Fans of American podcast Serial are being challenged to put their detective skills to the test in an online murder mystery set in London.
The Last Hours of Laura K is a ground-breaking project featuring Evening Standard theatre award winner Rachel De-lahey that has been three years in the making.
Whereas the internationally-renowned This American Life podcast Serial told the story of a true-life murder case, this British one is entirely made up.
The team from the BBC Writers Room have dreamt up the fateful final day of a fictional young woman’s life and left the public to figure out who was her killer.
They have created 24 hours of footage of the 23-year-old’s steps across London, which the user can go through to look for clues and motives.
Meanwhile users can immerse themselves in Laura K’s digital life via her Facebook, Twitter and Instagram profiles, and those of around 40 ‘friends’ and ‘followers’.
The writers took inspiration from whistleblower Edward Snowden’s words: “I don’t want to live in a world where everything that I say, everything I do, everyone I talk to, every expression of creativity, love or friendship, is recorded.”
Gabriel Bisset-Smith, who directed and co-wrote the story, told the Standard: “We wanted to do a story about a Londoner in a surveillance city. We wanted it to be something that could happen every day and this idea of social media becoming a part of fighting crime. What if people had access to CCTV footage and could start solving crimes themselves?
“We are playing with the idea of voyeurism. We all like to trawl through the internet and stalk ex’s. The more you get involved in this murder mystery you may feel more uncomfortable.
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“We were brought together to come up with a new form of online drama. It has been three years in development and we got the go ahead about six months ago.
“Whenever we watch crime shows they always hide the clues and we wanted to create a story where everything is there and you have to find it.”
De-lahey, who was named the most promising playwright at the Evening Standard Theatre Awards in 2013, plays Laura K.
The crew shot 24 hours of footage over 14 days, and spent four months posting on the Twitter and Facebook profiles of all the characters to create a backstory.
The project launched just two days ago and no one has figured out the killer yet, but Bisset-Smith said some people were honing in.
He said: “Rachel thinks it can be done in 24 hours but you could spend months looking into it.
“We are very lucky that Serial has been a success. It did make us a bit worried because Serial is very passive, it’s just listening to a story, whereas they have to be more active with this. But we have had a great response so far.”
