Main content

27. Sarah Bird - Cruel Employer

Guest detective Baroness Helena Kennedy joins Lucy Worsley to investigate the mysterious death of a young servant in Buckland Brewer, Devon.

Lucy Worsley travels back in time to revisit the unthinkable crimes of 19th century murderesses from the UK, Australia and North America.

Lucy Worsley travels to Buckland Brewer, Devon, to investigate the death of a young servant girl on a remote farm. Far from bucolic idyll with roses around the door, this is the location of a grizzly crime where a teenage girl, Mary-Ann Parsons, is found dead, her emaciated body horribly bruised and battered.

Guest Detective Baroness Helena Kennedy, a leading barrister and expert on human rights and modern slavery, joins Lucy to examine the crime. The alleged Lady Killer is Sarah Bird, a young farmer’s wife and the mother of four children. Could she really be capable of this brutal murder?

Together with Lady Killers’ in-house historian Professor Rosalind Crone, the team examines how Mary-Ann Parsons comes to work as a Parish Apprentice at Gawland Farm, and how a toxic culture of abuse becomes the norm. With a wealth of experience in modern slavery, Baroness Helena Kennedy unpicks how people become trapped in domestic servitude today and what it takes to turn someone into an enslaver.

Produced in partnership with the Open University.

Producer: Emily Hughes
Readers: Clare Corbett and Jonathan Keeble
Sound design: Chris Maclean
Series Producer: Julia Hayball.

A StoryHunter production for ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio 4

New episodes will be released on Wednesday wherever you get your podcasts. But if you’re in the UK, listen to the latest full series of Lady Killers first on ´óÏó´«Ã½ Sounds. ´óÏó´«Ã½ Sounds - Lady Killers with Lucy Worsley - Available Episodes: http://bbc.in/3M2pT0K

Available now

28 minutes

Broadcast

  • Wed 21 Feb 2024 11:30

Lucy Worsley's Crime Collection

Lucy Worsley's Crime Collection

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

Join The Open University for an exclusive behind-the-scenes interview about making Lady Killers.

A behind the scenes look at the making of the series.

Podcast