The last in a series of programmes about the truth behind some of the popular figures in British history.
Introduced by Magnus Magnusson
The real Captain Kidd was a merchant sea-captain, a man of property and an honoured citizen of New York. He was 50 when he was given the King's commission to hunt down pirates in the Indian Ocean. Two years later he died on the gallows in London, a convicted pirate himself.
Magnus Magnusson investigates the background to Kidd's fatal voyage. Was he guilty of piracy - or was his trial engineered at Westminster to suit the politicians of the day? And what happened to Kidd's treasure? Where is it and has it all been recovered?
(Next week: The Omega Factor - a new series in ten episodes)