‘Behind closed doors awful things go on’: Vicky McClure and Jonny Owen on Britain’s Murder Map
Ahead of Sky HISTORY’s new series, Britain’s Murder Map, Vicky McClure and husband Jonny Owen discuss their experience of making the show.
Image: Britain's Murder Map with Vicky McClure and Jonny Owen
Over recent years, we’ve become accustomed to seeing husband-and-wife pairs present together on British TV. Usually, though, these have been restricted to the gentle confines of daytime TV. There’s not been many husband and wife duos who have presented a historical crime documentary before.
Enter Line of Duty star Vicky McClure and her historian husband, Jonny Owen. Together, they are teaming up on screen for the first time to present Britain’s Murder Map.
The new Sky HISTORY series sees the pair travel the UK to explore and investigate unsolved murders, miscarriages of justice and milestone cases that have changed British law.
Ahead of the first episode on Tuesday 7th April, Vicky and Jonny sat down with Sky HISTORY to discuss their experience of working together and what they discovered while making the series.
Two different approaches
Viewers are likely to be familiar with Vicky McClure already. Since bursting onto the scene in the early 2000s, she’s enjoyed an illustrious acting career, including a BAFTA for her role in This is England ’86. More recently, she’s been best known for playing the character of Kate Fleming in the police drama series, Line of Duty.
Her husband, Jonny Owen, is less well known to the public, but is a successful producer, actor, writer and historian in his own right. As he explains, his motivation for making the series was his longstanding interest in history.
‘I'm a massive history buff,’ he says. ‘I studied history for my degree and loved it, so I've always been interested in doing something history-based. We wanted to do something that was interesting to us but also had a historical impact.’
Vicky agrees, adding that it was a great opportunity for them to work together, and for Jonny to demonstrate his historical knowledge.
‘I know how incredibly studied he is. It was an opportunity for people to see that as well, because I'm kind of thinking, "Wow, oh, my God." Whereas Jonny's got a lot more information in his brain than I do in that kind of regard.’
Together, the pair who describe themselves as ‘George and Mildred’, in reference to the 1970s sitcom, make a formidable on-screen duo. Their different approaches and backgrounds are immediately obvious in Britain’s Murder Map.
‘I'm really nosy!’ Vicky laughs. ‘I'm one of those really nosy people, I like to know everything. I like context. So for me, this was all about questioning whatever it was I was being told.’
‘Vicky is brilliantly emotionally intelligent as well,’ Jonny adds. ‘As you see in the series, she’s fantastic with people. Meeting victims’ families, and handling that brilliantly, which is a really, really difficult thing to do, and she was fantastic. Sometimes, if you're a bit cold-eyed and just looking at the analysis, bringing that sort of emotional intelligence can change the dynamic.’
And for Vicky, Jonny’s historical insights helped her to consider other perspectives on often troubling cases.
‘I tend to jump to my own conclusion! I'll make an assumption, and the guilty is charged before I've got all the facts. And Jonny's great at sort of going, "Wait, wait, wait. Hold on!”’
Image: Britain's Murder Map with Vicky McClure and Jonny Owen
Five chilling cases
Throughout the five-part series, Vicky and Jonny examine several chilling cases. They range from one of the biggest miscarriages of justice in British criminal history to an unsolved racial murder that inspired the creation of the Notting Hill Carnival.
The pair’s enthusiasm for the show is infectious, and as Vicky explains, Britain’s Murder Map isn’t just for history buffs. Instead, it’s for anyone curious about the stories that have shaped the course of legal history.
‘My jaw was dropping on the floor every day, because I genuinely didn't know an awful lot about an awful lot! And I want to be honest about that, because I want people to watch this who aren't particularly into history, you don't need to be into these kinds of shows or cases. It's not about that. It's just giving you context to why we are where we are when it comes to law changes.’
For Jonny, one of the most shocking stories featured is that of Timothy Evans, a man who confessed to a murder he didn’t commit and who was hanged in 1950. As he describes, the case was a landmark one in changing the public’s opinion on capital punishment.
‘There were three cases, but Timothy Evans probably became the most high-profile, in the sense that pretty quickly after he was hanged, they established that he didn't do it. I think it was huge pressure then on that government.’
‘It really shocks people when you think The Beatles released their first single at the same time as people were still getting hanged in Britain,’ he adds. ‘That feels like a Dickensian thing, but it's not, it was happening right up to 1964.’
Vicky points to the murder of Kelso Cochrane as being particularly disturbing. Cochrane, an Antiguan carpenter, was ambushed and murdered in Notting Hill in 1959. Despite strong evidence of the involvement of two individuals – Pat Digby and John Breagan – nobody was ever convicted. Many of the files in the case remain sealed to this day, leading to suggestions of a police cover-up.
‘Something's being hidden. I mean, why would somebody redact, or hide, or lock files away for a period of time?’ she asks. ‘What's really, really heartbreaking about that particular case, it feels like there was so much evidence with the two lads, Pat Digby and John Breagan, everyone was saying it's the worst-kept secret. Even Digby’s stepdaughter told us he did it.’
‘It's hard for us to imagine that behind closed doors awful things go on,’ Jonny says. ‘I think when you see redacted files it makes you think, “God, there are people that will protect people within an establishment to make sure that nothing comes out”. But the truth always comes out. I think when the truth in this case comes out in 50-odd years, it won't have the same effect, sadly.’
Among the other cases featured in the series are the murder of Cora Crippen, the manhunt for 1960s Glaswegian serial killer Bible John and the story of Burke and Hare, two serial killers who supplied bodies to Edinburgh medical schools in 1828.
Meeting the victims
In each episode, the pair meet with victims’ family members to humanise stories that have often been forgotten by history. It’s one of the most touching parts of Britain’s Murder Map, and an area that Vicky was keen to handle sensitively.
‘We made it really clear when we met them that there was absolutely no pressure. And the reason that they want to talk is because they want to continue to find justice,” she explains.
‘I was nervous,’ Jonny admits. ‘I was much more nervous than Vicky. [She was] always like, "It'll be okay." I was always like, “This is somebody directly affected”. They were very happy to talk and they were brilliant. But you are very conscious of it when you are speaking to somebody. The responsibility was huge.’
‘I think people want to be heard, and you want to give them that platform to be able to tell their truths and have that opportunity,’ Vicky says. ‘And when you do take conversations like that on, it's just about being authentic and honest. It's not a performance, we're not acting, we're not being given a script. I’m not Vicky off the telly.'
Image: Britain's Murder Map with Vicky McClure and Jonny Owen
Watch Britain’s Murder Map on Sky HISTORY
Yet despite Vicky’s down-to-earth charm, she admits that her onscreen persona has given her a greater connection to the cases featured, particularly when speaking to retired detectives.
‘I have done work with the real police outside of [Line of Duty], and that made me interested in crime. No matter what the topic is, you've got to educate yourself, and that has to come from history and people's experiences,’ she explains.
And reflecting on their first TV project together, she’s full of praise for Jonny’s role.
‘I wouldn't have done it on my own. It needs the intellectual element, it needed us both to be able to create the show that we wanted to create. I'm the nosy one that's had lots of interactions with crime, but Jonny, his history knowledge is second to none.’
Vicky and Jonny’s on-screen chemistry is undeniable and Britain’s Murder Map is unlikely to be the only project they work on together. But for now, they’re just excited to see how viewers respond to the stories featured in the series.
Don’t miss Britain’s Murder Map, airing exclusively on Sky HISTORY from Tuesday 7th April at 9pm. Want to hear more about more upcoming series? Subscribe to our newsletter today. Every week, you’ll receive the latest news, articles, videos and more from the world of Sky HISTORY.
