Airdate: Ron Iddles: The Good Cop

Foxtel has revealed further details of its upcoming crime factual Ron Iddles: The Good Cop.

The 6 part series, produced by CJZ, profiles 6 cases from a stellar career.

Jim Buchan, Group General Manager, Factual said “Of all the series we’ve commissioned for CI we’ve never achieved this degree of access to a homicide detective. Ron Iddles as one of Australia’s greatest homicide detectives has lived through an incredible era in Australian policing.

“This series delivers unique perspective into the world of criminal investigation and insight into the critical thinking and perseverance required for great detective work. We are thrilled with the work CJZ has done and the candour afforded to us by Ron Iddles a special thankyou also to author Justine Ford.”

Ron Iddles has often been referred to as the best homicide detective Australia has ever known, having solved 99% of the over 320 murder investigations he has investigated, spanned across 25 years in the homicide squad.

Ron is an old-school cop who is tough, inventive and incorruptible. A man who solved the unsolvable with his head and his heart and a mantra of “failure is not an option”.

How this intuitive cop put more murderers behind bars than any other homicide detective in Australia is told in this six-part, Foxtel Original series, in which Ron Iddles shares his secrets.

Each episode takes us behind the scenes of one of Ron’s most challenging murder cases, with powerful insights from the victims’ families, his homicide colleagues, journalists, and even Ron’s informers and suspects. Many of these people have never told their story on television.

This series looks at 6 cases that Ron investigated over his career and include:

Michelle Buckingham: Failure is not an option
16 year-old Michelle Buckingham went missing from Shepparton, Victoria in October 1983. A few weeks later, her body was found dumped on the side of the road at Kialla, on the outskirts of town.

Bonnie Clarke: The Answer’s in the file
6 year-old Bonnie Clarke was a very happy child living with her mum in the Melbourne suburb or Northcote. In December 1982 – just a few sleeps before Christmas – Bonnie was sexually assaulted and murdered in her bed.

Jane Thurgood-Dove: The ABC of Homicide
Jane Thurgood – Dove came from a close-knit family, married her childhood sweetheart and loved her three children. They seemed like the perfect family. On November 6, 1997 – a gunman shot Jane dead in the driveway of her home in suburban Niddrie with her three children in the car looking on.

Marafiote Murders: It Costs Nothing to Listen

In 1985, greengrocer Dominic Marafiote mysteriously went missing from his hometown of Mildura in rural Victoria. The following day, his parents, Carmelo and Rosa Marafiote, were found shot dead execution-style in their home in Adelaide. Could Dominic have killed his parents and then staged his own disappearance?

Slawek Tomczyk: Don’t Make The Facts Fit Your Theory

Polish born security guard Slawek Tomczyk was doing his rounds one night in February 2002 when he was attached in the driveway of a reception centre in the Melbourne suburb of Cranbourne.

Maria James: Every Family Deserves Answers

In June 1980, mother of two Maria James was stabbed 68 times in the bedroom of the flat adjoining her second-hand bookshop in the Melbourne suburb of Thornbury. It was Ron Iddles’ first homicide investigation. After examining the crime scene, Ron and the investigation team realised this was no random attack. Whoever wielded the knife knew Maria.

Ron Iddles: The Good Cop is more than a crime show – this is a master class in detective work from Australia’s finest cop.

Thursdays 7.30pm from January 31 on Crime + Investigation channel.