29 May 2011 on itv
Suranne Jones and Lesley Sharp star in a new six-part drama series by Sally Wainwright which explores the personal and professional lives of two detective constables in Manchester Police’s Major Incident Team. When DC Rachel Bailey (Jones) is dumped by her boyfriend Nick (Rupert Graves), her best friend and colleague DC Janet Scott (Sharp) is there to pick up the pieces the next day. At work, DCI Gill Murray (Amelia Bullmore) takes Rachel, Janet and the team through their new murder case, in which a young Turkish woman has been killed in her home and her death made to look like suicide. Rachel throws herself into the investigation, soon discovering that the victim’s husband was having an affair with a woman named Mana (Kiran Landa). When questioned, Mana calmly refutes all accusations that she intended any harm to her lover's wife. Has Rachel's high-stakes approach jeopardised the case - or will she get results? Meanwhile, Rachel is also occupied with using her police privileges to carry out an investigation into her ex Nick - and is horrified to discover that he is married with two children. Janet has her own shock in store when she is contacted by Geoff Hastings (Kevin Doyle), the brother of her closest school friend who was abducted and murdered when they were still at primary school. Geoff asks if she will re-open the case and Janet agrees to take another look at the evidence.
Scott & Bailey is one of those shows that seem to come up every once in a while as an attempt to balance the demographics of the crime drama viewership. Scott & Bailey was created by, written by, primarily stars, and is produced by women. This show falls into the same sub-genre of "crime drama for women" as itv's Murder In Suburbia from about 7 years ago and the current and somewhat oddly titled king that is currently in its first season on Showcase in Canada with the cheif difference being that those shows are not as serialised in their secondary stories about the women's personal lives. The one big, ok damn huge, problem with the show is that Rachel Bailey is supposed to be a top-quality detective with the Manchester police and she didn't know that her boyfriend of two years has a wife who has been happily maried to him for the better part of 20 years. It makes one wonder just how good of a detective she really is.
Scott & Bailey was co-created by series star Suranne Jones and Sally Lindsey, who portrays Bailey's sister Allison, and was developed for television by Diane Taylor and Sally Wainwright. The programme is produced by Nicola Shindler, Sally Wainwright, and Yvonne Francas for RED Company.