Dr. Tony Hill

Dr Tony Hill is a fictional character created by Scottish crime writer Val McDermid. He is portrayed by actor Robson Green in the ITV television series Wire in the Blood based on her Tony Hill series of novels.

Overview

Dr Hill is a clinical psychologist who works as a profiler for the Bradfield police; he specialises in repeat violent offenders, and has come into contact with a number of serial killers throughout his turbulent career. He suffers from dyspraxia and has poor social skills, stemming partly from a childhood of emotional abuse. Both his mother (who bore him out of wedlock) and grandmother used excessive corporal punishment against him, although this was more because they resented his presence in their lives than any actual wrongdoing on his part. As a result he can't stand arguing, having once said that it reminds him of being a child ("the grown-ups are shouting and it must be my fault").

He is often accompanied on his investigations by the gutsy Detective Chief Inspector Carol Jordan. He enjoys video games such as Tomb Raider.

He is occasionally implied as having a difficult relationship with his mother, an emotionally detached businesswoman who bore her son while she was still young and unmarried, at a time when such a thing was considered scandalous. It is also revealed in Beneath The Bleeding that when he was a child his grandmother used to shut him in a cupboard for long periods of time whenever he irritated her or did something wrong. Additionally, both his mother and grandmother used beatings as punishment for unintended childhood misdemeanors - when really, it appears that his grandmother's exception could be attributed to Tony's birth out of wedlock rather than justifiable instances of wrongdoing, and his mother resented his presence in her life.

Tony tends to solve his cases using a mix of role-play, first person analysis and intuition. This approach often unsettles those around him and in the TV series, it isn't until Carol realises his worth in a practical setting that Bradfield CID embraces his ongoing assistance. Within the novels, Tony has an established professional standing that earns him a place at the head of the National Profiling Task Force after he conducted the feasibility study that resulted in its formation.

In the TV series, Tony has admitted to being dyspraxic as well as socially inept. He draws his satisfaction in life from analysing and understanding damaged minds, something that he often fears has affected him deeply - an affliction he refers to in the novels as his attempts at "passing for human." There are numerous references in both TV and book canon to the spectre of his past and how he fears it leaves little distinction between him and the psychopaths he profiles. It appears that many of his ongoing issues and feelings of inadequacy can be traced to the negativity of his childhood and his early sexual experiences.

TV series

The first episode of the television series, The Mermaids Singing, was broadcast on 14 November 2002, and co-starred Hermione Norris as Carol Jordan. She stayed in the role up until series 4, when her character was replaced with D.I. Alex Fielding, an equally tough, ambitious single mother played by Simone Lahbib.

Novels

• The Mermaids Singing (1995)
• The Wire in the Blood (1997)
• The Last Temptation (2002)
• The Torment of Others (2004)
• Beneath the Bleeding (2007)
• Fever of the Bone (2009)