Editing Cracker (British TV series) (section)

==Production==
The first two series were written by Jimmy McGovern, excepting the fifth serial, "The Big Crunch", which was contributed by [[Ted Whitehead]]. Claiming that he had "nothing more to write about”,<ref>[http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/09/29/1096401643089.html 'Head case'] ''SMH.com.au''; 30 September 2004</ref> McGovern originally planned to leave after the second series but was allowed to write the controversial rape storyline, "Men Should Weep", when he agreed to contribute a three-part story to the third series. Two of McGovern's stories, "To Say I Love You" and "Brotherly Love" (from the first and third series respectively), received [[Edgar Award]]s from the [[Mystery Writers of America]]. Each serial had a different director, with the exceptions of "To Be a Somebody" and "True Romance", both directed by [[Tim Fywell]].

[[Paul Abbott]], who had produced the second series, wrote the remainder of the episodes (including the feature-length special "White Ghost"). Abbott later went on to create several high-profile dramas, including ''[[Touching Evil]]'' (1997), ''[[State of Play (TV series)|State of Play]]'' (2003) and ''[[Shameless (British TV series)|Shameless]]'' (2004). Another crew member, [[Nicola Shindler]], who worked as [[script editor]] on the programme, later went on to found [[Red Production Company]].

Of the regular cast, only Coltrane and Tomlinson featured in "White Ghost" (retitled "Lucky White Ghost" for some overseas markets), which was set in Hong Kong. Although the series was still drawing large audiences after ''White Ghost'', Coltrane declined to return as Fitz unless McGovern returned to write the series.

''Cracker'' returned a decade after "White Ghost" in the 2006 special episode, "Nine Eleven", written by McGovern and directed by [[Antonia Bird]]. Coltrane, Flynn and O'Brien were the only actors to return in their previous roles. The new roles of DCI Walters, DS Saleh and DS McAllister were played by [[Richard Coyle]], Nisha Nayar and [[Rafe Spall]] respectively. The story involved Fitz returning to Manchester after several years of living in Australia with Judith and his son James (who had been born during the third series) to attend his daughter Katy's wedding. The murder of an American nightclub comedian sends the police to ask Fitz for his help.

===Locations===
The series was principally filmed in south Manchester, at locations including [[Didsbury]] (where Fitz lived at the fictitious address of "15 Charlotte Road"<ref>From the business card that Fitz presents to his stalker in the episode "True Romance".</ref>) and the police station at [[Longsight]]. The internals for the police station were filmed in the old ''[[Daily Mirror]]'' offices in central Manchester, now [[The Printworks (Manchester)|The Printworks]] retail complex. Other Manchester locations included [[Manchester Victoria station|Victoria Railway Station]], [[St Peter's Square, Manchester|St Peter's Square]], [[Old Trafford]], the [[Arndale Centres|Arndale Centre]], [[UMIST]], [[University of Salford]], the [[Ramada International|Ramada Hotel]], [[The Star and Garter, Manchester|The Star and Garter]] (interior and exterior for the "Best Boys" episode) and the [[Safeway (UK)|Safeway]] supermarket (now Morrisons) in [[Chorlton-cum-Hardy]].  The [[Hulme Crescents]] were also used for filming in the first two episodes of series one and the first episode of series two; during which time they were being demolished. The first episode involved several railway scenes which were filmed on the East Lancashire Railway in Bury (north Manchester) both on the trackside and inside the Carriage & Wagon Works, where working volunteers from the railway used crowbars to push the carriage springs up and down to suggest a moving train, while water was poured on the windows to suggest rain between black polythene sheets and the window to indicate darkness.