Second Verdict – Nostalgia Central

1 9 7 6 (UK)
6 x 50 minute episodes

Despite a mixed reception for the BBC’s 1973 docudrama series Jack the Ripper, which starred Stratford Johns and Frank Windsor in character as Detective Chief Superintendents Barlow and Watt, respectively, using modern techniques to reinvestigate the notorious Victorian murders, this six-part follow-up series applied the same formula to other great unsolved old crimes.

First broadcast on Thursday 27 May 1976, Second Verdict examined contemporary documents, newspapers, and newly discovered material to investigate historic crimes including the killing of the the deposed King Edward V and his younger brother Prince Richard of Shrewsbury, Duke of York in the Tower of London in 1483, the murders of Lizzie Borden in 1892, the Lindbergh kidnapping of 1932 and the arson attack on the Reichstag on 27 February 1933.

Key events were re-enacted in cutaway scenes using actors, including Shane Rimmer, Burnell Tucker, Ivor Roberts, Rosemary Leach and Cyril Appleton.

DCS Charlie Barlow
Stratford Johns
DCS John Watt
Frank Windsor

Episodes

The Lindbergh Kidnapping | Who Killed the Princes in the Tower? | The French Bluebeard | Murder on the 10.27 | Lizzie Borden | Who Burned the Reichstag?