A new team of detectives, the Cold Case Squad, is put together to re-examine evidence of unsolved murders using advanced technology. In their first investigation DCI Peter Boyd has a second go at nailing the murderer of Alice Miller, a young girl who disappeared five years ago. Trouble is, the perpetrator is as keen as Boyd to act again, and abducts another girl.
Hoping that new DNA tests will reveal the killer's identity, DCI Boyd has the original abductee's body exhumed. But he soon comes to discover that the kidnapper is looking for more than money -- he wants revenge on Boyd's team.
A young woman, Marina sets fire to an abandoned car in a street and takes photographs of it as it burns. Boyd walks by and tackles her to the ground, attempting to shield her from the possible explosion. He later learns that Marina's father died in a car accident a few years earlier in that spot, and Marina refuses to accept that his death was an accident. Although not officially a cold case, Boyd is intrigued and reluctantly agrees to investigate. Frankie runs forensic tests on Marina's father's car and proves that he was still alive after the crash and could have escaped. The answers they uncover may mean that the danger to Marina is much greater than any of them had suspected.
Boyd has Marinas uncle, Mike Coleman and her mother Gwen brought in for questioning while Frankie searches the house. The team find the items that were recovered from the car nine years ago and suspect that Perry Coleman was being blackmailed by Rod Brogan, a friend of Perry's. Boyd has the body exhumed and the DNA results suprise everyone
Workmen are burrowing in the crypt of a Catholic church when they come across the skeletal remains of a young man buried in concrete. The squad sets about trying to pinpoint the identity of the body, which was buried with the accoutrements of certain Catholic rituals. Even more oddly, there is a message in Braille buried with the corpse, which tums out to be a passage from one of St Paul's letters to the Corinthians The team suspects that the body was never meant to be discovered.
The hunt continues for the murderer. The team uncovers some long hidden family secrets while questioning the community & congregation. Also Frankie discovers a possible biological connection between the former parish priest, Father Stuart, and the first victim.
Boyd and the team decide to reopen the 25 year old case of Annie Keel, a woman who was tried and convicted of a double homicide solely based upon her own confession. Boyd doubts the validity of the conviction, and decides to dig deeper to possibly discover what really happened. Why did Annie confess? Did she really commit murder, or was she covering for someone else?
Boyd and the team continue their investigation of the Annie Kee case, and try to locate her son who was present during the murders.
When the corpse of a well-known police woman who went missing a year earlier is found floating in the Thames, Boyd and his team of investigators try to track down who murdered her and her unborn child.
Grace is not convinced that the stalker who confessed to the murder is truly guilty. But who really killed the police officer? Was it possibly the stalker, her ex-husband, or the married father of her unborn baby?
The Cold Case team is forced to enlist the help of a psychotic serial killer named Thomas Rice, AKA "the Gambler" (because he left playing cards at the scenes of his murders). The one woman who escaped death at his hands, the cool and poised Dr Clare Delaney, gets a dreadful reminder of her past ordeal and a fearful shock when a playing card is flung at her car windscreen as she sets off to make a house call on a wet, windy, dark night. The team look again at the Gambler's crimes, prompted by Boyd's unshakeable belief that Rice had claimed other, hitherto undiscovered victims.Boyd - who has personal links to the case - and Grace decide to use detective constable Amelia Silver to lure a confession from Rice.
Boyd and the team continue to begrudgingly rely on serial killer, Thomas Rice's assistance on the case, while also trying to protect Dr. Delaney from experiencing her terrifying ordeal once more at the hands of the copycat assailant. It becomes apparent that he might have help on the outside, so it's crucial that Boyd confronts one of Rice's intended victims, Dr Delaney, to find out what went on during her captivity. Why did he spare her life?
Boyd and the team take on the task of infiltrating the dark underworld of London's gangland crime families when Harry Newman makes a deathbed confession to 12 "unauthorised killings". Dr Grace Foley is intrigued by this strange expression but Boyd and the rest of the team are tempted to dismiss it as the meanderings of a dying man. Until, that is, forensic psychologist Frankie Wharton discovers that Newman did not die of natural causes, but has been murdered. They soon realise there's a lot more to Newman than they imagined. Added to all that, there's a link to a famous fifties trial in which a gangster was hanged for killing two policemen.
The postliminary inquiries into Harry Newman's past and the identities of the possible twelve murder victims uncover a connection to the infamous trial and execution of a well known gangster.
Boyd and his team struggle to find the truth behind the murder of a prominent Home Office adviser, when a petty criminal is acquitted of the crime. Once a prominent feminist activist, victim Katherine Reed had attacked the establishment at every opportunity, only to later switch sides. Boyd's progress on the case is hampered not only by a Home Office audit, which means the team will be shadowed throughout, but also by the fact that the original investigation was conducted by one of his old flames.
Whle facing a surprise audit from the Home Office, DCI Boyd (Trevor Eve) and the team try to continue their investigation into the murder ... but as they go on with their inquiries at Whitehall, they quickly discover the atmosphere to be very dark and secretive.
Twelve years after Joanna Gold famously disappeared in broad daylight on Hampstead Heath, the dress she was wearing is found in a lock-up. The team begin the hunt for her killer.
While under pressure to discover the truth behind the murder of young Joanna, DCI Boyd (Trevor Eve) slips up and makes possibly some irreversible mistakes. Joanna's killer begins stalking her sister.
A man accused of opening fire on a crowd from a multi storey car park, and killed a policeman, is claiming his innocence. Boyd's colleagues question his loyalties when he seems unwilling to re-investigate. As DC Mel Silver digs deeper, she discovers some disturbing truths about her boss.
Boyd struggles with his past while continuing the investigation on a mass murderer who was also guilty of killing his close friend. Are the Gunman's claims of innocence true? As the team investigate it looks as if someone else may have been involved.
When a convicted killer is cleared at appeal for the murder of his adoptive father ten years previously, Boyd is not convinced that the man is innocent. But the only way to find out is to track down the rest of the family - and with a big inheritance at stake, both parties appear to have a lot to hide..
Following the murder of Mark Lovell's cousin, the team establish that Mark has a watertight alibi, and the search for the real murderer narrows down to the remaining family members. Their investigation into the two remaining family members is further complicated by the discovery of drug dealing and involvement in the witness protection scheme.
A recovered memory therapist alerts the CCS to a care home regime of sexual abuse of young boys and a suspected murder. Her client who revealed all this in a therapy session goes missing and the team strongly suspect he has gone on the hunt for the man who abused him and murdered his friend.
ln their attempts to prevent another murder, the team desperately tries to establish the identity of the care home paedophile who is also being hunted down by two of his victims..
A mummified body sends the Cold Case Squad back to the sixties and to a Notting Hill house which had been featured in a film as the location for a murderous fight between gangsters. Renovation works at the house in the present day reveal more bodies behind the walls. The film starts to appear not so fictional after all. Things get even more complicated when Spencer tells Boyd that he and his family lived there when the events took place.
The gangster responsible for the bodies behind the walls in the Notting Hill house is still active and the unearthing of past events provokes more murders and an international turf war. Spencer's family history is the key to unravelling the mystery.
Boyd and the cold case team investigate the unsolved murder of a World War 2 conscientious objector. In 1948 George Western was found in his living room with a nine-inch nail through his head. When his grandson Adam finds new evidence and organises a media campaign, the case is reopened. Then the body of elderly William Davis is found in similar circumstances. And Grace uncovers the identical killing of Norman Taylor in 1961. The team discovers that Taylor and Western were in the same regiment during the war and trace surviving members to try to solve the murders.
The Cold Case Squad discover that the victims were a group of friends who were all in the same army regiment during the war. It seems the murderer is killing as an act of revenge.
Boyd and his team face a race against time after a skeleton found in a condemned garage triggers a tragic chain of events. The skeleton is that of garage owner, Gerald Doyle, an Irish terrorist who went missing in 1981. An unexploded car bomb found at the scene points to terrorist activity as the cause of death. However, Doyle’s parents produce a set of his diaries, which reveal that he was actually a mole for the British intelligence services.
The Squad begin to feel like they are being watched, and their fears are realised when they find unauthorised surveillance equipment. It is revealed their victim may have not have been as guilty as they once thought and when a person Boyd questioned as a part of the investigation commits suicide, they realise a missing link between her and a assassination. Boyd gets 36 hours to get to the bottom of things before the security services take over.
In 1990 - Jason and Cindy, two 5 year-old twins disappear from their home, and even after a nationwide search is launched, they are still not found. Thirteen years later, Jason is found in a hospital suffering from injuries he sustained in a car accident. But where's Cindy? Boyd and the team set out to find her. Mel Silver is trying to find her biological mother
The team try track Jason as they work out how the twins were taken and why. They link the twins disapperance to a Dr Roper, who knocked Jason down. They unravel his past and find out some dark secrets. The squad work out who Cindy is now and try find her before its too late
A man staying in a "halfway house" for released prisoners uses a gun - that is revealed to have been used in contract killings years ago - commit suicide. The gun is later stolen from Frankie's lab. Investigations reveal that the gun could have been used by a hired assassin in 9 murders over the last 30 years. Boyd is taking Anger Management.
When the gun stolen from Frankie is used in another murder, the Squad suspect the victim's gopher. It is revealed the first murder could have been a case of mistaken identity. Frankie and Grace begin to get creeped out by the effects of Boyd's Anger Management!
The Squad investigate the murders of two males who had the word "Sorry" carved into their backs. The latest victim has a brother linked to Organised Crime, so three other officers are brought in, which Boyd takes an instant dislike to - except Greta. The new faces create tension in the office and the team cannot trust them. As the case goes on, they begin to realise that it could be leading to a paedophile group.
The case continues as we learn of the death of D.S. Dave Marvin. Marvin has been found dead in his car with the same markings of sorry on his back. Throughout this episode we learn that Greta is hiding something from us and who is the mysterious old man who keeps turning up every time a body is found???
A young woman with a history of psychiatric problems kills her family by setting the family home on fire. She admits to the crime, but claims that she was coerced in to doing it by a mysterious character known only by the name 'The Shepherd'. Her psychiartrist links her case to similar cases and gets the Cold Case Squad involved.
Boyd and the team continue to investigate the arson case and the other two other possible crime connections to 'The Shepherd'. Will the team discover this person's true identity or will it all turn out to be a part of the imagination of a mentally ill woman?
A mummified body is discovered in a disused airliner that has been parked in the desert for 6 years. There are indications of a link to an armed robbery at Heathrow Airport six years earlier, and a murder at around the same time. Our team gains two new members. DS Andrea Stephenson takes over for DS Mel Silver, and the new mad scientist is Dr Felix Gibson.
Spencer goes undercover as a prison inmate to investigate the possible reasons for the murders from the man convicted of committing the crimes. To Spence's dismay, the man (who is too scared to say anything about what happened) commits suicide before he can be coerced into revealing who the real killer is.
Under the impression that he may receive a confession, Boyd accepts the invite for a visit to the prison from former police officer Eddie Vine, who is serving a life sentence for murdering his friend and former fellow officer, Tom Pallisser.
Boyd is suspended from work after being involved in a hit and run accident while possibly under the influence. While also trying to find out who framed Boyd, the team continue trying to find out if Vine is innocent or not.
A millionaire businessman is found dead, a year after he dissapeared. It appears that during the time he was missing he was being held prisoner. But why...
The team discover the brutally murdered body of a man in the same cellar that the businessman was held hostage in. While investigating the two victims, the team find an unlikely suspect. They're positive of his connection to the murders, but need to collect the evidence to prove it.
Grace is haunted by an old case that she assisted on at the beginning of her career when she is asked to give evidence at the assailant's appeal hearing.
Someone possibly copying the past crimes begins harassing Grace about her testimony against Tony Greene. If she doesn't admit that she was wrong about him, the assailant promises to murder the victim he/she is holding hostage.
A criminal is about to be released, the team is sure he is a serial killer. They enter in a race against the clock to prove their suspicions to prevent his upcoming release.
A criminal is about to be released, the team is sure he is a serial killer. They enter in a race against the clock to prove their suspicions and prevent his upcoming release.
As DNA evidence from an old case of Spencer's (while he was working for the Atomic Energy Constabulary) is re-examined it appears that the wrong man was sent to jail. Someone tries to coverup the new evidence, causing all eyes to turn to Spencer.
The team re-investigates the death of a teenage boy who was found on a building site some years ago, drowned in concrete. Part of a human ear is found in his stomach, linking him to the dumping of another seriously injured teenager in a hospital at around the same time. The ground on which the dead teenager was found belongs to a Catholic abbey which is soon to be dissolved, and the abbey owns a shrine which might contain evidence and has to be dismantled - a task which falls to the unwilling Stella Goodman.Meanwhile, new forensic scientist Dr Eve Lockhart makes her mark on the case.
Continuing the investigation of the death of a teenager whose body was found in concrete on a building site years ago. The injured Joe McDonagh finally wakes from his coma - but how much light can he throw now on a boxing bout which went badly wrong long ago?Meanwhile, there are surprises in store for Boyd and Jordan.
MI6 asks Boyd to reopen the case of the killing of an Iraqi dissident.Meanwhile, a man running for election as President of the Sudan announces he is going on hunger strike to protest at Britain's refusal to return the skull of a 19th century leader.
Boyd finds a connection between the recent murder of an Iraqi and the local ruler's skull taken from the Sudan by British troops more than a hundred years before.
Two sexually conjoined mummies mysteriously fall through the the ceiling of an old City bank, resulting in the Cold Case team being called in to investigate.
As tension builds between Grace and Boyd the truth about Lisa is revealed. Meanwhile, the team have a new lead following on from Declan's death and it's a race to find the murderer before Lisa does.
Two days after James Jenson is released from a psychiatric unit, the wallets of his victims are sent to a relative. Does this mean more murders could follow? And is James really responsible for the three coldcase murders, or did he take the blame for somebody else?
The plot thickens as Rivelli and then Harris confess to the three cold case murders. Boyd remains suspicious though - who was the real murderer and what has Jensen got to do with it all?
A psychiatric patient, imprisoned for the murder of his parents as a teenager escapes and reveals the location of an unknown corpse.
The case becomes more complicated as Boyd discovers that alterative practises may have contributed to Daniel's instability.
Boyd receives an anonymous package in the post – a Nazi ceremonial dagger. Attached to it is a Cold Case number, linking it to the unsolved murder of a young girl in May 1945. It seems that Mel had been working on the case before her death, what does this mean for the Cold Case Team?
As Ben goes missing, Boyd and his team try to force the truth out of a confused David. Boyd grows increasingly close to Sarah, and Stella travels to Poland to investigate the true story.
When a woman defends her daughter from a mugger, it sets into motion a chain of events that places herself and her children in mortal danger.
Boyd and the team investigate Lore's true identity and the reasons why she is in danger.
The Cold Case team investigate the mystery surrounding human remains found in an urban canal with links to the murder of a prison governor.
After the discovery of Terry Ryan's body buried in a field,more corpses are uncovered..leading Grace to think it is a ritual burial site. Meanwhile Boyd and the team race to find Dr Hooper,whom Kelleher has taken hostage. And back in the lab Eve makes a shocking discovery.
The accidental excavation of a human hand leads the cold case squad to the cover-up of a major incident.
An Iraqi woman proves the key to the unlocking of the case.
After they get a tip off in an anonymous e-mail,the team head to a waste ground in east London, where they find the remains of a right-wing fascist activist.
When they do some digging into the man's past, they discover the deceased was not who he claimed to be, but in fact he had a hidden agenda of his own.
The team find out that a body discovered in a disused tunnel is that of salesman Chris Dearden, who went missing in 1996. He was on a self-empowerment weekend with his colleagues when he died.Could one of them be responsible?
At the scene of a road accident, a DNA link is found that goes back to a horrific murder in the Bosnia / Serbia conflict, which Eve had to deal with when working on mass war graves.
Boyd vows to track down the ring of war criminals, all of whom are now living and working in the UK
After a women running naked along a country way is picked up there are two cases to solve. The first one is to find out how she got there, a complicated task because she suffers from memory loss. The second case goes back quite some years as her DNA was found in a strange cold case with two bodies and a sword.
After the shooting in the hospital in which Stella is wounded the involvement of the priest becomes clear. With the shooter killed there is no chance for interrogation, but his body provides a useful clue linking back to the cold case. In the meantime things become even more complicated when a women turns up who looks a lot like the one in the hospital.
The failed suicide of a women called Gemma who has been raped 12 years ago, when she was just a girl by two men, causes Boyd and his team to re-open the investigation. But as the previous investigation went nowhere there aren't any leads left to start from.
Eventually new forensic evidence leads Boyd and the team to one of the rapists of Gemma. Now the hunt is on for his partner, which becomes as race against time as Gemma might have own ideas on justice.
When Eve's new boyfriend Stefan is being vague about his past she puts her skills to use and uncovers something she rather wouldn't have. Unsure about the next step she turns to Boyd for advice, initially he promises support. But once the facts become clearer Boyd and Eve want to follow a different path.
Eve's trust in her boyfriend proves unfounded as he turns out to be worst then even Boyd expected. Fortunately she is able to escape from the location where she is being held, but Stefan isn't going to let her go that easily.
An old adversary of Boyd's asks him to investigate two deaths at her psychiatric hospital.
Boyd and his team uncover the awful truth behind the walls of the psychiatric hospital.
Boyd has to break in a new team member of equal rank, Detective Superintendent Sarah Cavendish, a high-flyer recently grounded by a hushed-up failed operation.After the empty and abandoned car of banker Donald Rees is discovered threee years after he went missing, Boyd decides to take on the case in an effort help the man's family find some closure with their lives.
Boyd is convinced that the missing Donald is not a murderer, and pushes his team to try to make sense of all the vague connections in the case and eventually confront the unfathomable evil lurking within the heart of this sad, unfortunate family.
After a woman is discovered stabbed in the eyes and incinerated in her car she is identified as Claire Somers, a neglected child who was taken into care, then later kidnapped in 1986 at the age of seven. Robert Fenchurch had his eyes stabbed out on the night Claire was kidnapped as her abductor fled the scene. The team soon find out that Claire had snatched 15-year-old Abigail Harding, who was found locked in a hotel room.
The investigation into Claire Somers' death has seemingly unleashed a predator straight from the darkest childhood nightmare. But are they looking for a monstrous child-stealer, or misguided saviours?
When the squad look in to the case of an army activist discovered in London's sewer system they discover that the case may have more police connections than they originaly thought.
As the case continues, the squad investigate Murray using Grace as bait. However, when one member is shot and one member is arrested, the case could go in to turmoil, only for a connection to be revealed.
Boyd suspects a cover-up when a missing student's DNA matches with an unidentified corpse.
Boyd needs Sarah's expertise to help expose the state's involvement in Barclay's death.
Boyd investigates the disappearance of 16 homeless boys from Waterloo Bridge in the 1980s.
Time is running out for Boyd as he fights for justice against a powerful adversary.
From its first appearance on our screens in 2000, Waking the Dead had viewers gripped by the activities of Detective Superintendent Peter Boyd and the ‘cold case’ unit he led, investigating unsolved murders from the past with the help of the forensics and psychological profiling experts within his team. Playing DS Boyd over nine series and for eleven years was actor Trevor Eve, who here casts his own forensic eye over the past - looking back on how the series came together, explaining the psychology needed to stay fresh in a high profile role for such a sustained period of time, and analysing what it was like to be part of a series that was such a hit with audiences in the UK and across the world for so long.
