When three young women went missing in Claremont in the late nineties it set off the biggest unsolved murder case in West Australian history and took 25 years to solve.
Coming soon to Seven and 7plus, The Claremont Murders follows the police investigation and twists and turns that brought a serial killer to justice, focusing on the police who never let the case go and the journalist who followed the case from the day the first woman went missing, all the way through to the end of the trial.
The two-part drama event stars Ryan Johnson (How To Please A Woman, Doctor Doctor), Catherine Văn-Davies (The Twelve, Barons), Aaron Glenane (Shantaram, Snowpiercer), Laura Gordon (Undertow, Late Night With The Devil), Andrea Demetriades (Pulse, Janet King), Craig Hall (Boy directed by Taika Waititi, and Peter Jackson’s King Kong), and Jeremy Lindsay Taylor (Underbelly Razor, Puberty Blues).
Also among the cast is, Tasma Walton (Mystery Road, How To Please A Woman), Joel Jackson (Peter Allen: Not the Boy Next Door, Ms Fisher’s Modern Murder Mysteries), Tom O’Sullivan (Molly, Alien: Covenant), Erik Thomson (How To Please A Woman, Aftertaste), and actor, radio host and author Kate Ritchie (Underbelly: A Tale of Two Cities, Home and Away).
From the creative team behind Catching Milat, The Claremont Murders was written by Justin Monjo (Bali 2002, Catching Milat) and Michaeley O’Brien (Mystery Road, Underbelly), directed by Peter Andrikidis (Bali 2002, Catching Milat), produced by Kerrie Mainwaring (Bali 2002, Catching Milat), Peter Andrikidis and Jamie Hilton (Breath, Swinging Safari).
The Claremont Murders is a Screentime Production in association with See Pictures for the Seven Network, with Banijay Rights handling international sales.
Late last year, Paramount released a two-part documentary detailing the events of the Claremont murders, titled Claremont: A Killer Among Us.
Mediaweek spoke to Paramount’s head of popular factual, Sarah Thornton, and creative director from Joined Up Films, Dan Brown, ahead of its premiere about balancing accuracy and empathy in the production.
Thornton admits that 10 was initially on the fence about the project. “Telling a story like this requires such a lightness of touch, such respect for both the victims, victims’ families, and the survivors,” she said.
See also: How 10 balanced accuracy and empathy in true crime documentary, Claremont: A Killer Among Us
The Claremont Murders is coming soon to Seven and 7plus.