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Voices from the Old Bailey

Documentaries

Factual: History

Factual: Crime & Justice

Amanda Vickery presents dramatised extracts from 18th-century Old Bailey court cases

Professor Amanda Vickery presents dramatised extracts from gripping Old Bailey court cases from the 18th century and discusses with fellow historians what they reveal about the period

Voices from the Old Bailey: Series 1

Voices from the Old Bailey: Series 1: Episode 4: Conmen and a Brawl in the Streets

Drama: Historical

Conmen and a Brawl in the Streets

Episode 4

Episode 4: Conmen and a Brawl in the Streets

Series 1

BBC Radio 4 - Voices from the Old Bailey, Series 1, Conmen and a Brawl in the Streets

Amanda Vickery listens to the voices of conmen and street fighters in the 18th century.

Professor Amanda Vickery discusses 18th-century conmen and asks what they reveal about appearance, identity and social mobility in the growing city of London.

Professor Amanda Vickery presents dramatised extracts from gripping court cases and discusses with fellow historians what they reveal about 18th century society and culture. 

She discusses conmen, and asks what they reveal about appearance, identity and social mobility in the growing city of London, Europe's first metropolis. 

The Old Bailey was a theatre in which high and low both played starring roles. This episode's cases mix the greatest writers and artists of the time - Dr Johnson, Joshua Reynolds - with ballad singers, beggars, prostitutes and fraudulent vicars. There is comedy as well as pathos in these cases. 

With historians Hannah Grieg, Peter King and Judith Hawley. Recorded on location in Joshua Reynolds' house in Soho.

Producer: Elizabeth Burke
A Loftus production for BBC Radio 4.

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Voices from the Old Bailey

Series 1

Episode 4: Conmen and a Brawl in the Streets

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