An Eye for a Killing: 4. Anger on the Streets
Limelight
BBC
4.4 • 698 Ratings
🗓️ 28 April 2023
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Welcome to hell. The true story of Scotland’s notorious serial killers, Burke and Hare.
As Burke’s murder trial continues at the High Court, a rumour spreads on the streets that there has been a series of killings – and the man buying the bodies is the anatomist, Dr Robert Knox. An angry mob surrounds Knox’s house threatening to lynch the doctor.
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 Burke ….. Gavin Mitchell Hare ….. James Boal Sir William Rae ….. Stuart McQuarrie Galbraith ….. Andy Clark Robert Knox ….. Simon Donaldson Madgy Docherty ….. Maureen Carr Margaret Hare ….. Lucianne McEvoy John Fisher ….. Robert Jack Michael Campbell ….. James Rottger Lord Justice Clerk ….. Paul Young Other parts played by the cast.
Producer/director: Bruce Young
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, radio, podcasts. |
| 0:09.0 | This is an eye for a killing, the true story of Scotland's most notorious serial killers, Burke and Hare. |
| 0:19.0 | Episode 4, Anger on the streets. |
| 0:26.5 | It's Christmas Eve 1828. |
| 0:29.8 | William Burke and his partner, Helen McDougall, go on trial today at the High Court in Edinburgh |
| 0:34.3 | for the murder of a woman, Madji Docherty, whose body was found in a box. |
| 0:39.9 | What lies beneath the charge is a ten-month killing spree for cash. The Edinburgh mob doesn't know |
| 0:46.8 | the full details yet, that 16 people have been murdered and their bodies sold to an anatomist, |
| 0:52.7 | Dr Robert Knox. |
| 0:58.3 | But when they find out, they will try to exact justice of a kind. |
| 1:04.3 | Wear on my shoes. |
| 1:07.2 | I need my shoes now. |
| 1:13.2 | Sir William Ray, Scotland's Lord Advocate, the Chief Public chief public prosecutor, is in a foul mood at home. |
| 1:19.0 | Oh, the button's come off my sh-oh. Damn it. |
| 1:31.9 | In order to increase the odds of conviction, a decision is made to deal separately with the two mass murderers, William Hare and William Burke. |
| 1:38.9 | Hare, the younger of the two, has been offered immunity from prosecution if he testifies against Burke. |
| 1:41.5 | He will give evidence today. |
| 1:44.4 | But rumours on the street are spreading. |
| 1:47.8 | Fuck trial today! |
| 1:50.8 | Trial today! |
| 1:53.7 | There's a neighbour went drinking with him. |
| 1:56.8 | He came to and they were putting a pillow on his face. |
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