Murder, Mystery and My Family

Original version

BBC One Scotland

BBC One is a TV channel that started broadcasting on the 20th April 1964. It replaced BBC Television.

BBC One

BBC 1

BBC1

Scotland

Documentaries

Factual

Factual: Crime & Justice

Top criminal barristers Sasha Wass and Jeremy Dein reinvestigate historical cases.

Series 4

BBC Two

Simulcast of network BBC One in high definition. From 03/11/2010

BBC One HD

BBC One London

London

BBC One Yorks & Lincs

BBC One North West

BBC One Cambridgeshire

BBC One Channel Islands

Formerly part of a wider BBC One South East region that included London and part of the South region. Separated from BBC One London 2001-09-03 following reorganisation of the South East region.

BBC One South East

BBC One Wales

Wales

BBC Northern Ireland region started on 19th April 1955 as part of the BBC Television Service, before becoming BBC One Northern Ireland.

BBC One Northern Ireland

The BBC East region started on 1st May 1959 as part of the BBC Television Service, before becoming BBC One East.

BBC One East

Simulcast of BBC One Northern Ireland in high definition. From 24/10/2012

BBC One Northern Ireland HD

BBC One region covering Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire.

BBC One East Midlands

Simulcast of BBC One Scotland in high definition. From 14/01/2013

BBC One Scotland HD

The BBC South region started on 5th January 1961 as part of the BBC Television Service, before becoming BBC One South.

BBC One South

The BBC West region started on 1st September 1957 as part of the BBC Television Service, before becoming BBC One West.

BBC One West

Simulcast of BBC One Wales in high definition. From 29/01/2013

BBC One Wales HD

BBC One Yorkshire

BBC One West Midlands

BBC One Oxfordshire

The BBC North East & Cumbria region started in 1959 (tbc) as part of the BBC Television Service, before becoming BBC One North East & Cumbria.

BBC One North East & Cumbria

The BBC South West region started on 20th April 1961 as part of the BBC Television Service, before becoming BBC One South West.

BBC One South West

BBC Two England

England

Simulcast of network BBC Two in high definition.

BBC Two HD

BBC Two Northern Ireland

Simulcast of BBC Two Northern Ireland in high definition

BBC Two Northern Ireland HD

Simulcast of BBC Two Wales in high definition

BBC Two Wales HD

Until 03/01/2009 BBC Two Wales (analogue) was known simply as BBC Two Wales. BBC Two Wales (digital) was BBC 2W. From 03/01/2009 BBC Two Wales schedules on both analogue and digital became identical

BBC Two Wales

Sasha Wass

Jeremy Dein

James Pearson

Clare Wales

Mike Benson

Simon Cooper

Johanna Scammell

Michael Klokkos

Chalkboard TV

Murder, Mystery and My Family: Series 4: Bainbridge

Bainbridge

BBC One - Murder, Mystery and My Family, Series 4, Bainbridge

Sasha and Jeremy investigate a case of murder in County Durham in 1934.

Barristers Sasha Wass and Jeremy Dein examine the case of a young soldier who was convicted of murdering a family friend in County Durham in 1934.

Top criminal barristers Sasha Wass QC and Jeremy Dein QC re-examine the case of an off-duty soldier who was convicted of murdering a family friend on New Year’s Eve.  

Bishop Auckland, County Durham, 1934. Whilst the country was revelling on New Year’s Eve, a brutal murder was taking place in a suburban terraced house. Solicitor’s clerk Edward Frederick Herdman was at home when he was ferociously attacked with a fire poker and his throat slit with his own pocketknife. The motive seemed to be robbery. 

Police quickly tracked down a man who was known to have been in Herdman’s company earlier that day, 25-year-old family friend and soldier John Stephenson Bainbridge. Bainbridge had called at the house to ask Herdman to draw up a will amid rumours that his regiment was shortly to be stationed abroad. 

Bainbridge had recently been turned down for a loan and was known to be short of money, however on New Year’s Eve he was seen to be spending lavishly, including paying off the deposit on an engagement ring for his fiancée. 

Arrested on New Year’s Day, Bainbridge was charged with Herdman’s murder and stood trial at the Durham Assizes, desperately pleading his innocence. However, his refusal to name a mysterious married woman who he said had given him the money he’d been spending on New Year’s Eve meant that Bainbridge was found guilty, and on 9 May 1935, despite thousands of protesters gathering outside Durham Prison, Bainbridge was hanged.  

Now, two generations on, John’s relative Louise Bainbridge has recently learned about this chapter in her family history and has enlisted the barristers to examine the case in greater detail. The case against John Stephenson Bainbridge relied on circumstantial evidence, and Sasha and Jeremy consider the motive, the crime scene and critical handwriting evidence to try to establish whether Bainbridge’s conviction might have been unsafe.

Murder, Mystery and My Family: Series 4

Jeremy Dein and Sasha Wass re-examine historic murder cases

Top criminal barristers Sasha Wass and Jeremy Dein re-examine historic murder cases which may have been miscarriages of justice to provide answers for the family of the convicted.

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Murder, Mystery and My Family

Series 4

Bainbridge

Contributors

Genres

Formats

Brand

Series

BBC One Scotland

About BBC One