Steeltown Murders Tv Series Review Trailer Cast and Crew

Set in both 1973 and the early 2000s, Steeltown Murders focuses on the quest to catch the murderer of three young women in the Port Talbot area and the remarkable story of how, in the first case of its kind, the Mystery was solved almost 30 years ago. later using pioneering DNA tests.

Rather than focus on the so-called Saturday Night Strangler, this true-to-life crime drama seeks to honor his 16-year-old victims, Sandra Newton, Geraldine Hughes and Pauline Floyd, as well as their families and the tight-knit Welsh community shaken by their murders.

Steeltown Murders inevitably has some of this archival material, as it is (in part) an account of the inquest into the rape and murder of two teenage girls in Llandarcy near Port Talbot in 1973; and yes, the senior cop in charge at the time has little idea of the possibility that he has a serial killer on his hands.

This isn't so much a series of nail-biting murders as it is a sad portrait of a community in shock.

This thought, however, has long occurred to DC Paul Bethell, a conscientious young detective whose attempts to link the Llandarcy case to an earlier murder in Neath are systematically trampled by his boss. Due to his audacity, he is assigned “taping”: carrying adhesive tape on his rounds to collect fibers from the cars he is inspecting. Thirty years later, now as DCI, Bethell finds herself reopening the cold case, this time with a savvy DS in charge, trying to keep her investigation open in the face of drastic budget cuts. Basic desktop computers have replaced duct tape dispensers.

Investigating murders against the odds is always a good game and this story has the full package: an anal DS, jurisdiction disputes that mean Port Talbot doesn't automatically investigate a Neath case, the shoe-soled intensive investigations that can still get through overlooked the prime suspect. However, the series does have a USP: it is an account of the first criminal investigation in the UK to successfully use DNA evidence.

As 30 years separate the murders and the reopening of the case, the script necessarily has a double helix structure, switching between the two threads with two different casts, often with quick editing. Dozing is not allowed. So it's a double-decker period drama for those who love to ooh and ah about tacky fashions and 'dos', clunky technology and teen-pop favorites on the soundtrack, delivered with precision. impressive but not intrusive.

Young DI Phil Bethell, torn between bravado and his sense of duty, is ably played by Mark Arthur (pictured below right with Siôn Alun Davies), the older by Philip Glenister (who is half Welsh, main image). Joining them are the familiar faces of Welsh TV drama - a small, friendly bunch, not unlike the community depicted in Port Talbot, where everyone knows each other. One actor, Gareth John Bale (no relation), actually plays his own uncle, Geraint Bale, one of Bethell's crew in 2002.

I say "team," but there were only three, thanks to cuts, plus Colin Dark (Hinterland's Richard Harrington), the scientist who analyzes swabs for DNA matches. The third member of the Bethell team is Phil Rees (Stefan Rhodri in 2002, Siôn Alun Davies in 1973); Rhodri went to school just a mile from Llandarcy Woods; and the real Bethell and Rees visited the set and helped Whitemore in his investigation.

Where Steeltown Murders scores is in its concern with more than the minutiae of police procedures. No murder is shown, no mutilated bodies appear, and police briefings are kept to a minimum. The people who are left after, and that includes the investigating officers, are his main focus, almost exaggerated at some points. You feel the script struggles to justify its necessary meddling in all of these lives by regularly raising the question of why this old case has been reopened, given the lack of police resources.

Steeltown Murders Tv Series Trailer