An Eye for a Killing: 2. The Lost Girl
Limelight
BBC
4.4 • 699 Ratings
🗓️ 28 April 2023
⏱️ 42 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Welcome to hell. The true story of Scotland’s notorious serial killers, Burke and Hare.
Mary Paterson is 18 when she meets William Burke in a drinking dive in Edinburgh’s Old Town in 1828. By the end of the day she will be dead and her body sold for £10 to one of the city’s leading anatomy teachers, Dr Robert Knox.
In the witness box at the High Court in Edinburgh William Hare is cross-examined on his knowledge of another murder. In fact, he has detailed knowledge of 16 murders because he’s one of the killers – but he can never be charged because the authorities have given him immunity.
Powerful five-part drama-documentary series from BBC Radio 4 with bonus scenes on BBC Sounds.
Written and dramatised by Colin MacDonald.
Narrator ….. Jack Lowden Mary Paterson ….. Helen Mackay William Hare ….. James Boal Burke ….. Gavin Mitchell Galbraith ….. Andy Clark Robert Knox ….. Simon Donaldson Henry Cockburn ….. Jimmy Chisholm David Paterson ….. Stuart McQuarrie Janet Brown ….. Nicola Roy Other parts played by the cast.
Producer/director: Bruce Young
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, radio, podcasts. |
| 0:09.3 | This is An Eye for a Killing, |
| 0:12.3 | the true story of Scotland's most notorious serial killers, Burke and Hair. |
| 0:19.9 | Episode 2, The Lost Girl. |
| 0:26.8 | It's Christmas Eve 1828. |
| 0:32.0 | It's night. |
| 0:33.5 | It's cold in the streets of Edinburgh. |
| 0:35.7 | But a crowd of people has braved the winter weather to stand outside the court buildings in the heart of the city's old town. |
| 0:43.4 | Inside, a murder trial has been underway since this morning. |
| 0:48.1 | It will continue all through the night. |
| 0:51.4 | In the High Court, William Burke and his partner Helen McDougall |
| 0:55.8 | are accused of the murder of an old woman, Maggi Docherty, |
| 1:00.0 | whose body was then stuffed in a box and sold to an anatomist. |
| 1:05.9 | On the packed public benches, people crane their necks to see a small man in the witness box. |
| 1:12.1 | His name is William Hare. |
| 1:15.5 | Although complicit in the murder, he has turned King's evidence and will not be charged with the crime. |
| 1:23.9 | His aim now is to protect his public image at all costs and send William Burke and Helen McDougall to the gallows. |
| 1:32.8 | Here is cross-examined by the eminent defence lawyer Henry Coburn, who represents McDougal. |
| 1:40.0 | The words come from the trial transcript of 1828. |
| 1:48.1 | Thank you. The words come from the trial transcript of 1828. Now, sir, I'm going to ask this question, which you need not answer, unless you please, |
| 1:54.4 | was this of the old woman the first murder that you have been concerned in? |
| 2:01.2 | Do you choose to answer or not to answer? |
... |
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