i2’s Analyst’s Notebook has been quietly helping UK police forces crack the most complex of cases, piecing together data from sources like phone records, bank transactions, social media, the dark web and CCTV footage to create clear pictures of the crimes.
Now, for the first time on British television, new documentary series Britain’s Almost Perfect Murders, by Monster Films, uses the software to map out for viewers how investigators solved some of the nation’s most notorious killings – including those committed decades before the tech existed.
For years, platforms such as i2’s Analyst’s Notebook and iBase have been indispensable in solving some of the UK’s most complex investigations. Out of the public eye but crucial when timelines of suspects, phone records, financial trails and CCTV footage all need to be connected at speed for analysis.
Available on ITVX, Britain’s Almost Perfect Murders brings the hidden world of visual analytics into the open for the first time on British television. Working with experienced intelligence analyst Sam Robins, who has served with both Surrey and Sussex Police, the show re‑examines high-profile murder cases using the same analytical techniques and software that underpin real investigations today.
In each episode, viewers get the chance to see how seemingly unrelated data points, such as calls, meetings and bank transactions, are pulled together inside i2 to build a clear narrative of what happened. It’s a rare, visual insight into how modern investigations are really conducted, and how this technology is helping detectives secure convictions in cases that might once have gone unsolved.
The result is a true‑crime series that’s not just about sensational cases, but about the future of policing. This is high-tech law enforcement that is data-driven, intelligence-led and far more transparent to the public than ever before.
“For Almost Perfect Murders, there were 10 cases the producers wanted to look at,” says Sam, one of the first ever law enforcement analysts to start using i2 in the 1990s. “Some of the cases were really big. We’re talking (Dr Hawley) Crippen, (Alfred) Rouse, Jeremy Bamber. And others that were more contentious. For me it was fascinating, because I got to apply all of those techniques that I used as an analyst. Information was given to me, and I applied those techniques using i2 to tell the story.”
Episodes in the series include ‘The Firestarter,’ ‘The Angel of Death’ and ‘The Burning Man’. Older cases, including ‘The Doctor of Death’ and ‘Murder at the Farm’, pre-date the pioneering use of i2 to solve crimes. The software, however, had potential for producers wanting to paint a clear picture of an investigation for viewers. And Sam was the perfect person to show them how to use it.
“I was using i2 in its most rudimentary form, just timelining all of those events, so the television crew and Tim Tate, the journalist I co host with, had something visual,” she says. “At any point we could look down at the desk and say, ‘There was an incident there that caused him to take this path,’ or ‘That meeting led to this chain of events.’
“The majority of cases, it’s not that they’re criminal masterminds – they slip up. I always refer to tipping points; when you can no longer control all those moving parts, and once that goes, everything tumbles. Just having that i2 visual in front of you and being able to look down and say, ‘Right, it was that point’ – that’s great for TV, because you can see the tipping point of the investigation, which they love.”
i2 Analyst’s Notebook uses icons, such as a silhouette of a person or a phone symbol, to represent specific data points, or ‘nodes’. It then uses different lines to show the relationships between the various entities. Spatial and chronological visual elements are used to factor in location and timeline. It all helps the viewer at home to visual the events before, during and after the murders as they unfolded.
“The case papers we were getting through were pages and pages and pages. An audience isn’t going to stay with you if you’re on page six saying, ‘It said this.’ But if you go to a point on a chart and say, ‘These were the typical actions he took before the incident – he was building up to the point where he slipped,’ people get it immediately.
“It allowed me to explain an incredibly complex situation in a visual way.”
Britain’s Almost Perfect Murders, featuring Sam and i2, can be streamed now on ITVX.
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