A new episode of Forensics: The Real CSI – an Open University/BBC co-production macabrely called Body in the freezer – begins this week.
Find out on Sunday 10 March at 9pm on BBC Two how a decomposing body found in a freezer at a waste disposal site triggers the alarm and sees the West Midlands Police launch into action.
A forensics team descend on the site in their quest to discover who the person is and, later, what caused their death, as we see how the police come to establish the facts with the help of the scientists.
Dr Jim Turner, a Senior Lecturer in Forensic Psychology at the OU was an academic consultant on the programme. He said: “As academics and educators, our role is to help the programme makers explain everything that’s happening for the audience.
“This involves a careful balancing act between giving enough detail to be accurate but not so much that it’s overwhelming. The CSIs themselves do a really good job of explaining what they’re doing and why, and the OU team is there to support the programme’s producers behind the scenes.
“Explaining complex scientific concepts to a TV audience is a little different to OU teaching, but the principles are similar – it needs to be clear, concise, accurate and, of course, interesting.”
This episode is the first in a series that follows complex cases to reveal the crucial role cutting-edge forensics play in bringing criminals to justice.
At West Midlands Police, the second biggest force in the country, an elite team of forensic experts are employed to solve the mystery of what has happened at the thousands of crime scenes they attend every year.
In this episode, it is quickly established that the freezer came to be dumped at the waste site as part of a flat clearance giving police the lead they need. The programme is available on iPlayer after airing.
This programme was commissioned by Broadcast and Partnerships and is supported by the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, with particular relevance to F73 MSc in Forensic Psychological Studies, Q82 BSc (Honours) Forensic Psychology and the Faculty of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, with particular relevance to R58 BSc (Honours) Biology and R59 BSc (Honours) Chemistry.
- Commissioned by Dr Caroline Ogilvie, Director, Broadcast and Partnerships
- Academic Consultants: Dr Jim Turner (FASS) and Dr Claire Kotecki (STEM)
- Media Fellows: Professor Zoe Walkington (FASS) and Professor Andrew Norton (STEM)
- Broadcast Project Manager: Clair Robinson
- Supporting Online Content: Patrick Kearney
Supporting Online content:
Visit our Broadcast and Partnerships site where you can find exclusive interviews with some of the programme’s featured investigators. (NB: this site may not be live or complete prior to broadcast)
Picture credit: Paul Evans for Blast! Films
