Crime podcast looks at Sophie Toscan du Plantier’s story
The murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier has intrigued the nation for more than 20 years, and will be told to audiences around the world by journalists Sam Bungey and Jennifer Forde via extensive interviews with locals, investigating gardaí, Ms Toscan du Plantier’s family, and Ian Bailey.
It is the treatment of the latter that those familiar with the case will find interesting, in that the producers introduce this dominant figure within this story almost immediately — but hold off on revealing his significance to the investigation until later in the series.
Mr Bailey and his partner Jules Thomas appear in the first episode, but as two of a number of interviewees who explain how and why they have adopted West Cork as their home.
That first episode makes ominous references to “a suspect”, backed up with vox pop opinions from people on the street as to what they make of an imposing figure who looms large over the opening half hour.
Later in the series Mr Bailey guides the producers to the house, but it is not until the end of the fourth episode — a third of the way into the series — that he is revealed as the main suspect in the case.
It is a device that in the wrong hands could be used as a cheap narrative twist, but Bungey and Forde instead use the delay in identifying Mr Bailey as the suspect to create space to tell Sophie’s story and to set the scene. Their decision undoubtedly requires patience from those more familiar with the story, and puts faith in the rest of the audience not to google the reveal in advance.
However, knowledge of where the investigation will lead, or a lack of it, does not detract from those first four episodes.
The series title is apt as the location takes centre stage from the start — the producers set the scene at an idyllic rural locale on the edge of the old world, where “blow-ins” come to reinvent themselves.
Ms Toscan du Plantier’s story is framed as such — another blow-in who chose West Cork as a place to get away from it all before her brutal murder.
Both this scene-setting and victim profile benefits from holding off on revealing the suspect’s identity, and makes the series a story of West Cork and Ms Toscan du Plantier before the narrative switches to Mr Bailey.
Access to the subject has not blunted its assessment of Mr Bailey, the brash young journalist who lost his drive and ambition before leaving England to start anew in West Cork as a poet, an actor, a storyteller, and ultimately a man seeking his calling.
It is a narrative well told, paced well to give depth to the story without labouring the listener. However, the issue that may frustrate audiences is the very issue that has plagued the investigation for more than 20 years now — a lack of hard evidence.
Fans of other true crime documentaries series have taken to message boards and social news aggregator Reddit to exchange theories based on timelines, CCTV footage, locations determined by mobile phone masts and other such pieces of a jigsaw.
With this case, little hard evidence is available and one of the early episodes sets a murder scene contaminated by passersby and an autopsy compromised by delays caused by bad roads and Christmas traffic.
While just six of the series’ 13 episodes were made available for review, West Cork brings the ongoing saga right up to date, with Mr Bailey facing trial in France for the murder, under a law that dates to Napoleonic times.
Available from audible.com/westcork from 10am this morning West Cork will satisfy those looking for a new bingeworthy true crime podcast.
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