TELEVISION

Railway Murders - Season 1

Series: Railway Murders
3.7
(26)
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Episodes
6
Rating
NR
Year
2021
Language
English
Publisher
3DD

About

This drama-doc series takes you back in time to the most shocking and surprising murder cases in history. Our presenter, Nicholas Day, guides us into into the world of the killer as we see how police ingenuity and early forensics helped bring them to justice.
The Railways transformed Britain. From town to town and city to city, the tracks spread. They changed the way we lived forever. But there was a darker side to the advent of the railways.
This technological revolution offered new opportunities for the oldest of crimes. In this series, we'll be investigating the most notorious murders ever to take place on the British railways.
Stories of the men who killed, of the police who hunted them, and of the victims, who were left behind. From the files of Scotland Yard and the Railways Police, this is the history of blood on the tracks of Britain

Related Subjects

Episodes

1 to 3 of 6

1. The First Railway Murder

44m

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In 1864, the body of a wealthy banker was discovered on the tracks between Bow and Hackney Wick stations in London. But the death of Thomas Briggs was no accident - it was the first murder on a British railway. The pressure was on for police to solve the crime, but nobody could have predicted the drama that was to come - the desperate flight of the killer and the cross-Atlantic race to bring him to justice.

2. The Body In The Tunnel

44m

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Percy Lefroy Mapleton was a talented young writer. But he was also a liar, a thief and a fantasist. By 1881, he had become fixated on a beautiful stage actress. Convinced the two of them belonged together, he concocted an elaborate fraud to win her heart. But Lefroy could not outrun his lies forever and, when exposure seemed certain, he was driven to a darker and more violent
crime

3. The Police Killer

44m

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On a September night in 1895, two railway policemen surprised a gang of thieves at work in a Wigan goods yard. A vicious fight broke out and Detective Sergeant Robert Kidd was stabbed to death. It was the first time a railway police officer had been murdered in the line of duty. But bringing the killers to justice would not be easy. The gang was fiercely loyal and there were no other witnesses to the crime. If there was to be a conviction, one of them would have to talk.

4. The Newcastle Train Murder

44m

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In 1910, the city of Newcastle was transfixed by a murder trial. A clerk had been killed on a train and his wages bag stolen with hundreds of pounds inside. Accused of the murder was a local man named John Alexander Dickman. But the evidence against him was all circumstantial and, thanks to a recent change in the law, Dickman himself would have the chance to go into the witness box. Dickman was a professional gambler, but he had never faced stakes like this. If the jury believed him, he would walk free. If they didn't, he would hang.

5. The Guardsman

44m

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Jimmy Alcott was a troubled young man. He had joined the army after leaving school, but his time in Germany ended in disgrace when he was court-martialled for the violent murder of a civilian. Spared execution by the mercy of the King, he returned to England and built a new life for himself. He had not left his violent ways behind however. In 1952, he travelled from his home in London to the village of Ash Vale in Surrey. There he staked out the railway station and plotted a theft that would end in murder. But would Alcott escape the noose a second time?

6. Death on the Underground

44m

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It is one of London's great unsolved mysteries. Late one evening in May 1957, an elderly Polish Countess was travelling home from a party when she was attacked at Gloucester Road Tube station. Stabbed repeatedly on the platform, she died in hospital later that night. Her killer was never identified and, to this day, there are only theories about why Countess Teresa Łubieńska was targeted. But could there be a clue in her past? The Countess had a remarkable life. She was a film-maker, an activist, a poet, a resistance fighter and a concentration camp survivor. She was an extraordinary woman. And somebody wanted her dead.

Extended Details

  • Closed CaptionsEnglish

Artists

Lyndy Savilledirector
Dominic Savilleproducer
Nicholas Dayactor