The Murder Game involves a fictional crime solved by real people trained to work as teams of amateur detectives hunting a killer.

They will live together throughout the case, watched by cameras, and will question suspects played by actors living in an imaginary village.

Contestants - who include a dairy farmer, an airline pilot and a former pole dancer - also have to avoid becoming a victim of the killer themselves.

About 10,000 people applied to take part in the series which runs over eight weeks on BBC One in the spring, with a spin-off show on BBC Three.

It takes place in fictional village of Blackwater as the community prepares for the wedding of villager Goldie Prior.

Goldie's sister, Catherine, has been savagely attacked and dies on the way to the hospital.

Over the following weeks the contestants are dispatched to single out the killer from among the nine suspects.

In each programme two of them play the Killer's Game - with only one of them returning.

The successful sleuth wins a �25,000 reward - but investigators will have to work together to decipher the clues and move the case forward.

Each contestant has completed a week of training at a police college under the direction of ex-Det Ch Supt Bob Taylor, formerly of West Yorkshire police.

Digital viewers will be able to play along with a BBCi interactive game at home.