Welcome to The DocArena Podcast in association with Film Ireland. My name is Ross Whitaker and every fortnight, I want to dig deeply into the motivations of documentary filmmakers – how do they choose their subject material and what approaches and strategies do they employ to fund, craft and distribute their work…
In episode 7 of The DocArena Podcast, Ross Whitaker talks to some of the team behind Sophie: A Murder in West Cork. Director John Dower, and exec producers Suzanne Lavery and Simon Chinn.
This three-part Netflix series examines one of Ireland's most famous murder cases, the death of French producer Sophie Toscan du Plantier in the town of Schull, West Cork in 1996. The brutal murder, which shocked the country, triggered one of the biggest murder investigations Ireland had ever seen and became a national obsession. The documentary charts the circumstances of her death, unravelling the extraordinary story from its beginning, 24 years ago to the present day. With exclusive access to Sophie Toscan du Plantier's family, the series brings together, for the first time, the views of her family with Ian Bailey, the man at the centre of the investigation.
Listen now on SoundCloud, Apple, Spotify, Acast and Amazon, or subscribe to Film Ireland wherever you get your podcasts.
Sophie: A Murder in West Cork is available on Netflix from 30th June 2021.
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Podcast music composed by michaelflemingmusic.com
Ross Whitaker is a filmmaker and former editor of Film Ireland Magazine and programmer of the IFI Dublin Documentary Film Festival @RossWhitakerTV
Ross is a producer and/or director of the feature documentaries Beat the Lotto (2025), Katie (2018), Between Land and Sea (2016), Unbreakable (2014) and Saviours (2007). His recent work includes the TV documentaries This Is Open Country (2025) for NBC/Sky, Birdsong (2024) for RTÉ (+ BBC, ARTE), Rachael Blackmore: A Grand Year (2021) for ITV/RTÉ, Barney Curley Beat the Bookies (2021) for BBC/RTÉ and The Boys in Green (2020) for RTÉ. His short documentaries include the award-winning Bye Bye Now (2009) and Home Turf (2011), as well as the documentary commercial Sleeping Flags (2019), which won prestigious D&AD and Cannes Lions Awards.
