ITV announces new Crime & Punishment' season

ITV announces new Crime & Punishment' season

ITV has announced a brand new season of high impact, compelling documentary films under the Crime & Punishment' banner for the autumn.

Big name talent, including Gordon Ramsay, Ross Kemp, Susanna Reid, Sir Trevor McDonald and Piers Morgan will front films offering viewers a fresh insight into hidden worlds, the criminal mind, the international cocaine trade, police investigations and how we punish offenders in Britain today.

The run of films will be shown in consecutive weeks this autumn. With unprecedented access to a team of UK homicide detectives, Sir Trevor McDonald shows how the vital golden hour', starting the moment a murder is reported, can make or break solving the case. Susanna Reid reveals the inside story of one of Britain's most shocking recent murder cases, the killing of Becky Watts, featuring previously unseen interviews. Ross Kemp spends a week inside one of Britain's most iconic prisons getting a taste of jail on both sides of the bars. Gordon Ramsay explores the world of cocaine and its links to a global trail of crime and devastation, from Columbian farms to Britain's streets, including some of London's most glamorous postcodes. And Piers Morgan travels to a US maximum security prison to interview one of America's most vicious and cunning killers.

The Crime & Punishment season is commissioned for ITV by Sue Murphy, Head of Factual Entertainment and Jo Clinton-Davis, Controller of Factual.

Sue Murphy said: Crime and the way we treat prisoners are subjects of great importance in modern Britain. It affects us all and tells us much about the dark side of human nature and society. In this season of brand new crime programmes, well-known figures immerse themselves in challenging and often dangerous precincts, to bring ITV viewers an authentic, unflinching insight into hidden and extreme worlds. Meeting people who live on both sides of the law, the films offer unique perspectives on how criminals operate, how they are caught and the consequences they face.

Films commissioned in the run include:

AN HOUR TO CATCH A KILLER

Produced by Potato 1X60

Presented by Sir Trevor McDonald, with innovative access to the Northumbria homicide team, An Hour To Catch A Killer takes viewers to the heart of the all-important window of time that can make or break a murder investigation the Golden Hour'. This principle, outlined in British Police's Murder Investigation Manual, describes how the decisions detectives make during that first hour impact on whether or not they catch the killer.

Homicide detectives from Northumbria Police force start filming themselves from the second a call comes in, when the clock starts ticking on their chances of finding the culprit. For the first time the entire murder squad wear HD body Cameras, recording every moment as the first 60 minutes counts down.

This moving rig' filming allows unrestricted access to the heart of the investigation, taking viewers inside the crime scene where camera crew can't ordinarily go because their presence would contaminate evidence.

From then on the programme has access to every level of the investigation as it develops, placing the viewer at the sharp end to get an insight into every move made by those leading the case as they try to close in on the killer. And the programme stays with them until the perpetrator is found and charged.

Sir Trevor McDonald, who meets the family of the young woman brutally murdered in the tragic case the film follows, said: An Hour To Catch A Killer will reveal the expertise of Northumbria Police s Homicide Team, through unprecedented access to every layer of the investigation. The use of Body Worn Cameras will provide an incredibly intimate insight into the crucial Golden Hour of a murder inquiry as we follow the team s race against the clock to catch the killer.

Presented by Sir Trevor McDonald

Filmed and Directed by John Holdsworth

Executive Producers: Ed Taylor, Michael Kelpie

GORDON ON COCAINE [WT]

Produced by Studio Ramsay 2x60

This two-part film shows Gordon Ramsay as viewers have never seen him before, stripping away the veneer of cocaine's glamorous image to expose how behind the powder many Brits consume as part of a night out lies a trail of criminality, cruelty and death driving its global trade.

Britain is the biggest consumer of cocaine in Europe and in Gordon's own business, the restaurant trade, it's rife. He's witnessed it wreck the careers of colleagues and tragically he lost his close friend and chef prot g to a cocaine overdose in 2003.

In this two-part series Gordon's journey takes him to South and Central America where he witnesses the illegal cooking process by which the drug is made, meets hired assassins and a big time drug-smuggler, is witness to the immediate aftermath of a cocaine-related murder and experiences the harsh reality of the war on drugs' by joining an elite Colombian anti-narcotics unit on a helicopter raid.

Back in the UK, Gordon joins police to catch a dealer and coke-taking drug-drivers, witnesses the arrest of couriers on their way to a major deal carrying tens of thousands of pounds and handles 30 kilos of freshly confiscated cocaine at a police testing lab. And he reflects on the challenge of tackling the damage done by cocaine, regarded by many casual users as harmless fun, as he meets a UK dealer and a recovering addict.

Gordon Ramsay said: I've wanted to understand the world of cocaine ever since I lost one of my chefs at my flagship restaurant in Chelsea and I wanted to learn why it's becoming such an epidemic not just globally but specifically in the culinary world. Understanding and seeing how it's made, transported, distributed, abused and prevented, has opened my eyes to the dreadful

LINK:	http://www.itv.com/presscentre/press-releases/itv-announces-new-crime-...
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