Stitched together
Cop thriller Ragdoll sends three determined British cops hunting a killer who sews their victims into a human doll.
The awesome thing about TV show killers is that they can be as over-the-top and outlandish as the writers’ imagination. Like in new procedural cop drama Ragdoll, where the killer – nicknamed The Ragdoll Killer – cuts up their victims and sews them into a human doll of many pieces. “It’s an extraordinary method of murder but that’s why viewers will tune in, because it’s not your normal hunt-the-serialkiller show,” says Lucy Hale (best known as Aria Montgomery in the Pretty Little Liars drama series). Her character DC Lake Edmunds has transferred from the Los Angeles Police Department and was hoping for a somewhat quieter, less flamboyant style of killer when she joined the British police as a Detective Constable. “But as luck would have it, she’s walked straight into the case that’s going to haunt her mentally as well as emotionally, because The Rag-doll Killer is watching them,” says Lucy.
BOBBIES ON THE BEAT
One thing that Ragdoll’s killer shares with other fictional murderers is that they’re narcissistic. “I absolutely believe that the character has an out-of-control ego, they’re an egomaniac. You’ll see that it becomes something of a game when Lake, Detective Inspector Emily Baxter (Thalissa Teixeira, Madge Shelton in the new biographical period drama Anne Boleyn) and Detective Sergeant Nathan Rose (Henry Lloyd-Hughes, Aaron Peel in action show Killing Eve) start investigating, how The Ragdoll Killer starts taunting them. The killer leaves clues for them to pick up, little things that won’t give up their identity, but it’s a game and the killer feels in control of the situation,” says Lucy.
It’s a situation that’s also going to get scarier for Nathan – because he’s going to be hunted by the very same killer he is hunting. “We spoke to real detectives who try to catch serial killers. What they told us was terrifying. Sure, the people they’re investigating aren’t stitching bodies together like some kind of horrible Frankenstein story, but they are dealing with real people who have serious mental health issues that see them murdering for fun,” says Henry. “It’s an illness, a sick and twisted mental compulsion that pushes them to these extremes. And I think Ragdoll is a very interesting take on their situation because the real detectives don’t often get treated like a bull with a red cape being waved in front of them. They can’t be. They need to stay level-headed at all times because they’re dealing with actual killers. We’re just playing a role.”
GORE GALORE
Lucy admits that seeing the mannequin bodies creeped her out despite coming from Hollywood, where productions spend big on the most realistic props. “I’d walked onto set and they showed me one of Ragdoll’s victims. I thought it was a real body and almost threw up. It looked so lifelike. I know it’s fake, but it gave me the chills.” That reaction is what makes this show dark and gloomy and adds to the suspense, says Lucy. “You know what Ragdoll does, but for Nathan to now be hunted and to see what could happen to him, it’s chilling!”
MAKING A MURDERER
Series creator Freddy Syborn says that coming up with the killer was “somewhat difficult” even though the show is based on author Daniel Cole’s 2017 novel of the same name. “We spoke intimately with Daniel about what we wanted to do with his characters and he gave us notes that shifted a lot of our original decisions,” says Freddy. “Like other adaptations, there are differences (between our show and the book), but we’ve got help from Daniel. He cares about his creations and he’s been onboard with our project since day one. We have done justice to his work and we’ve got a new audience of viewers.” As for how far he was willing to go with the bodies, Freddy reveals that “we went to coroners and pathologists and we know what is and isn’t possible. With the right skills and time, and I can’t believe I’m saying this, but a Ragdoll Killer is possible!”