102. The Blackout Ripper
Murder They Wrote with Laura Whitmore and Iain Stirling
BBC
4.3 • 922 Ratings
🗓️ 19 January 2026
⏱️ 41 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In February 1942, in the midst of the WW2 blackouts, four women are found brutally murdered in their homes. Laura explores whether the crimes are linked. And, if so, who was behind them?
Murder They Wrote with Laura Whitmore and Iain Stirling is available twice a week on BBC Sounds. Subscribe now so you never miss an episode. Email us at lauraandiain@bbc.co.uk
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts. |
| 0:06.4 | If you like this... |
| 0:07.8 | What you're telling me? You're a traitor. |
| 0:09.9 | Yes, we're in there. |
| 0:11.6 | Then you'll love the final week of The Traitors Uncloked. |
| 0:14.6 | We'll get to see how the final few faithful react |
| 0:16.8 | when they find out who the traitors are. |
| 0:18.8 | And we'll chat to celebrity fans |
| 0:20.2 | to hear their theories on what's going to happen next. It's fun to not are and we'll chat to celebrity fans to hear their theories |
| 0:21.2 | on what's going to happen next. It's fun to not know and it's fun to be confused as well. |
| 0:25.7 | See and hear it all in the nail biting last week of the traitors uncloked. The official |
| 0:30.0 | visualised companion podcast with me, Ed Gamble. Watch on Eye Player, listen for more on BBC |
| 0:35.3 | Sounds. Hi guys, just a note to say that this episode will contain descriptions of crime scenes from the start and throughout. |
| 0:41.3 | So listener caution is advised. |
| 0:44.2 | It's the morning of the 9th of February, 1942. |
| 0:47.6 | We're on Montague Place a street in West London. |
| 0:50.3 | The time is 8am and an electrician called Harold Bachelor is heading to work. |
| 0:55.3 | As Harold walks, he can feel the city coming back to life after the darkness of the night before. |
| 1:01.1 | This is London, 1942. The country is in the middle of war and mandatory nightly blackouts are enforced by law. |
| 1:09.7 | Street lights are switched off at the mains, blackout curtains are obligatory, |
| 1:12.9 | and vehicle headlights are reduced to just a thin sliver of light. |
| 1:17.3 | It's hard to imagine now when you think of the sprawling sea of lights that is London, |
... |
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