How ‘The Body Next Door’ gets true crime storytelling right

Life and Art from FT Weekend

Forhecz Topher

Tv & Film, Arts, Society & Culture

4.6 • 601 Ratings

🗓️ 26 August 2024

⏱️ 21 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

A new true crime series on Sky is getting rave reviews — and that’s big news in a genre riddled with criticism. It’s called The Body Next Door, and today we’re talking with its director, Gareth Johnson. After learning about an unidentified body found in a village in Wales, Gareth followed the story to reveal a decades-long family drama that spanned from the UK to New Zealand. Guest host Jo Ellison, editor of FT’s HTSI Magazine, discusses with Gareth how he approached the story and what he did to centre the victims’ stories.

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We love hearing from you. Lilah is on Instagram @lilahrap. We’re on X @lifeandartpod and on email at [email protected]. We are grateful for reviews on Apple and Spotify. And please share this episode with your friends!

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Links (all FT links get you past the paywall):

– The Body Next Door is out on Sky now

– Jo is on Instagram @jellison22

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Special FT subscription offers for Life and Art podcast listeners, from 50% off a digital subscription to a $1/£1/€1 trial, are here: http://ft.com/lifeandart

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Original music by Metaphor Music. Mixing and sound design by Breen Turner and Sam Giovinco

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, this is Life and Art from FT Weekend.
0:04.2	I'm Jo Ellison, editor of HTSI Magazine,
0:07.0	and I'm standing in this week for Lyla Raptopolis.
0:09.9	This week, we're talking about true crime,
0:12.0	a genre that's been enormously popular in recent years.
0:15.1	In the past months, we've seen a second installment
0:17.4	of the Robert Durst Affair, the Jinks.
0:19.6	We've seen Jody Foster and True Detective,
0:21.6	which is based very loosely on two real-life cases, and right now a new true crime series on
0:27.1	Sky is number one on the platform and getting very good reviews. It's called the Body Next Door,
0:32.8	and it begins with an unidentified body found in a small village in Wales. The body next door has been very well reviewed,
0:39.1	but true crime remains a fraught genre,
0:41.3	not least because these documentaries,
0:42.9	podcast and books rely on deeply traumatic events
0:45.5	whose victims are still often processing the grief of horrible crimes.
0:49.7	So today I'm talking to the director of the body next door,
0:51.8	Gareth Johnson,
0:52.4	who followed the story of that unidentified victim to reveal a family trauma that spans two continents and draws in dozens of victims.
1:01.5	Gareth.
1:02.6	Hello.
1:03.2	Good to be here.
1:04.1	Tell me all about the body next door.
	...

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