The Field Of Blood is set in Glasgow and centres on would-be journalist Paddy Meehan (played by Jayd Johnson), a young copygirl working in a newspaper office.You can read interviews with the director and some of the actors at the BBC website.
Paddy dreams of becoming an investigative journalist – believing that in miscarriages of justice, reporters are sometimes the only hope. Funny, smart and feisty, Paddy seizes an opportunity to kick-start her career and becomes embroiled in a dark murder case. For Paddy, it's the opportunity of a lifetime but it comes at great personal cost.
It's 1982 and Glasgow is shocked by the horrific murder of two-year-old Brian Wilcox. Paddy is fascinated by the story and waits, along with the rest of the city, for the inevitable arrest of a murderer. When Paddy's 10-year-old cousin is charged with the crime she faces a stark choice between the two defining elements in her life. On one side is her job at the paper and dreams of becoming a journalist; on the other is her tight-knit Catholic family who want her to stop all this career nonsense and settle down to a quiet life with her fiancé. Paddy puts family first and decides not to use her inside track on the story to secure her first scoop.
Unfortunately for Paddy, glamorous colleague Heather has no such scruples and the secret shame of the Meehan clan is splashed across the front pages. Shut out by her family, Paddy decides to look into the case to prove her cousin's innocence. Defying her boss, she sets about investigating the case but there are shocking consequences for someone close to her.
(The Paddy Meehan series was intended to be 5 books but it seems to have stopped at 3.)Set in Glasgow, 1982, crime drama The Field Of Blood centres on would-be journalist Paddy Meehan, a young copygirl working in a newspaper office.
Stuck in an almost exclusively male-dominated world of limited opportunities and cynicism, Paddy dreams of becoming an investigative journalist – believing that in miscarriages of justice, reporters are sometimes the only hope.
Funny, smart, and feisty, Paddy seizes an opportunity to kick start her career and becomes embroiled in a dark murder case. For Paddy, it's the opportunity of a lifetime but comes at great personal cost...
Filming on The Field Of Blood, a thrilling investigative drama, begins in October with casting to be announced in the coming weeks. The drama will transmit on BBC One Scotland in 2011.
Caroline Parkinson, Creative Director, Creative Scotland, said: "Creative Scotland is delighted to be working with Andrea Calderwood at Slate North and BBC Scotland, in bringing to life the first of the Paddy Meehan series, The Field of Blood by Denise Mina to Scottish audiences. A gripping two-part thriller, it will be set and filmed in Glasgow and Creative Scotland hopes that this marks the first in a long series from this impressive team."
