Murdoch Mysteries is a Canadian drama television series produced by Shaftesbury Films that premièred in January 2008 and was broadcast on Citytv in Canada and on Alibi in the UK. It was picked up by CBC for its sixth season. The show follows the titular character William Murdoch, a police detective working in Toronto, Ontario, through the turn of the 19th century into the 20th, who makes use of what was, in the late Victorian era, the latest in forensic science to solve crimes. The show was developed for television by Cal Coons and Alexandra Zarowny based on the characters in the Detective Murdoch series of novels written by Maureen Jennings.
Prior to the television series, Shaftesbury Films and CHUM Television produced three made for TV movies which were shown on the Canadian cable channel Bravo! in 2004 and 2005. The original three movies, filmed in Winnipeg and Toronto, were collectively titled The Murdoch Mysteries.
Characters
Guest: The character appears in only one episode in that season. Recurrig: The character appears in at least two episodes in that season.
Main
William Henry Murdoch
Detective Murdoch, who is portrayed by Peter Outerbridge in the TV movies and by Yannick Bisson in the series, is an intelligent, observant detective who uses unusual (for the time) techniques such as blood testing and fingerprinting. It is revealed he comes from Nova Scotia, is a devout Roman Catholic who was educated by the Jesuits and is fluent in French. In one episode, it is revealed that he believes that his father beat his mother and may have indirectly caused her death, although this was proven incorrect. Following that incident, he was taken to live in an orphanage for a time.
Murdoch is also a polymath: Although very logical, sceptical, observant, scientific and clear-headed with a photographic memory (possibly Hyperthymesia) and working memory, these become an issue when he needs to connect with people on an emotional level, something he finds difficult. Often his unusual techniques and unbiased opinions of people lead him to clash with Brackenreid (even though they work together well). In season 9, episode 11, Murdoch takes up golf and does quite well till a machine he invents ruins his "swing". Julia plays well and Murdoch is told all he has to do is empty his mind to again play well. This is something he cannot do and he ends up angrily throwing his clubs in the lake, one by one.
Murdoch often consults on cases with Dr. Julia Ogden, with whom he is infatuated, although he did not attempt a relationship with her until the first half of season 2. As the season progressed, an argument over beliefs and past decisions made by Ogden split up the couple for a time, during which time Murdoch pursued a relationship with Enid Jones. However, he and Ogden rekindled their relationship during the season 2 finale on the advice of his half-brother (see below), and it becomes "public" (despite everyone already knowing about it) in the first episode of season 3. Ogden and Murdoch become engaged in the finale of season 7 and are married in episode 4 of season 8.
In the season 2 finale, it is revealed his father had another son, Jasper Linney (of whom Murdoch knew nothing) out of wedlock, before marrying Murdoch's mother. Jasper is a sergeant in the North-West Mounted Police and his mannerisms, interests and investigative techniques are similar to those of Murdoch's own (mentioned above), and the two prove successful in working together to solve a gold mining scam case. In the season 4 episode Voices, it is revealed that Murdoch has a younger sister, Susanna, who is a nun living in Toronto briefly before returning to her convent in Montreal when it is revealed she is terminally ill. Their conversations reveal that they had an Aunt, whose home he left at seventeen, to work at a logging camp. This episode also mentions that Murdoch's father was still alive two years prior and lives in Western Canada.
In season 1, episode 4, it is revealed that Murdoch once had a fiancée, Liza Milner; she died a year prior of consumption.
In season 9, episode 10, "Raised on Robbery", he and Julia have adopted a son, Roland, the orphaned son of the bank-robber couple; however, in episode 14, "Wild Child", when they find out that the couple were not Roland's biological parents, Murdoch and Julia make the heart-breaking decision to give up Roland and reunite him with his real father (the mother having died in childbirth.)
In a crossover with fellow CBC show Republic of Doyle, called "If the Shoe Fits", a modern-day version of Murdoch appears in the form of "Bill Murdoch", who is the great-great-great-grandson of William.