The Golden Age -
a very british murder

In the final part of A Very British Murder, Lucy Worsley arrives in the Edwardian era and the Golden Age of Detective Fiction between the Wars. She tells the extraordinary story of the first celebrity murderer of the twentieth century Dr Crippen. Then investigates how after the First World War, the Murder Mystery Novel reached a peak of popularity in the hands of Agatha Christie and Dorothy L Sayers. And reveals how the skill and ingenuity of both writers perfected the classic 'Whodunnit' Lucy attempts to join the Detection Club set up by Golden Age writers - by undergoing an elaborate initiation ceremony with its current President, Simon Brett. And she ends by exploring how the Murder Mystery Novel was eclipsed by new rivals in the depiction of homicide - including the 'hard-boiled' novels of Graham Greene.

Episode Duration: 50 minutes and 15 seconds

Episode Number: 103

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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.