Waking the Dead: Seasons 1 & 2 Savings Set

Season 1

Fans of forensic nail-biters CSI or Cold Case, go to work with quick-tempered D.C.I. Boyd (Trevor Eve, Troy) as he pieces together clues to solve the previously unsolvable. Winner of a 2004 International Emmy® Award for Best Drama Series, Waking The Dead is a must-own for fans of dark, complex and unconventional mysteries that mix cutting-edge forensics, psychology and good old-fashioned gumshoe work. Co-stars Sue Johnston (Brassed Off), Wil Johnson (Cracker) and Holly Aird (The Flame Trees of Thika).

Season 2

Pulse-pounding crime drama is Dead ahead. The Cold Case Unit is a crack team of three detectives, a forensic expert and a psychological profiler, tasked with reopening the files on unsolved murders. Led by quick-tempered, no-nonsense DCI Boyd (Trevor Eve, Troy, Heat of the Sun), they mix cutting-edge forensics, psychology and good old-fashioned gumshoe work-all while under enormous pressure to get results. In the riveting second season, the squad partners with a psychotic killer to stop a copycat assailant, then descends into the murky underworld of London's gangland crime families. Meanwhile, governmental bureaucracy and cover-ups hinder their progress, and Boyd makes terrible mistakes while attempting to discover the truth behind the disappearance of an 18-year-old girl. This winner of an International Emmy® for Best Drama Series co-stars Sue Johnston (The Royle Family), Wil Johnson (Cracker), and Holly Aird (Kavanagh Q.C.).

International Emmy® Awards
2004 – Best Drama Series

Season 1

Burn-Out (Part One) - Boyd and his team investigate the apparently straightforward death of a man in a car crash. Marina Coleman is convinced that her father Perry's death was no accident, and her own research forces Boyd to re-examine the facts. Perry was a war photographer and there were rumours he was on a death list.

Burn-Out (Part Two) - When a suicide note subsequently turns up, the case appears to be solved. But further forensic tests lead to an unexpected twist. A killer is on the loose, and Marina has disappeared.

The Blind Beggar (Part One) - The unexpected discovery of a skeleton in a church crypt awakens deeply hidden family secrets that force Boyd to examine his own past.

The Blind Beggar (Part Two) - Frankie reveals that both the skeleton and a local priest may be related as both suffered from Huntington's disease. The race then begins to find the victim's mother and the killer.

A Simple Sacrifice (Part One) - As she's served 25 years for a double murder, Annie Keel's solicitor is appealing for her release, and public anger at this is inflamed by the father of one of her victims. But the question of her guilt is opened up when the Met receives letters from someone claiming to have forensic evidence of Keel's innocence.

A Simple Sacrifice (Part Two) - Boyd and the team now have evidence suggesting that Annie Keel may indeed be innocent of the murders of her husband and the young son of a neighbour. But if this is the case, why did she confess in the first place? Annie's own eight-year-old son was there on the night of the murders, and Boyd wants him found – but nobody seems to know where he is.

Every Breath You Take (Part One) - When the corpse of missing police officer Debbie Britten is discovered floating in the Thames, suspicion immediately falls on her estranged husband. However, the trail leads to two obsessive stalkers who observed her every movement. Is one of them the killer, or do they know who is?

Every Breath You Take (Part Two) - Boyd and his team track down Debbie Britten's married lover, who admits the affair, but denies murdering her. Meanwhile, stalker Christopher Redford admits to the crime – but Grace has her doubts.

Pilot Episode - DCI Boyd and his team of police experts find themselves under pressure to investigate the five-year-old 'cold case' of a teenage girl's abduction, rape and murder. But as they begin work, they inadvertently inspire the killer to strike again. And, unbeknown to Boyd and his team, the murderer has a hidden agenda – to take revenge on them. A chilling mindgame ensues.

Season 2

Life Sentence, Part 1 - Known as the Gambler, Thomas Rice (Samuel West - Over Here, Persuasion, Pandaemonium, Iris) is a psychotic killer jailed for the murder of five women in the late Eighties. He used to force the police to draw a playing card to decide on the fate of his victims.
Dr Clare Delaney (Susannah Harker - House of Cards, Pride and Prejudice) is the only woman who survived an encounter with him - her card was the Queen of Hearts. One night she is disturbed at home by a stalker, who leaves the Queen of Hearts on her car windscreen.

Life Sentence, Part 2 - The Gambler's partner is seemingly active once more and has abducted a young woman .The team manage to identify her as Maya Wilson (Sheyla Shehovich), a prostitute, but are up against time in tracing her and her abductor, who is awaiting a response about the playing card.
Boyd interviews Clare Delaney once more and this time she cracks. She confesses that Rice let her live because she had sex with him; it was she who suggested the card games with the police. Armed with this new information, Boyd confronts The Gambler and rattles him. Rice admits to abducting the second missing woman, but denies all knowledge of Maya.
Rice escapes on his way back to the prison, aided by his old partner and friend, Paul Bryant (Simon Gregor). Paul's father (David Burke) has been visiting Thomas in prison and unwittingly carrying messages between the two .The team rush to Paul's workshop, presuming they will find Maya. Instead they find Paul, shot dead. Boyd realises that Rice will go looking for Clare Delaney...

Death Watch, Part 1 - On his deathbed in an East End nursing home, Harry Newman (Howard Goorney) confesses to 12 separate ‘unauthorised killings'. Boyd and the team are called in. There are puzzling battle scars and tattoos on his body, and it doesn't take long for Frankie to realise that Newman has been murdered. Is there a connection to the confession?
The team embarks on a very unusual investigation, to discover the facts surrounding the deaths of each of the names on Newman's list. The victims all appear to have died violently during the 1960s and70s.

Death Watch, Part 2 - With Grace recovering from her attack, the team continue on their quest to identify whoever commissioned hitman Newman/Harper. Chief suspect Frank Sutton (Toby Mace) died in a house fire in 1976, and two of the jurors died after this date. Did Newman just carry on killing in order to finish the job? It seems unlikely.

Special Relationship, Part 1 - When a petty burglar is acquitted of murdering prominent Home Office advisor Katherine Reed (Francesca Ryan), the Cold Case Squad is called in. Reed was a prominent feminist academic who joined the establishment after having attacked it for years. Boyd's team is determined to examine places where the previous investigation feared to tread.
Coincidentally, the original investigating officer, Jess Worrall (Ruth Gemmell - Band of Gold, Silent Witness), is an old flame of Boyd's.

Special Relationship, Part 2 - Frankie confirms that the semen in Reed's body matches Sir James's DNA. He is now Boyd's prime suspect and he goes after him in earnest. He discovers that not only did Beatty's two children die in mysterious circumstances, but that his wife, Lady Alice (Patricia Hodge - Rumpole, Life and Loves of a She-Devil, Jemima Shore Investigates), has always suspected him of having something to do with their deaths. She confirms that Sir James was having an affair with Reed and that she wasn't the first. But following their own line of investigation, Grace and Mel discover that, despite having an estranged husband, Reed was actually a lesbian and having a long-term relationship with an old university colleague, Lorna Gyles (Amanda Root - Persuasion, Mortimer's Law).

Thin Air, Part 1 - Beautiful 18-year old Joanna Gold (Sophie Winkleman) disappeared in broad daylight on Hampstead Heath in 1989. Now her famous red dress has been discovered in a lock-up in Kings Cross. Boyd is certain that when he finds the owner of the lock-up, he will have found Joanna's murderer. He hauls in the owner, reclusive hippy Alec Garvey (Justin Salinger), who lives in a house on the Heath.

Thin Air, Part 2 - When the team discover that Elaine and Charlie were friends, and also that Charlie had been in her flat shortly before her death, Spencer is forced to haul in his old friend. Under pressure, Charlie confesses he did know Joanna. In fact, he had been dating her at the time of her disappearance. DNA evidence places him on the Heath with her just after she went missing.