ITV, Syco plot Making a Murderer-style doc series

UK network ITV and reality show guru Simon Cowell are working on a Making a Murderer-style true crime series.

The Investigator: A British Crime Story will feature the former police officer Mark Williams-Thomas, who unmasked Jimmy Saville as a paedophile in the ITV doc The Other Side of Jimmy Saville.

Williams-Thomas will look into the 30-year unsolved murder of Carole Packman, whose body as never been founded.

The “shocking tale of murder, fraud, deceit and lies has left family members desperate for answers” will run over four episodes, with Cowell’s Syco (The X Factor) and ITV Studios-owned Shiver coproducing.

The true crime genre has been booming internationally since the success of American series Making a Murderer, which is on Netflix, and The Jinx from HBO. In the UK, Sony launched a thematic network in March, while the BBC recently ordered a pair of true crime-inspired dramas.

In that vein, ITV said A British Crime Story will incorporate “stylised drama and compelling documentary”.