A pool of flickering gaslight etches out a macabre scene.

Mudied cobbles with blood-stained clothes shroud a lifeless form.

A police whistle blows and heavy hurried footsteps suddenly filled the blackness of the night.

Then, into the warm pool of gaslight steps a figure. Here is the supposedness of the night. Then, into the warm pool of gaslight steps a figure.

Here is the supposed hero of the hour, a man to whom legend will surround itself with literary ease.

You see, we've got a very specific set of contradictory ideas as to who the Victorian homicide detective

really was.

Sherlock Holmes, intelligent, mysterious, elite, or the opposite type of man.

An uncultured, bigoted, incompetent oaf.

The last person on earth you'd want to solve any crime, let alone a murder.

So in today's episode,

we're trying to piece together the truth behind the stereotypes. This is After Dark and we're asking what is the real history of the Victorian homicide detective?

Music of Hello everybody, I'm Maddie.

And I'm Anthony.

Now, hold on to your petticoats and your top hats or whatever your Victorian garb of choices.

Because we're off to the grimy streets of Victorian London once again.

This is a character stepping into the limelight that we have encountered countless times

after dark, the Victorian homicide detective.

Scotland Yards Detective Department, which emerged in the middle of the 19th century

and was the first police detective department in English history,

became iconic mostly through the works of writers like Sherlock Holmes, as we've just heard, Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins.

The idea that someone's job could be to investigate the most serious crimes was, and arguably still is, fascinating to the point where we often exaggerate

...