A Very British Murder: Yes, I'm Addicted to Documentaries...
Fans of detective novels, murder mysteries, and any of the authors of the Golden Age of detection novels (Christie, Sayers, etc.) will want to see this.
So, as I've babbled in the past few days, I just can't stop watching documentaries on YouTube. But these in particular - well, as soon as I knew Worsley had a book out on British murder - that sounded like such juicy stuff. And then I found the series online! Books and authors are a huge part of the story - which is why I think many of you will want to watch these. I'll link to all the videos, and if you don't want to watch I'll give you meaty links of murder to read (all wikipedia, because I'm lazy).
A Very British Murder, Part 1 (youtube link)
Thomas de Quincey - essay: "On Murder Considered as one of the Fine Arts"
Burmondsey Horror - Maria Manning
A Very British Murder, Part 2 (youtube link)
George Orwell - The Decline of the English Murder
Dr William Palmer - The Rugeley Poisoner
Charles Dickens - The modern science of thief taking - Inspector Field (here and here)
Murder at the Road Hill House - Constance Kent - Suspicions of Mr Wicher
Wilkie Collins - The Moonstone
Mary Elizabeth Braddon - Lady Audley's Secret - and William Babington Maxwell (whose wife was insane, great story fodder there)
Robert Louis Stevenson - Jekyll and Hyde - actor some felt was Jack the Ripper because he played Hyde so well in the stage version: Richard Mansfield
[Documentary shows a Ripper walking tour - and I have to admit here that I've been on one, and enjoyed it. It was probably a lot less spooky for me because I was going to school for a semester in the East End at the time.]
A Very British Murder, Part 3 (youtube link)
Hawley Harvey Crippen - Madame Tussaud's
Agatha Christie - some audio of her speaking via her dictaphone is played, and we are shown some of her notebooks
The Detection Club - we meet Eric (Erica!) the Skull - Simon Brett (president of the club)
Dorothy L. Sayers - Lord Peter Wimsey, Harriet Vane (Worsley is a big Sayers fan and this part is particularly fun)
Alfred Hitchcock - The Lodger, Sabotage
Graham Green - clip from audio interview with him - Brighton Rock
If you make it through all those links and don't want to see the video? I'll bet you now want to go read something murderish or mysteryish. I'm going to be reading the de Quincey book of essays because I just realized it's already on my ereader - because it contains the essay on murder that I've been meaning to read for months!
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