Great Crimes and Trials
Great Crimes and Trials (sometimes titled Great Crimes and Trials of the Twentieth Century) is a 1993-1996 BBC documentary television series. The program uses archival material to reconstruct a renowned crime, examining the felon's motives, details of the crime, the investigations and the trial. Each episode is narrated by actor Robert Powell.[1][2]
| Great Crimes and Trials | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Documentary |
| Created by | Philip Nugus and Johnathan Martin (Nugus/Martin Productions LTD) |
| Starring | Robert Powell |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| No. of series | 3 |
| No. of episodes | 78 |
| Production | |
| Running time | 30 minutes |
| Release | |
| Original network | BBC2 |
| Original release | 2 November 1993 – 17 July 1996 |
Series 1 (1993)
| Number | Episode | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Lindbergh Baby Kidnapping | |
| 2 | Lucky Luciano | |
| 3 | Al Capone | |
| 4 | Son of Sam | |
| 5 | The Hillside Stranglers | |
| 6 | John Dillinger - Public Enemy No. 1 | |
| 7 | The Manson Family Murders | |
| 8 | The Jonestown Massacre | |
| 9 | The Green Beret Killings | |
| 10 | The Case of Dr. Sam Sheppard | |
| 11 | Neville Heath | |
| 12 | Ted Bundy | |
| 13 | Gary Gilmore | |
| 14 | The Trial of Adolf Eichmann | |
| 15 | John Gacy | |
| 16 | The Massacre of the Tsar and the Imperial family | |
| 17 | Dr. Crippen | |
| 18 | The Great Train Robbery | |
| 19 | The Boston Strangler | |
| 20 | Haigh the Acid Bath Murderer | |
| 21 | John Christie of Rillington Place | |
| 22 | The Black Panther | |
| 23 | Murph the Surf | |
| 24 | The Hammersmith Murders | |
| 25 | The McKay Kidnapping | |
| 26 | The Yorkshire Ripper | |
Series 2 (1994)
| Number | Episode | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Charles Starkweather | |
| 2 | Howard Hughes Biography Hoax | |
| 3 | Jean Harris | |
| 4 | The Kidnap of Patty Hearst | |
| 5 | Richard Speck | |
| 6 | Caryl Chessman | |
| 7 | Roberts, Duddy and Witney | |
| 8 | Jeremy Bamber | |
| 9 | Hitler and the Nuremberg Trials | |
| 10 | Stalin and the Massacre at Katyn Wood | |
| 11 | The Assassination of Gandhi | |
| 12 | The Assassination of Martin Luther King | |
| 13 | The Kennedy Assassination | |
| 14 | The A6 Murder | |
| 15 | Dennis Nilsen | |
| 16 | Charles Whitman | |
| 17 | US Brinks Robbery | |
| 18 | The Night Stalker | |
| 19 | The Rosenbergs | |
| 20 | Jimmy Hoffa | |
| 21 | Dan White | |
| 22 | Bonnie and Clyde | |
| 23 | Wayne Williams | |
| 24 | Alcatraz | Episode features the 1946 and 1962 escape attempts. |
| 25 | The Ku Klux Klan | |
| 26 | The New York Mafia Wars | |
Series 3 (1996)
Broadcasting
The series was originally broadcast on Tuesday afternoons on BBC2 in the United Kingdom[6] and in the United States on the A&E Network.[7] In the mid-late 2000s the program was repeated on weekdays in the United Kingdom on the Crime & Investigation Network.[8] The broadcast of series began on Russian TV-6 channel in the fall 2000.
Book
| Author | Paul Begg and Martin Fido |
|---|---|
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Genre | True Crime |
| Publisher | Carlton Books |
Publication date | December 1993 [9] |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover) |
| Pages | 224 |
| ISBN | 1-85868-016-6 |
| OCLC | 41900320 |
A book to accompany the series was published by Carlton Books in late 1993 written by Paul Begg and Martin Fido. Comprising twenty eight true crime cases, the book profiles twenty five of those from series one (omitting The Hammersmith Murders), one case which would later be profiled in series three (Bentley and Craig) and two that were never featured on the programme (The Krays and The Moors Murders).[10]
Home Media
Several collections of Great Crimes and Trials have been released to VHS and DVD. The first and second series were released on video by Columbia Tristar in 1997. The first series was released on DVD by Columbia Tristar in 2005,[11] and the third series was released on DVD by Network DVD in 2011.[2][12]
In the US, two collections were released by Sony as part of the "Sony Choice Collection" line of burn-on-demand DVD-R's in 2013.[7][13][14] Great Crimes And Trials Of The 20th Century, Volume 1: Gruesome California features six episodes on one disc of crimes that took place in California and Great Crimes And Trials Of The 20th Century, Volume 2: The Original Gangstas features five mob and gangster related episodes on one disc.[15][7]
References
- "Great Crimes and Trials". C21media.
- http://www.dvdcompare.net/review.php?rid=2418
- "Life for 'depraved' killer". 2 February 2001 – via news.bbc.co.uk.
- Alvarez, Lizette (21 June 1996). "Zodiac Suspect Obtained Gun-Making Materials Via Mail Order,Detectives Say" – via NYTimes.com.
- MARSHALL, LYNN; CART, JULIE (1 December 2001). "Arrest in Green River Murders" – via LA Times.
- "Search Results - BBC Genome". genome.ch.bbc.co.uk.
- "Great Crimes And Trials Of The 20th Century, Volume 2: The Original Gangstas". DVD Talk.
- "Great Crimes and Trials - TV Series - Crime And Investigation Network". 20 August 2007. Archived from the original on 20 August 2007.
- https://isbnsearch.org/isbn/1858680166
- Begg, Paul. and Fido, Martin (1993). Great Crimes and Trials of the Twentieth Century, p. 5. Carlton Books, London. ISBN 1858680166
- "Great Crimes And Trials Of The 20th Century: Series 1". 4 October 2004 – via Amazon.
- "..: Great Crimes And Trials of the 20th Century :." www.britishdrama.org.uk.
- "Great Crimes And Trials Of The 20th Century - Volume 1: Gruesome California - Sony Pictures". www.sonypictures.com.
- "Great Crimes And Trials Of The 20th Century - Volume 2: The Original Gangstas - Sony Pictures". www.sonypictures.com.
- "Great Crimes And Trials Of The 20th Century, Volume 1: Gruesome California". DVD Talk.
Cited works and further reading
- Begg, Paul; Fido, Martin (1994). Great Crimes and Trials of the Twentieth Century. Great Britain: Carlton Books Limited. ISBN 978-0-671-71876-3.
External links
- "The Great Crimes and Trials of the Twentieth Century". Nugus Martin. Production company's website with episode listings. Archived from the original on 4 July 2010.
- Crime & Investigation Network listing Archived from the original on 20 August 2007.
- IMDb