| Jericho | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Crime |
| Created by | Stewart Harcourt |
| Developed by | Granada Television |
| Starring | Robert Lindsay, David Troughton, Ciarán McMenamin |
| Composer(s) | Dominik Scherrer |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 4 (List of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Rebecca Eaton, Damien Timmer, Michele Buck, |
| Producer(s) | Cameron McAllister |
| Supervising Producer(s) | Danielle Brandon |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | ITV |
| First shown in | 2005 |
| Original run | 16 October 2005 – 6 November 2005 |
| Chronology | |
| Related shows | Foyle's War |
| External links | |
| IMDb profile | |
| TV.com summary | |
Jericho is the title of an ITV crime drama series which was broadcast in 2005. It was created and written by Stewart Harcourt. The series starred Robert Lindsay as Detective Inspector Michael Jericho who is loved by the public but is himself embarrassed by his hero status. The series was set in London in 1958. The series was shown in the United States in 2006 as part of the PBS Mystery! series.
List of episodes
| Original air date | Season | # | Title | Synopsis | Guest star(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16 October 2005 | 1 | 1 | A Pair of Ragged Claws[1] | In the wake of the Empire Windrush wave of immigration, a young Jamaican is murdered in Notting Hill, in what Jericho soon identifies as a racial killing, but his work is interrupted when a wealthy businessman is kidnapped. | Francesca Annis |
| 23 October 2005 | 1 | 2 | The Killing of Johnny Swan | The British athlete Johnny Swan wins an important race against a Soviet runner but a year later, as a rematch looms, he and his three friends are caught up in a murder. (This episode draws on events surrounding the '3 minute mile'.) | |
| 30 October 2005 | 1 | 3 | To Murder and Create[2] | A scientist targeted by anti-nuclear campaigners is murdered, and Jericho is put on the case. A second murder shows that the attacks cannot be politically motivated but as Jericho becomes involved with a suspect, he puts the case and his whole career in jeopardy. | |
| 6 November 2005 | 1 | 4 | The Hollow Men[3] | As smog hits London (based on the Great Smog of 1952), a spate of murders seems to be targeting couples who have attended showings of "Bridge on the River Kwai". The press is certain that "The Butcher", a 1920s serial killer, is back on the loose, but Jericho is not so sure. | James Wilby |
Production and reception
The series was seen as an attempt to exploit ITV's success in period crime drama, best exemplified in Foyle's War, to replace Inspector Morse as a Sunday night crime-drama, and to rival the BBC's Sunday night dramas such as Waking the Dead[4] [5] The first episode had 5.9 million viewers, but this was down to 4.7 million for the second episode, less than its BBC rival.[6] Critical response was cautious[7], but the series was not deemed a complete success and a second series has not been commissioned.
Notes
- ^ A quotation from T.S. Eliot's 1915 poem "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock".
- ^ Another quotation from T.S. Eliot's 1915 poem "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock".
- ^ A direct quotation of the title of another Eliot poem, from 1925.
- ^ Deans, Jason. "Detective drama lures Lindsay to ITV", Media Guardian, 14 November 2003. Retrieved on 2007-11-16.
- ^ Gibson, Owen. "ITV's big hope for Sunday nights", Media Guardian, 14 September 2005. Retrieved on 2007-11-16.
- ^ Plunkett, John. "Jericho's audience comes tumbling down.", The Guardian, 24 October 2005. Retrieved on 2007-11-16.
- ^ Banks-Smith, Nancy. "The weekend's TV", The Guardian, 17 October 2005. Retrieved on 2007-11-16.
