Murder on the Victorian Railway
Directed by Chris Durlacher.
Produced by Flavia Taylor.
Garden Productions/BBC 2.
Murder on the Victorian Railway
Starring; Ben Addis, David Nellist, Robert Whitelock, Gary Oliver.
Directed by Chris Durlacher.
Written by Kate Colquhoun and Chris Durlacher.
Produced by Flavia Taylor.
Based on the book, Mr Brigg’s Hat by Kate Colquhoun, Murder on the Victorian Railway is a documentary drama that mixes narration with eye witness accounts of how, in July 1864 Thomas Briggs was murdered in the first class carriage of a train from Fenchurch Street Station (now Liverpool Street Station in London), and found dying on the tracks near Hackney Station, his intended destination.
Briggs was the first ever murder victim on a train. A national panic ensued and the documentary seeks to chart how this played out across the developing popular media and played upon fears surrounding, cities, new travel networks, immigration, new technology and how this affected the investigation and prosecution of crimes. The documentary illustrates the unique way the case highlighted intersecting fissures in Victorian society. Most critical among these, along class lines from the inaccessible first class carriages to the moral prejudices that discounted the evidence of a young woman that may, or may not have saved a man’s life.
Documentary drama, first broadcast on BBC2 in 2013.