A Fatal Punch: Why I Met the Parents of the Man I Killed (Jacob Dunne)
Radical with Amol Rajan
BBC
4.5 • 919 Ratings
🗓️ 16 October 2025
⏱️ 103 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Whilst on a night out in the summer of 2011, Jacob Dunne made a split second decision to throw a punch that killed James Hodgkinson.
After being convicted of manslaughter, Jacob spent 14 months in prison during which time James’ parents contacted him to get answers about their son’s death. A dialogue began between them and when Jacob was released, Joan and David asked a question that he says saved him: “What are you going do with your life?”
That led to him doing his GCSE’s and getting a degree, and with James’ parents he now campaigns for criminal justice reform to improve the experience of victims and reduce reoffending.
Amol and Jacob go into extraordinary detail about his tough upbringing in Nottingham, what happened on that fateful night in 2011, and how – through his relationship with Joan and David - Jacob turned his life around.
They also discuss knife crime and why he thinks building stronger relationships is the solution to ending the cycle of violence in some of the most deprived areas of the UK.
His story is the subject of a West End play called Punch by James Graham and an award-winning BBC Radio 4 Series, which you can listen to here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000l0jr
(00:04:00) What is restorative justice?
(00:14:00) Growing up in Nottingham
(00:26:44) The punch
(00:47:00) Time in prison
(00:56:20) Life after prison
(01:05:00) Meeting James' parents
(01:22:40) The future
(01:31:00) Amol’s reflections
(01:36:14) Listener messages
GET IN TOUCH * WhatsApp: 0330 123 9480 * Email: radical@bbc.co.uk Episodes of Radical with Amol Rajan are released every Thursday and you can also watch them on BBC iPlayer: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/m002f1d0/radical-with-amol-rajan Amol Rajan is a presenter of the Today programme on BBC Radio 4. He is also the host of University Challenge on BBC One. Before that, Amol was media editor at the BBC and editor at The Independent.
Radical with Amol Rajan is a Today Podcast. It was made by Lewis Vickers with Anna Budd. Digital production was by Gabriel Purcell-Davis. Technical production was by James Piper. The editor is Sam Bonham. The executive producer is Owenna Griffiths.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts. |
| 0:05.6 | Hello and welcome to Radical. |
| 0:08.6 | I should say right up front that what you're about to hear was genuinely one of the most extraordinary, one of the most revealing, and I think one of the most important interviews that I have ever done, because our guest on this |
| 0:21.5 | week's episode killed someone. He did so with a single punch and he did so in an unprovoked attack. |
| 0:28.8 | Jacob Dunn served 14 months of a two and a half year sentence for the manslaughter of James |
| 0:35.0 | Hodgkinson in July 2011. And we talk in real extraordinary detail, |
| 0:40.3 | actually, about Jacob's tough upbringing in Nottingham, about gang culture, about life on the |
| 0:45.5 | estate, about the honour code that operated there. We also talk, of course, about that fateful |
| 0:51.1 | night when he threw a punch which he fears may define the rest of his life. |
| 0:57.3 | We also talk about the redemptive story, an amazing journey that he has been on since that punch, |
| 1:02.7 | from the depths of grief and guilt and despair through a horrendously difficult time in prison, |
| 1:09.2 | to something much, much better, which is where he is now. Fatherhood, campaigning, and above all, perhaps, working with the parents of the man he killed to argue for a fundamentally different approach to justice in our country and in our time. |
| 1:43.3 | Jacob, it is really great to meet you. And it's especially great to meet you because I've seen the play. |
| 1:47.7 | I've heard the Radio 4 series. |
| 1:49.1 | And by the way, let's just get this out of the way. |
| 1:51.6 | It all comes. |
| 1:52.6 | The fact that you're here now, well, there's a real world event which will come to, |
| 1:56.2 | but it was a Radio 4 series, which I just could not stop listening to a few years ago, commissioned |
| 2:01.6 | by the now controller of Radio 4, Mohit Bacaya. |
| 2:04.9 | And the play which is on, lots of people have seen, it's called Punch, written by James |
| 2:09.7 | Graham, comes from that Radio 4 series, doesn't it? |
| 2:11.6 | Yeah, yeah. |
... |
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