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1. The Ratcliffe Highway Murders

The Ratcliffe Highway murders of 1811 - how the Victorians turned violent crime into entertainment. Read by Robert Glenister.

"We are a trading community - a commercial people. Murder is, doubtless, a very shocking offence; nevertheless, as what is done is not to be undone, let us make our money out of it." Punch, 1842

Over the course of the 19th century, murder - in reality a rarity - became ubiquitous: transformed into novels, into broadsides and ballads, into theatre and melodrama.

Seeing therein the foundation of modern notions of crime, Judith Flanders explores this fascination with deadly violence by relating some of the century's most gripping and gruesome cases and the ways in which they were commercially exploited.

The Ratcliffe Highway murders of 1811 were particularly dreadful: two separate sets of killings in which seven people lost their lives. It was a case that shocked the nation - this was half as many people as had been murdered in the entire previous year throughout England and Wales - and forced the establishment to rethink the policing of major cities.

Written by Judith Flanders.

Read by Robert Glenister.

Abridged in five parts by David Jackson Young.

Producer: Kirsteen Cameron

First broadcast on 大象传媒 Radio 4 in January 2011.

15 minutes

Last on

Tue 26 Apr 2022 02:15

Broadcasts

  • Mon 10 Jan 2011 09:45
  • Tue 11 Jan 2011 00:30
  • Mon 27 Jul 2015 11:00
  • Mon 27 Jul 2015 21:00
  • Mon 25 Apr 2022 14:15
  • Tue 26 Apr 2022 02:15

Lucy Worsley's Crime Collection

Lucy Worsley's Crime Collection

Hand-picked programmes on the themes of 19th-century murder and mores.