‘Brutal’ BBC murder mystery soars up Netflix top 10 after being quietly added

A BBC murder mystery from 2019 has soared up Netflix’s top 10 series, landing at number four today. 

The Irish crime drama was quietly added by the streamer earlier this month and it’s already proving popular.

It stars Sarah Greene (Bad Sisters, The Death of Bunny Munro), and Killian Scott (Kaos, Trespass Against Us).  

The Dublin Murders sees detectives Rob Reilly (Greene) and Cassie Maddox (Scott) working for an elite murder squad. 

The BBC synopsis reads: ‘When a young, talented ballerina is found dead on an ancient stone altar, her death drags up another tragedy that befell this community years before – when three children disappeared into the local woods and only one returned.’ 

Set in the outskirts of Dublin, this twisty series is based on the novels of Tana French, a crime novelist and New York Times bestselling author. 

Since the series landed on Neftlix, viewers have been delving into its dark world, contributing to an audience score of 78% on Rotten Tomatoes.

This included user Anthony Y, who heralded The Dublin Murders as ‘a beautifully brutal’ miniseries with ‘perfect’ performances.

Stephen C called it a ‘dark and well made’ show, while Arya S described the script, acting and story as ‘first rate.’

Consensus from critics was largely positive too, with Observer praising it as ‘atmospheric, often terrific, never dull viewing.’

ScreenRant called it a ‘satisfyingly dark and twisty crime thriller,’ while Den of Geek said that it was an ‘excellent, unique crime story.’

These reviews contributed to a 79% ‘fresh’ score on the review aggregator.

The series is based on two of French’s books, encompassing In The Woods and its follow-up, The Likeness. 

In spite of the show’s title, much of it was shot in Belfast and surrounding areas of Northern Ireland, as well as Dublin.

The woods where the murders take place were shot in Tollymore Forest in Northern Ireland – a location which has also been used for Game of Thrones and the movie Dracula Untold.

For scenes set in the 1980s, the nearby village of Drumaness was utilised, with 80s-era Garda vars, green post boxed and ice cream vans popping up in the area when filming took place.

Speaking at the time of the programme’s release, the show’s creator Sarah Phelps told the BBC she was ‘compelled’ by French’s novels. 

On the lead characters, Phelps explained: ‘This case will unpeel the thing that they have in common and share, the pact they have made with each other. I can’t say too much about it because there’s a huge spoiler, but there is something deep and dark about them that they share.  

‘It is something tragic and highly personal that has dogged them all of their adult lives. This story is about how they are going to be able to get on with the serious, difficult dirty business of just living with it.’ 

Reflecting on her performance in the series, lead actress Sarah Greene described filming as ‘pretty heavy.’

Speaking to Hot Press in 2019, she added: ‘It does get under your skin. I wouldn’t necessarily say I’m “method”, but it was dark in places.’

She went on to reveal how the series had employed an advisor to help her and Scott get into the headspace of hard-boiled detectives.

‘When you see a body you have to get up close to look for details, while setting your emotions to one side. How do you tell a family that something has happened to a loved one?’

The Dublin Murders is available to stream now on Netflix and BBC iPlayer.

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