When exactly is true crime a force for good? It’s a question we should probably ask ourselves every single time we consume something in this lurid and inevitably exploitative genre. Death of a Showjumper is, in many ways, a standardly sensationalised account of a young woman’s murder: paced for maximum dramatic intensity; details judiciously withheld to spin the most compulsively watchable yarn. But its broader subject matter – the epidemic of violence against women, and the ways such abuse is silenced, minimised and weaponised against the victims themselves – is one of the few that can justify the existence of a series like this.
It’s easy to feel cynical at first. Visually stunning and thematically arresting, Death of a Showjumper’s backdrop is tailor-made for a TV crime drama. It’s set amid the equestrian community of Northern Ireland, and we are transported to a place brimming with bucolic beauty as well as “secrets and silence”. The lifestyle is familiar but subtly alien: horses are ubiquitous and the associated culture not reserved for toffs – the hunt is an adrenaline sport for skilled riders. And 21-year-old Katie Simpson was one.
