James and John: A True Story of Prejudice and Murder

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James and John: A True Story of Prejudice and Murder: Episode 4 - The Trial

James and John: A True Story of Prejudice and Murder by Chris Bryant

Episode 4 - The Trial

BBC Radio 4 - James and John: A True Story of Prejudice and Murder, Episode 4 - The Trial

James and John have been caught together, arrested and imprisoned. Now they await trial.

The moment they were caught together James Pratt and John Smith’s lives changed. They were immediately arrested, and now, in Newgate, the bleakest of prisons, they await trial.

Read by Simon Russell Beale. Historian and MP Chris Bryant’s book takes us to the early 19th Century,  when despite great political and social change and reform, British attitudes to homosexuality were more antagonistic than ever, and in 1835 two consenting adults, James Pratt and John Smith, became the last men in Britain to be hanged for sodomy. They were working class men whose poverty and lack of privacy led directly to their discovery and arrest and, despite a desperate campaign to save them, resulted in one of the great legal injustices of the time.

Simon Russell Beale is a multi-award winning actor - he has received two BAFTAs, three Olivier Awards and a Tony Award - and was knighted for his services to drama. 


Read by ..... Simon Russell Beale
Abridged by .... Julian Wilkinson
Produced by .... Allegra McIlroy

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Chris Bryant tell the story of what it meant to be gay in early 19th-century Britain.

Book of the Week. Through the lens of a landmark trial, Chris Bryant scours public and private records to tell the story of what it meant to be gay in early 19th-century Britain.

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James and John: A True Story of Prejudice and Murder

Episode 4 - The Trial

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