I found one of the most interesting, but dismaying, cases in the new series of Murder by the Sea to be that of Miles Giffard. Giffard murdered his parents, Charles, 53, and Elizabeth, 56, at the family home in St Austell in 1952. Miles Giffard was 26 and something of a puzzle. He had played cricket for Cornwall and attended Rugby public school. However, that was virtually the pinnacle of his achievements. He had trained to be a solicitor (his […]
Talking about the Hammersmith murders of 1964-65 and my book The Hunt for the 60s’ Ripper on Shaun Attwood’s show last week, I was suddenly asked about Harold Shipman. Shaun has a lot of followers in the US, so I was attempting to outline who the chilling Shipman was. This came up because I wrote about a fascinating BBC documentary on the case for the Mirror’s We Love TV magazine last year. Here is the article on that shocking case […]
Danny Dyke was leading a double life. To mates and colleagues in the Swansea area he was an osteopath. A former rugby player for Rosslyn Park and Eastbourne before knee injuries cut his playing prospects short, he’d also had a spell as a physio for Neath and Aberavon rugby clubs. However, as revealed in CBS Reality’s Murder by the Sea, he wanted more. This led to his developing a dangerous sideline – that of a drug dealer with a sophisticated […]
CBS Reality’s Murder by the Sea returns for a sixth series on Tuesday (7 Sept, 10pm), with further engrossing accounts of notorious cases. I’ve been fascinated to be involved in several previous series and filmed contributions to five cases in the upcoming collection, although the research can be grim at times. However, the cases I was invited to talk about covered an intriguing range, from 1952 up to more modern murders. They include the case of a ‘family annihilator’ in […]
Just wanted to flag an interview I’ve done about The Hunt for the 60s’ Ripper for Crime Country, a new YouTube channel. It’s been launched by Nick Barksdale. He also runs the hugely popular Study of Antiquity and the Middle Ages channel on YouTube, which has 109,000 subscribers. We chat for around 45 minutes about the case of the West London serial killer who eluded Scotland Yard’s biggest ever manhunt in 1964-65. We talk about why the investigation failed and […]
Coming to BBC iPlayer this evening is this new four-part series. It uses contemporary experts to reinvestigate notorious cold cases to unearth possible clues to the killers’ identities. I am a contributor to one of the films, which explores the murder of showgirl Mamie Shotton, who went missing in 1920. Her body was found 41 years later in a cave on the Gower coastline. The ‘dark land’ referred to here is Wales because all the crimes occurred there. The first […]
I wrote a feature for the Mirror‘s We Love TV mag this week and wanted to flag up this series. It’s a three-part look at the appalling Harold Shipman case made by filmmaker Chris Wilson for BBC Two. It is 20 years since this family doctor was exposed as probably the worst serial murderer in modern times, but it’s hard to watch these films and still not be shocked today. This is a serious, well-made series of documentaries, sensitively speaking […]
As the second wave of coronavirus lockdown looms, we all need cheering, so ITV’s three nights devoted to a drama about serial killer Dennis Nilsen this week may be approached with trepidation. Nilsen was found guilty of murdering 15 boys and young men between 1978 and 1983. The case still has the power to dismay us, being a perplexing tale of loneliness and inexplicable horror. Most of the victims were not even missed. ITV’s series, starring David Tennant as Nilsen, […]
Vote for the episode of Murder by the Sea that you found most fascinating
Barbara Tate’s memoir West End Girls is a totally absorbing and revelatory memoir about the author’s two-year stint working as a maid for the Queen of Soho – aka 1940s prostitute Mae. It’s a remarkable glimpse at a lost Soho – grubby, still a residential neighbourhood with small businesses, seedy and with an air of criminality. Barbara is a wide-eyed 21-year-old who has escaped a miserable childhood and has ambitions to be an artist, when she is invited by Mae […]
Please take a look at my Substack – www.personsunkown.net – for in-depth features on true crime and non-fiction books on the subject 
