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Jack the Ripper

How did the Jack the Ripper case shape the way true crime is covered today? Lucy Worsley investigates how these shocking killings created a world of entertainment based on murder.

True crime is often thought of as a recent obsession, but here, Lucy Worsley investigates the phenomenon through one of the world’s most infamous serial killers: Jack the Ripper.

She uncovers a story which goes beyond a single murderer and his five victims – Polly, Annie, Elizabeth, Catherine and Mary-Jane - to a burgeoning newspaper industry desperate for readers and a Victorian society that wasn’t designed to support the most vulnerable.

Lucy explores how this unsolved case fuelled a new sensationalist journalism, which set a template for many of the true crime stories that followed.

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58 minutes

SignedAudio described

Last on

Sat 11 Jan 202502:20

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Credits

RoleContributor
PresenterLucy Worsley
Interviewed GuestRosalind Crone
Interviewed GuestHallie Rubenhold
Interviewed GuestJulia Laite
DirectorLinda Sands
DirectorRachel Jardine
Executive ProducerLucie Ridout

Broadcasts

  • Fri 3 Jan 202521:00
  • Thu 9 Jan 202523:05
  • Sat 11 Jan 202502:20

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