History Series / WakingTheDead

* EnhanceButton: Discussed in "Thin Air", where Frankie mentions that she **can't** do this with a home video recording from the late 80s on a VHS tape. We'll gloss over the OmnidisciplinaryScientist aspect as well.

-->'''Frankie:''': You can forget it.

* DamselInDistress: Mel Silver after failing to be TheBait in the pilot and almost dying.

* TheScapegoat: Sarah Cavendish (unwillingly)
* FlashBack: Sometimes to the point of overuse.

A short lived spin-off aired after the show's conclusion. Entitled ''The Body Farm'', it focussed on Tara Fitzgerald' Dr. Eve Lockhart. In 2018, BBC Radio 4 aired ''The Unforgiven'', a five-part audio prequel to ''Waking the Dead''. Most of the original series leads reprised their roles, with the exception of Anthony Howell replacing Trevor Eve as Boyd.

* RaisedCatholic: Boyd and Grace.

* CarCushion: In season four [[spoiler: Mel Silver]] is pushed over a balcony of a high-rise flat by a deranged killer and lands on the windscreen of Boyd and Graces car, dying instantly.

* TheLabRat: Eve Lockhart, with a collection of wonderful analysis tools that puts the CSIVerse to shame. Well, until [[Series/{{CSINY}} the New York lot]] got that hologram corpse thing.

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** Quite a few murderers were this as well, though the worst would probably be [[spoiler: Adam Duke]] from the season 4 finale, whose actions directly result in the death of [[spoiler: Mel Silver]]. But he ends up getting off with no punishment of any kind after killing his girlfriend, who was the only witness and evidence in the crime.

** Quite a few murderers ended up getting off scott free with no comeuppance as well, though the worst would probably be [[spoiler: Adam Duke]] from the season 4 finale, whose actions directly result in the death of [[spoiler: Mel Silver]] but ends up getting off with no punishment of any kind after killing his girlfriend who was the only witness and evidence in the crime.

* DownerEnding: Quite a number of the cases end horribly for everyone involved. This sometimes spills over into

* TheLabRat: Eve Lockhart, with a collection of wonderful analysis tools that puts the CSIVerse to shame. Well, until [[CSINewYork the New York lot]] got that hologram corpse thing.

* HeyItsThatGuy:
** If you look carefully in ''Film/CasinoRoyale2006'', the actress who plays Stella Goodman makes a cameo as a news reporter (it's just after the Miami scene).
** Michelle Forbes of ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' fame turned up in one story.
** So did stage actress Creator/KateFleetwood, who played Mary Cattermole in ''Film/HarryPotter''.
** Julian Glover (from ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheLastCrusade'') appears in "The Hardest Word" [[spoiler: as the killer]], and his co-star Michael Byrne appears in "In the Sight of the Lord" [[spoiler: also as the killer]].

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* MommyIssues: The killer in the pilot.

* HeyItsThatGuy: If you look carefully in ''Film/CasinoRoyale'', the actress who plays Stella Goodman makes a cameo as a news reporter (it's just after the Miami scene).

** Julian Glover (from ''IndianaJonesAndTheLastCrusade'') appears in "The Hardest Word" [[spoiler: as the killer]], and his co-star Michael Byrne appears in "In the Sight of the Lord" [[spoiler: also as the killer]].

British crime drama running from 2000 (pilot) to 2011. The ninth and final series recently finished broadcasting.

* ShellShockedVeteran: The victim in "Burned Out" was a soldier that came a bit touched from TheFalklandsWar, then became a war reporter and went full over the edge after covering TheYugoslavWars.

* KarmaHoudini: Boyd. He routinely bullies, harasses, manipulates, blackmails and threatens people during interrogation and he never has to pay for what he does or is punished for his actions. He always gets the results he wants and there are no repercussions. He also never has any problems arise from the times he flaunts the law to get what he wants, or from the people he puts through hell during an investigation.

* {{Hypocrisy}}: this show has a knack for portraying the hypocrisy within the system (both justice and governmental) and in individual characters without compromise or apology, making no excuses for someone's actions or playing LaserGuidedKarma. Even the main characters aren't immune to this, although the plot does sometime conspire to justify their opinions[=/=]actions or soften them with a just outcome.

* ForensicDrama: the entire show revolves around the evidence and what can be proved forensically. Typically an episode starts off with new evidence, which, using state-of-the-art forensic technology and brilliant technician(s), leads to new theories and leads which the team chase down with the aid of psychological profiling, and more evidence proves their deduction and reasoning.

* ManipulativeBastard: Serial-killer Linda Cummings from "Skins" and "Endgame", although nearly all the serial killers in the show get a mention for their devious manipulation of both their victims and the police.
* MoodLighting

** Felix probably left because of the chemical attack, and Katarina likely transferred.

* FanDisservice

* ForensicDrama

** To what degree the psychology is correctly used varies widely and seems to be an odd variation of DependingOnTheWriter (or director). In some cases, this takes the form of warping the psychology to suit the plot.

* ManipulativeBastard: Serial-killer Linda Cummings from "Skins" and "Endgame".

* HollywoodPsych: despite a surprising amount of technical correctness when it comes to the characters talking about literal psychological theories (well, accuracy to a point anyway), the application of psychology in-story as well as the underlying psychology of many of the killers is at the very least dramatized and at its worst incongruous or incorrect. In some cases, the writers have just made assumptions about their characters which don't match with the actions they want them to take (e.g. how and why a serial killer kills), and in others they warp the psychology to suit the plot.

* HollywoodPsych: despite a surprising amount of technical correctness when it comes to the characters talking about literal psychological theories - to a point - the application of psychology in-story and the underlying psychology of many of the killers is at the very least dramatized and at its worst incongruous or incorrect. In some cases, the writers have just made assumptions about their characters which don't match with the actions they want them to take (e.g. how and why a serial killer kills), and in others they warp the psychology to suit the plot.

** So did stage actress KateFleetwood, who played Mary Cattermole in ''Film/HarryPotter''.