Lady Killers with Lucy Worsley

Lucy Worsley is back with a new series where courtroom drama meets history…with a twist. In Lady on Trial we hear the voices of women from the past who end up in court charged with everything from murder, adultery and theft to civil disobedience. And Lucy is asking if their true crime could have been to be born female?
Lucy is also telling the story of the fight for legal rights for women over three centuries, and wondering what still needs to be done for women to achieve true equality under the law.
In this episode, Lucy is exploring the extraordinary case of Elizabeth Chudleigh, maid of honour to the Princess of Wales and one of the 18th century’s most glittering and notorious celebrities. But at the age of 24 Elizabeth makes an impetuous, secret marriage which will haunt her for the rest of her life, and eventually land her in the dock in front of all 116 members of the House of Lords. She’s on trial for bigamy, a crime which potentially carries the death sentence.

Lucy wants to know how Elizabeth Chudleigh ended up on trial in the House of Lords. And what can her story tell us about marriage for women in 18th century Britain - and indeed, what can it tell us about women’s lives today?
With Lucy to find out more about the case of Elizabeth Chudleigh is Baroness Helena Kennedy, one of the UK’s leading barristers and a member of the House of Lords since 1997. She’s also joined by Catherine Ostler, Elizabeth Chudleigh’s biographer.

Together they explore Elizabeth’s extraordinary and unconventional life, and how the uncertainty of Elizabeth’s marital status led to the legal codifying of marriage which remains largely in place today.

Producer: Jane Greenwood
Readers: Clare Corbett, William Hope, Jonathan Keeble and Ruth Sillers
Historical consultant: Catherine Ostler
Head of Production: Claire Myers
Sound design: Chris Maclean
Senior producer: Julia Hayball
Executive producer: Kirsty Hunter

A StoryHunter production for BBC Radio 4

Lucy Worsley presents a brand new series – Lady on Trial, where courtroom drama meets history with a twist. Lucy and her team of all female detectives explore the lives of women involved in some of history’s most famous – and infamous – legal battles. Women who face the law head-on and don't always play by its rules.
This time, Lucy is joined by the Baroness Hale of Richmond, first female president of the UK Supreme Court, to uncover the extraordinary story of Caroline Norton – a celebrated writer and socialite, accused of adultery with the British Prime Minister in a scandalous ‘Criminal Conversation’ trial in 1836. The courtroom is packed to the rafters, her private life scrutinised in excruciating detail, but Caroline cannot attend, give evidence or fight her corner.
Socially ostracised and denied the right to see her three sons for years on end, Caroline channels her personal experience of injustice into a remarkable campaign to change the law on the custody of children. Her fearless activism also contributes to the dismantling of coverture, the common law doctrine that meant women had no legal existence of their own after marriage. They were completely subsumed or ‘covered’ by their husbands’.
Lucy and Lady Hale look at family law today, thinking about what has changed and what could still be improved, especially for children when a relationship breaks down. Caroline Norton never calls herself a feminist, and they reflect on why that might be and the true meaning of feminism in the present day.
Professor Rosalind Crone from The Open University sets Caroline’s case within the wider context of married life in 19th century Britain and explains how women used their ingenuity to beat the system wherever possible.
Producer: Sarah Goodman
Readers: Clare Corbett, William Hope, Jonathan Keeble and Ruth Sillers
Historical consultant: Professor Rosalind Crone
Head of Production: Claire Myers
Sound design: Chris Maclean
Senior Producer: Julia Hayball
Executive Producer: Kirsty Hunter

A StoryHunter production for BBC Radio 4

Welcome to a new series of Lady Killers with Lucy Worsley – Lady on Trial - where courtroom drama meets history, with a twist. We’ll be meeting women from the past hauled before the courts for crimes from murder, adultery and bigamy to the shocking offence of not knowing their place.

In the final episode of the series, Lucy Worsley puts true crime itself on trial. Why are we so fascinated by stories of murder, violence, and scandal and was it ever thus? Is true crime guilty of sensationalism and stereotyping, or can it reveal something more profound about society, culture, and ourselves?
Lucy is joined by her all-female team of detectives, in-house historian Professor Rosalind Crone and guest detective Hannah Maguire, co-host of the hit podcast RedHanded. Together they examine the long history of true crime as entertainment, asking whether today’s podcasts, documentaries, and social media sleuthing are really so different from the pamphlets, broadsides, waxworks, and tabloid stories of the past.
The episode revisits three notorious cases. Martha Brown, executed in 1856 for killing her abusive husband, whose fate drew public sympathy and inspired Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the d’Urbervilles. Mary Pearcy, convicted in 1890 of the brutal murder of her lover’s wife and baby, whose trial and execution became a Victorian media sensation. And Elvira Barney, the glamorous socialite who in 1932 shot her lover and walked free, the tabloids feasting on every detail of her privileged world.
Through these stories, Lucy, Ros and Hannah explore how women have been represented in true crime narratives, and how gendered assumptions about violence and morality have shaped the way female offenders are portrayed. They also consider why audiences, past and present, are drawn to these tales, and whether our hunger for crime stories reflects fear, fascination, or the thrill of playing detective from the safety of our own homes.
Producer: Riham Moussa
Readers: Clare Corbett, Moya Angela, Jonathan Keeble and Ruth Sillers
Sound Design: Chris Maclean
Executive Producer: Kirsty Hunter
A StoryHunter production for BBC Radio 4.

Lucy Worsley meets Kitty Newton, a daughter accused of killing her very own mother. With her team of all female detectives, Lucy uncovers long buried secrets in the Newton family - but could these truly be the motive for such a terrible crime?
Would a daughter really kill her very own mother? If so, why?
It is 1848, in the chill depths of winter. In the early hours of the morning a servant, Mary Corfield, stumbles upon a grisly discovery - the lifeless, charred body of an elderly lady, Ann Newton. At first sight the death looks suspicious, and the woman’s daughter, Kitty Newton, is arrested on the spot.
In this episode, historian Professor Rosalind Crone heads to the market town of Bridgnorth in Shropshire to visit the scene of the alleged crime. She also goes to Bridgnorth Town Hall where an inquest into the death of Ann Newton took place.
Back in the studio, Lucy is joined by crime writer Dorothy Koomson, author of The Ice Cream Girls and All My Lies are True. She’s known for her sharp insights into the tangled dynamics between mothers and daughters, vital skills to help examine this sinister case.
Together, Lucy, Ros and Dorothy piece together the clues and the possible means, motive and opportunity.
Was the fire that killed Ann Newton a terrible accident or was it set by her daughter?
Producer: Emily Hughes
Readers: Clare Corbett, Jonathan Keeble, Ruth Sillers and Bill Hope
Sound Design: Chris Maclean
Executive Producer: Kirsty Hunter
A StoryHunter production for BBC Radio 4