The New Taste for Blood -
a very british murder

In the first programme, Lucy begins with real-life crime from the first half of the nineteenth century - the Ratcliffe Highway Murders; Mariah Marten and the Red Barn; and the Bermondsey Horror. She investigates how our modern pre-occupation with murder began here, during the period when writer Thomas De Quincey wrote his celebrated essays on the subject that teasingly identified the guilty pleasure we get from it. A nation of 'Murder Fanciers', De Quincey called us. As each gripping story of murder is told, Lucy explains how each of these crimes was transformed and mythologised into a variety of popular entertainments. And to recreate these moments, Lucy sings the ballads and acts out the melodramas.

Duration: 50 minutes and 12 seconds

Episode Number: 101

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About A Very British Murder:

Historian Lucy Worsley explores how British murders from the early 19th century became a stapleof an astonishing range of entertainments.

She explains how murders that both thrilled and terrified the public tell us about major cultural and social changes that were taking place in Britain.

She also explores how these crimes became popular forms of entertainment, inspiring everything from ballads, puppet shows, theatre melodramas, 'whodunnit' fiction and crime thrillers at the cinema.