The Investigator: Simon Cowell’s British answer to ‘Making a Murderer’ will focus on the murder of Carol Packman

Jimmy Savile detective Mark Williams-Thomas will lead the ITV true crime series

Mark Williams-Thomas, a former detective, spent 20 years investigating major crime, including an 11-year career as a policeman specialising in child protection (ITV)

Simon Cowell is jumping on the trend of true crime stories with a new series coming to ITV next month.

The Investigator: A British Crime Story is a result of the music mogul teaming up with Mark Williams-Thomas, the former detective who exposed Jimmy Savile as a sex abuser, to produce a gripping four-part show combining “stylised drama with compelling documentary”.

The series will see Mr Williams-Thomas re-examine the “closed” case of Carol Packman, who vanished from her Bournemouth home in 1985 never to be seen again. Packman’s husband Russell Causley was found guilty of her murder in 1996, only for his conviction to be overturned in 2003. He was found guilty again and handed a life sentence after a retrial in 2004. In prison, Causley reportedly told fellow inmates that he had killed his wife and dissolved her body in acid.

The tragedy continues to devastate Packman’s loved ones, as the “shocking tale of murder, fraud, deceit and lies has left family members desperate for answers”. Her daughter Samantha Gillingham has spent 15 years begging her father to reveal the truth about her mother’s death and is now asking Mr Williams-Thomas for help.

The former detective spent 20 years investigating major crime, including an 11-year career as a policeman specialising in child protection. His 2012 documentary The Other Side of Jimmy Savile won him multiple awards while his TV interview with infamous Paralympian Oscar Pistorius, who murdered his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, aired last Friday.

Cowell’s involvement in The Investigator is reportedly a result of his interest in the genre, sparked by watching HBO series The Jinx last year.

Something has to fill the Game of Thrones void at the water cooler, and The Investigator sounds like a definite, albeit harrowing, contender.