Murder Investigation Team is a British police procedural drama/cop thriller series produced by the ITV network as a spin-off from the long-running series The Bill. The series recounts the activities of the Metropolitan Police's Murder Investigation Team, who are led in Series 1 by D.I. Vivien Friend (Samantha Spiro) and her more intuitive colleague D.C. Rosie MacManus (Lindsey Coulson). Series 2 sees old-school copper Trevor Hand (Michael McKell) taking the reins under D.C.I. Anita Wishart (Meera Syal) and manage the newly transferred D.C. Eva Sharpe (Diane Parish). The series produced 12 episodes between 3 May 2003 and 1 August 2005. In September 2005, The Sun reported that ITV would not be commissioning a third series.

Background

Like The Bill, Murder Investigation Team was filmed in the London Boroughs of Sutton, Merton and Greenwich. Locations included the former Woolwich campus of the University of Greenwich. The first series debuted on 3 May 2003, and ran for eight episodes. This series was filmed with the working title Think Murder, and was produced by Tom Cotter. The first episode featured the team investigating the death of one of The Bill's most popular characters, Sgt. Matthew Boyden, who was killed in a drive-by shooting. Several members of The Bill's cast also appeared in the episode. The first series also featured guest appearances from such actors as Gary Kemp, Paul Bown and Bradley Walsh. After a two-year hiatus, a second series of four episodes debuted on 11 July 2005. All four episodes had previously been broadcast in February 2005 in Australia. This series features the re-appearance of DC Eva Sharpe, who joined the team, transferring from the CID office at Sun Hill. Each episode in series two was extended by half an hour and was produced by ITV's head of drama, Johnathan Young.

Cast and characters

Main cast and characters

Supporting cast and characters

Episodes

Series 1 (2003)

Series 2 (2005)

Home releases

From 2011 to 2012, Acorn Media Home Entertainment (under license from Talkback Thames and FremantleMedia Enterprises) released the entire 12-episode collection/all 2 seasons of this British modern cult cop thriller series in Region 1 DVD, starting with the first season on 1 March 2011, and the second and final season on 27 March 2012.