By Indigo Jones

Copyright walesonline

True crime enthusiasts will be delighted to discover that ITV has launched a fresh series examining two significant UK-based criminal cases. The first concerns the phone hacking controversy that unfolded during the 1990s and early 2000s, whilst the second explores the unresolved killing of Daniel Morgan from 1987. The Hack features Robert Carlyle portraying former Met Police Detective Chief Superintendent (DCS) David Cook, who revived Daniel’s investigation in the early 2000s. The programme’s second instalment chronicles the DCS as he delved deeper into the matter following Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair’s announcement that the initial police enquiry had been “compromised”. During the episode, they also mentioned the murder of the late Crimewatch presenter, Jill Dando. But, how do all three cases link up? For the latest TV and showbiz gossip sign up to our newsletter . Well, the series looks at how a group of journalists lead by Nick Davies (played by David Tennant), aimed to expose the large scale phone hacking operation which was lead by the News of the World newspaper. It was discovered that the newspaper was employing private detectives to hack the phones of celebrities, politicians, victims of tragedy and even the royal family. The number of those hacked at the time was estimated by police to be roughly 5,500 people. Meanwhile, the unsolved murder case of Daniel Morgan was reopened after Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair admitted that the initial police investigation had been “compromised.” Daniel Morgan was a private detective from Monmouthshire , who was discovered with an axe embedded in his head in the car park of the Golden Lion pub in south London in 1987. He had just parted ways with his business partner Jonathan Rees after a meeting. Detective Superintendent David Cook was appointed to lead the review. He called the murder “one of the worst-kept secrets in south-east London,” alleging that “a whole cabal of people” knew who was involved. In 2009, the trial of Jonathan Rees, Sidney Fillery, the Vian brothers, and James Cook began at the Old Bailey. However, the case quickly began to unravel and in March 2011, the Director of Public Prosecutions at the time, Sir Keir Starmer, formally abandoned the case. After the collapse of the trial, it was revealed that Daniel Morgan’s former business partner, Jonathon Rees had earned £150,000 a year from the News of the World for supplying illegally obtained information about people in the public eye. After Rees completed his prison sentence for perverting the course of justice, he was hired again by the News of the World, at the time edited by Andy Coulson. Despite substantial evidence, the Metropolitan Police neglected to investigate Jonathan Rees’s corrupt ties with the News of the World for over a decade. In 2006, the police accepted the newspaper’s claim that royal correspondent Clive Goodman (who was imprisoned in 2007 for intercepting voicemail messages of the British royal family ) acted alone. They did not interview other News of the World journalists or executives, nor did they seek court orders to access the paper’s internal records. In June 2011, The Guardian called for a public inquiry into the News of the World phone-hacking scandal, sharply criticizing Rupert Murdoch’s parent company News Corporation’s handling of criminal allegations. The newspaper highlighted News of the World’s use of Rees’s investigative services, describing his activities as a “devastating pattern of illegal behaviour” that went far beyond other investigators hired by News Corporation. In the series Eve Myles, plays the English journalist, television presenter and former police officer, Jacqui Hames. She was the wife of Detective Chief Superintendent Dave Cook, during the reopening of the 1987 Daniel Morgan murder case. Jacqui who was a presenter of the BBC programme Crimewatch from 1990 until 2007, was a close friend of the late presenter Jill Dando. In 1999, Jill was murdered after being fatally shot on the doorstep of her London home. The question of who murdered the presenter remains unanswered 26 years after her death. In The Hack, Eve’s character discusses her distress of missing Jill, and how the Daniel Morgan case was bringing back the trauma of losing her late friend and co-worker. In 2002, Dave Cook featured on Crimewatch to appeal for information on the unsolved Daniel Morgan case. Shortly after his appearance on the series, the family were placed under surveillance by News of the World. Jacqui later gave evidence at the Leveson Inquiry in 2012, which investigated the News of the World phone hacking scandal. She wrote an article for CNN that same year, outlining her experience and the impact it had on her marriage to the DCS. She said: “When I was informed last year by police that my phone had been hacked by News of The World, I was very angry, but not altogether surprised. I was by then all too familiar with the way that tabloid newspapers thought nothing of invading my privacy, if they thought there might be a story in it.” Jacqui continued: “In 2002 “Crimewatch” was sent an email suggesting that I was having an affair. Strangers phoned my husband’s work, attempting to find out our home address and other personal and financial details. Two vans stationed outside our house followed my husband taking the kids to school . By this stage, we feared we were being stalked by the people responsible for the murder. “We took our house off the market, and warned our daughter’s headmistress of the risks of strangers hanging around the school. I became very distressed and anxious. The stress that we endured over the subsequent years contributed to the eventual breakdown of my marriage.”