A Very British Murder

A Very British Murder with Lucy Worsley

Murder – a dark, shameful deed, the last resort of the desperate or a vile tool of the greedy. And a very strange, very British obsession. But where did this fixation develop? And what does it tell us about ourselves?

Tonight on BBC4 sees the first episode in a three part series with Lucy Worsley finding out what made true crime so fascinating to us Brits in the first half of the nineteenth century.

The first episode The New Taste for Blood is on at 9pm on BBC4, followed next week by Detection Most Ingenious and finally The Golden Age.

In A Very British Murder, Lucy Worsley explores the phenomenon of our fascination with true crime in forensic detail, revisiting notorious crimes like the Ratcliff Highway Murders and the case of Frederick and Maria Manning, the suburban couple who were hanged after killing Maria’s lover and burying him under their kitchen floor. Our fascination with crimes like these became a form of national entertainment, inspiring crime novels and plays, puppet shows and paintings, poetry and true-crime journalism. At a point during the birth of modern Britain, murder entered our national psyche, and it’s been a part of us ever since.

A Very British Murder is a unique exploration of the art of crime, and a riveting investigation into the British soul by one of our finest historians.

Dr Lucy Worsley is a historian and Chief Curator of the Historic Royal Palaces, where she looks after the Tower of London a blood seeped monument if ever there was one!

Don’t miss The New Taste for Blood tonight, 9pm on BBC4!
Not into TV? Read the book: