The Only Prime Minister Ever Assassinated
After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds & the Paranormal
History Hit
4.7 • 2.1K Ratings
🗓️ 1 December 2025
⏱️ 46 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Was this moment the closest Britain came to revolution? When Prime Minister Spencer Perceval lay dying on the floor of the Parliament, many feared it was the start of bloody revolt. We discover the assassin, John Bellingham, and what drove him to commit murder.
Edited by Tim Arstall. Produced by Freddy Chick.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | We should do an ASMR episode. |
| 0:02.4 | He's like, shut up. |
| 0:03.6 | We need to do something real. |
| 0:06.4 | Yeah, maybe not the assassination of a Prime Minister. |
| 0:14.0 | Let's go back a few hours from that moment when the pistol was shot. |
| 0:20.2 | Earlier that afternoon, while the British Prime Minister was pouring over plans to defeat Napoleon, |
| 0:25.6 | our assassin, John Bellingham, went to an art gallery with his landlady and her son. |
| 0:31.6 | One of the paintings on display showed the defeat of the Spanish Armada some 200 years before. It's a scene of chaos, |
| 0:41.4 | flames, smoke and glory. Bellingham gazes at it beside his landlady and her boy, an outwardly |
| 0:48.4 | respectable man, though with a troubled mind, and a coat jacket that bulged from where two |
| 0:53.8 | pistols were sewn inside. |
| 0:56.7 | He says goodbye to his landlady and the child and heads off on the short walk to the houses |
| 1:02.1 | of Parliament. All the trouble and chaos, the flames and glory trapped in Bellingham's mind, |
| 1:08.4 | are about to explode. |
| 1:22.4 | On the 11th of May, 1812, Prime Minister Spencer Percival was shot in the houses of Parliament at point-blank range. |
| 1:29.2 | He died in a pool of blood on the floor. The assassin was John Bellingham, a man who held a deep grudge against the government and believed he had the right to exact vengeance. |
| 1:33.9 | For some, Bellingham was an instant hero. |
| 1:37.7 | To the authorities, he was a harbinger of bloody doom. |
| 1:42.4 | Welcome to After Dark. |
| 1:44.1 | This is the story of the only time a British Prime Minister of bloody doom. Welcome to After Dark. |
| 1:50.2 | This is the story of the only time a British Prime Minister has been assassinated. Music We are back in our happy |
| 2:07.5 | We are back in our happy place. Well, my happy place. It's 1812. And I like it too. |
... |
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