The Big Cases: The Killer They Called Family
The Big Cases: The Killer They Called Family
The Big Cases: The Killer They Called Family
Synopsis
Synopsis
Synopsis
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November 2025
This documentary is about the tragic double murder of Chloe and Josh Bashford on 9th June 2023 by Derick Martin, Chloe Martin’s stepdad. The documentary uncovers the events leading up to the double murder and reports the outcome of Derick Martin’s sentence, which was life imprisonment.
The Big Cases is an innovative true crime series and one of BBC News’ flagship strands which releases episodes the same day as the perpetrator’s sentence, often requiring quick-turnaround times as court proceedings develop in real time.
This episode was my first Big Cases and performed well on iPlayer and featured on the New & Trending rail over the weekend.
This documentary is about the tragic double murder of Chloe and Josh Bashford on 9th June 2023 by Derick Martin, Chloe Martin’s stepdad. The documentary uncovers the events leading up to the double murder and reports the outcome of Derick Martin’s sentence, which was life imprisonment.
The Big Cases is an innovative true crime series and one of BBC News’ flagship strands which releases episodes the same day as the perpetrator’s sentence, often requiring quick-turnaround times as court proceedings develop in real time.
This episode was my first Big Cases and performed well on iPlayer and featured on the New & Trending rail over the weekend.
This documentary is about the tragic double murder of Chloe and Josh Bashford on 9th June 2023 by Derick Martin, Chloe Martin’s stepdad. The documentary uncovers the events leading up to the double murder and reports the outcome of Derick Martin’s sentence, which was life imprisonment.
The Big Cases is an innovative true crime series and one of BBC News’ flagship strands which releases episodes the same day as the perpetrator’s sentence, often requiring quick-turnaround times as court proceedings develop in real time.
This episode was my first Big Cases and performed well on iPlayer and featured on the New & Trending rail over the weekend.
Scroll to Discover
[001]
Titles
For the titles, I used the top shot and most recognisable image of the victims as it was such a high-profile murder in the UK.
I animated the titles in a way to allure the audience to the watch the rest of the programme, through adding suspense by animating all the elements in the titles slowly and revealing Derick Martin, the preparator in the second shot.
A major consideration when working on programmes that involve such a tragic story, is to animate and design with care, keeping the visual language throughout the programme tasteful.
[001]
Titles
For the titles, I used the top shot and most recognisable image of the victims as it was such a high-profile murder in the UK.
I animated the titles in a way to allure the audience to the watch the rest of the programme, through adding suspense by animating all the elements in the titles slowly and revealing Derick Martin, the preparator in the second shot.
A major consideration when working on programmes that involve such a tragic story, is to animate and design with care, keeping the visual language throughout the programme tasteful.
[001]
Titles
For the titles, I used the top shot and most recognisable image of the victims as it was such a high-profile murder in the UK.
I animated the titles in a way to allure the audience to the watch the rest of the programme, through adding suspense by animating all the elements in the titles slowly and revealing Derick Martin, the preparator in the second shot.
A major consideration when working on programmes that involve such a tragic story, is to animate and design with care, keeping the visual language throughout the programme tasteful.
[002]
Text Message Exchange
Throughout the 30-minute programme, there were many text exchange sequences created. Mainly due to how many of the texts were used as evidence in court, and to also tell the story of the events leading up to Chloe and Josh’s murder to give the audience context.
This text exchange reveals one of Chloe’s final messages to Derick. To emphasise the message’s emotional significance, I isolated her final line, “aww thank you so much, your so good to us x” through blurring and fading the rest of the exchange, allowing the message to linger and heighten the chilling sentiment to the audience.
[002]
Text Message Exchange
Throughout the 30-minute programme, there were many text exchange sequences created. Mainly due to how many of the texts were used as evidence in court, and to also tell the story of the events leading up to Chloe and Josh’s murder to give the audience context.
This text exchange reveals one of Chloe’s final messages to Derick. To emphasise the message’s emotional significance, I isolated her final line, “aww thank you so much, your so good to us x” through blurring and fading the rest of the exchange, allowing the message to linger and heighten the chilling sentiment to the audience.
[002]
Text Message Exchange
Throughout the 30-minute programme, there were many text exchange sequences created. Mainly due to how many of the texts were used as evidence in court, and to also tell the story of the events leading up to Chloe and Josh’s murder to give the audience context.
This text exchange reveals one of Chloe’s final messages to Derick. To emphasise the message’s emotional significance, I isolated her final line, “aww thank you so much, your so good to us x” through blurring and fading the rest of the exchange, allowing the message to linger and heighten the chilling sentiment to the audience.
[003]
Cross Platform Promo
I used the last shot of the titles for the cross-platform promo and adapted it slightly to be 14:9 safe and work with the CTA and BBC blocks. I felt this was the best approach as I could work efficiently while maintaining visual consistency for the iPlayer poster and Promo so the audience could easily identify the programme when searching for it on iPlayer.
[003]
Cross Platform Promo
I used the last shot of the titles for the cross-platform promo and adapted it slightly to be 14:9 safe and work with the CTA and BBC blocks. I felt this was the best approach as I could work efficiently while maintaining visual consistency for the iPlayer poster and Promo so the audience could easily identify the programme when searching for it on iPlayer.
[003]
Cross Platform Promo
I used the last shot of the titles for the cross-platform promo and adapted it slightly to be 14:9 safe and work with the CTA and BBC blocks. I felt this was the best approach as I could work efficiently while maintaining visual consistency for the iPlayer poster and Promo so the audience could easily identify the programme when searching for it on iPlayer.
[004]
iPlayer Poster
Given the high-profile nature of the case within the UK, it felt appropriate to use the most recognisable top shots of the victims and perpetrator. I used the image of the Bashford’s in the foreground as it was the most recognisable image relating to the case, whereas the image of Derick Martin was de-saturated to not pull focus and used as a contextual image in the background.
Working within news, it’s not always possible to obtain high-quality images therefore I applied a heavy texture to the composition to disguise the phone-camera quality of the Bashford’s and reframing the composition as a digital collage.
[004]
iPlayer Poster
Given the high-profile nature of the case within the UK, it felt appropriate to use the most recognisable top shots of the victims and perpetrator. I used the image of the Bashford’s in the foreground as it was the most recognisable image relating to the case, whereas the image of Derick Martin was de-saturated to not pull focus and used as a contextual image in the background.
Working within news, it’s not always possible to obtain high-quality images therefore I applied a heavy texture to the composition to disguise the phone-camera quality of the Bashford’s and reframing the composition as a digital collage.
[004]
iPlayer Poster
Given the high-profile nature of the case within the UK, it felt appropriate to use the most recognisable top shots of the victims and perpetrator. I used the image of the Bashford’s in the foreground as it was the most recognisable image relating to the case, whereas the image of Derick Martin was de-saturated to not pull focus and used as a contextual image in the background.
Working within news, it’s not always possible to obtain high-quality images therefore I applied a heavy texture to the composition to disguise the phone-camera quality of the Bashford’s and reframing the composition as a digital collage.
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