Rent Steeltown Murders (2023)

Despite the incredible true story & some good moments, this is a lackluster & boring series - Steeltown Murders review by TB

Whilst flicking through BBC iPlayer, I came across a documentary looking at the reopened investigation into the "Steeltown Murders" and in particular it's groundbreaking first use of using familial DNA (the DNA of close relatives to link to the actual murderer) to solve a crime. This documentary was absolutely outstanding, packing huge amounts of story, emotion & suspense into an hour. Repeatedly throughout the programme, snippets of/reference to this drama series were made, so having loved that documentary, I immediately stuck Steeltown Murders onto my list. But the series is in many ways a massive missed opportunity, as well as being at times unbelievably heavy-going.

In 1973, two young women who were friends & out for the night were found murdered in woodland. Despite a massive police operation, as well as several poor decisions from the leadership, no leads were found/no perpetrators brought to justice. One of the original team who stayed with the force hears through the grapevine 30 years later that the police are re-examining the case, mainly due to the incredible advances with science/DNA, and actively pursues becoming part of the team. This series then looks at the challenges & hurdles put in their way, which eventually culminates in them catching the murderer through this new DNA technology, plus linking him to another unsolved murder committed years earlier.

Unfortunately, this is actually (and quite surprisingly, given the pedigree of studio/writers/producers,) an extremely poor quality series. As in, a genuine misfire & disappointment. The actors, especially Philip Glenister, don't really gel together. The early episodes keep repeatedly jumping backwards & forwards in time, sometimes 4 or 5 times within a minute, creating a jarring & confusing watch. The script is overlong, the direction relatively lackluster.

But more than anything, which again is in stark contrast to the documentary, this series is really boring. Several times in the first 2 episodes, I was disinterested & had to force myself to keep watching, telling myself it was going to get better. To be fair to the series, the final episode was the best of all of them, but then it didn't have a very high bar to beat...

One of the other reasons I am frustrated with this series is that welcomingly, it spends a lot of time looking at a woman called Sita, who was close friends with the two murdered girls & only left them that fateful night as she was dragged away by her father, who actively controlled his daughter's life (ironically in this instance saving her but condemning them.) The series takes pains to look at the effects that she suffers with, such as survivors guilt & trying to process all these horrific emotions. But it never truly clicks, despite the good intentions of the writers.

With better direction & script, plus a recasting of the main lead, this really could have been something. However, and it gives me no pleasure to say this, I don't recommend watching this series. Find the accompanying documentary (as of the middle of October, it is still on iPlayer,) which is immeasurably better than this & features the actual detectives who worked on the case.