New show The Trial: A Murder In The Family left a lot of viewers confused last night.
The five part mini series features professional lawyers and a retired judge, a randomly selected jury and a fictional murder.
The idea behind the show is that we get to see what really goes on behind closed doors during a court case. Sounds simple, right?
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But no. Some viewers at home thought that this was a real-life murder case.
The only actors include Michael Gould, who plays university lecturer Simon Davis, accused of murdering his ex-partner Carla Davis (Emma Lowndes) in September 2015 in Newbury.
The police officers and some of the witnesses are also actors, but everybody else is real – including the jury.
There were a lot of people that fully embraced the show and even started making their “own notes”.
Another loved the “thrill of the whole process on screen” and said they were “hooked”.
However, of course, some people just didn’t get it.
One asked: “Is #TheTrial set up but the Jury think it’s a real case or are they all actors orrr? Someone explain to me… Am i being thick? [sic]”
Another tweeted: “@Channel4 is “the trial, murder in the family” real or a situation? #thetrial”.
This riled people up even more, and viewers were angry that some just weren’t getting it.
“I can’t believe anyone would think this was “real”. Jury being filmed discussing case over lunch; cameras in Court – NO!! #TheTrial FFS!”, said one.
People kept trying to explain the set-up.
“It’s not complicated, folks”, said another Twitter user.
The show has been described by Channel 4 as “crime drama meets real life”.
What makes this show even more realistic is the defence’s John Ryder who is said to be one of the top QCs in the country.
The first episode saw the accused arrive at his flat and discover that Carla was unresponsive.
But the court heard that Davis called 999 for one second, hung up and then called his friend Johnny Quinn who didn’t pick up.
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Davis called 999 again, and said that his wife probably had a heart attack, but when asked what actually happened by police, he answered “no comment” to every question.
One juror was convinced he was guilty because of his lack of emotion.
“He looked guilty. He looked very worried, very grey, very strained”, they said.
Tune in for more tonight at 9pm.