Who Killed Bill?
Format: Series (6 x 60 mins)
Genre: Historical Mystery / Intergenerational Drama / Based on a True Story
Setting: Rural Victoria, Australia – spanning 1952, the 1980s, and the present day
Tone: Quietly devastating, atmospheric, intimate, investigative
Logline: When 65-year-old Helen returns to her late mother’s rural home, she stumbles upon a suitcase of hidden documents that challenge the family legend of her grandfather’s death in 1952. As she digs into the past, Helen’s quiet inquiry becomes an emotionally fraught investigation across three generations — exposing long-buried secrets in a town determined to keep them that way.
Synopsis
When 65-year-old Helen returns to her late mother’s home in the rural Victorian town of Ouyen, she expects grief, dust, and a few old photo albums. What she doesn’t expect is a battered suitcase hidden in a crawlspace — stuffed with court transcripts, letters, and yellowing newspaper clippings. They all point to one thing: the story Helen grew up believing — that her grandfather Bill walked into a dam and never came out — may not be true.
Haunted by fragmented childhood memories and the ghosts of a family that never talked about what mattered, Helen begins to dig. What she uncovers is not just a mystery, but a wound running through three generations: a small-town cover-up, a woman who broke under its weight, and a legacy of silence disguised as resilience.
Spanning 1952, the 1980s, and the present day, Who Killed Bill? follows Helen’s search for the truth as she navigates resistance from her surviving siblings, unearths disturbing secrets buried by the town’s elders, and begins to question whether justice is even possible this many decades on.
As Helen’s inquiry deepens, it begins to reshape the story of her family — and of herself. But in a town like Ouyen, where truth threatens reputation and silence is survival, some people will do anything to keep the past buried.
Concept
Who Killed Bill? is a 6 x 60-minute limited series that blends historical mystery, intergenerational drama, and emotionally rich character storytelling. Inspired by true events and the quiet devastations of rural life, it examines the fallout of unresolved trauma — not just on individuals, but across entire bloodlines.
Structured as a layered investigation, the series unfolds across three timelines:
- 1952: Bill’s final weeks, the circumstances surrounding his death, and the community’s rush to move on.
- 1980s: Kathleen, Helen’s mother, makes her own doomed attempt to investigate, only to be gaslit and broken by the system and her community.
- Present Day: Helen, a semi-successful performer in retreat, returns home and begins an emotional and forensic excavation of her family’s past.
The tone is intimate and atmospheric, with visual language drawn from outback noir and period drama. It draws on the aesthetic restraint and emotional force of series like Mare of Easttown, Top of the Lake, and The North Water, while rooting itself firmly in the Australian landscape — both geographic and psychological.
Who Killed Bill? is about memory, masculinity, complicity, and the silent forces that shape who we become. It’s not just a whodunnit — it’s a why-was-it-ever-covered-up. And what does it cost to finally speak?
Development stage
Pilot Script and Bible
