She is an ex-counter terrorism officer and has been foisted on Boyd by his superiors, and he is not altogether happy about the situation, especially as she matches him in rank. She is also suffering from post-traumatic stress and that causes problems for the team.
The Actors in Waking the Dead
Trevor Eve first came to fame playing Bill Davenport in 1977’s London Belongs to Me and 1980’s Shoestring. More recently, he starred as hostage negotiator Dominic King in Kidnap and Ransom and as Peter Manson in Bouquet of Barbed Wire.
Sue Johnston has played psychologist Grace Foley since Waking The Dead started in 2000. Her career dates back to the 1980s when she played Sheila Grant for eight years in Brookside. She followed this with a three-year stint as Ruth Parry in Medics. In 1997, she was Kate Grisham in Crime Traveller and a year later Val Rutland in Duck Patrol and Maeve Brunos in The Jump. More recently, she has had long-running roles as Barbara Royle in The Royle Family and Sal Vine in Jam & Jerusalem.
Wil Johnson has played Detective Inspector Spencer Jordan since Waking The Dead started in 2000. His first main role was as Stevie Johnson in 1994’s Annie Lee and he followed that by playing DC Skelton in Cracker and Steve Robinson in Clocking Off.
Tara FitzGerald was Young Polly in The Camomile Lawn and Young Dollie Stokesay in Angle Saxon Attitudes, both in 1992. She has had various film roles and one-off TV appearances, including recently as Debra Pemberton in U Be Dead.
Irish actress Eva Birthistle’s career dates back to 1983 when she played Regina Crosbie in Glenroe but she is better known for later roles such as Maria Acklam in Trust, Jane Lavery in The State Within, Eleanor Brooke in The Last Enemy and Annette Nicholls in Five Daughters.
The History of Waking the Dead
Emmy award winning Waking The Dead was created by Barbara Machin and first appeared on BBC One in 2000. Since then, it has produced ninety-two hours of viewing. The audience at one point peaked at 9.5 million viewers.
The 2000 launch was with a two-part pilot episode. It went down well and the first series proper was broadcast in 2001 and comprised four stories, each told over two hour-long episodes in what became the standard format for the future series.
Another four stories across eight episodes comprised season two in 2002 and season three in 2003.
The BBC became more ambitious with season four in 2004, with twelve episodes telling six stories. This format was repeated for season five in 2005, season six in 2007 and season seven in 2008. For season eight in 2009, the BBC went back to the formula of four two-part stories. The new season nine, which the BBC says will be the last, will contain ten episodes and comprise five two-part stories.
Steve Rogerson - Steve Rogerson is a UK-based writer specialising in television, technology, sports and beer.
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