Catch up TV

Series 2: Episode 6

Top criminal barristers Sasha Wass and Jeremy Dein investigate the tragic case of a failed suicide pact in which a young woman died at the hands of her lover, who was subsequently convicted of murder.\n\nBirmingham, 1942. Married father of five Harold Merry left the lifeless body of his young lover, Joyce Dixon, floating face down in a pond. Just a few hours later, having returned home to his wife, Merry had been interrupted, with a cord around his neck, attempting to strangle himself.\n\nWhen questioned by police Merry explained that his ill-fated affair with Joyce began the previous year, but with their forbidden relationship in tatters, the pair entered a suicide pact. However, Merry failed to fulfil his promise to die alongside his lover.\n\nMerry was charged with murder and committed to stand trial. The question for the jury was whether this had been a genuine suicide pact. Did Merry kill Joyce? And if so, was he guilty of murder? Their verdict was unanimous: Merry was found guilty and subsequently hanged.\n\n76 years on, a family relation, Dr Martin Deahl, is anxious to learn the truth behind the case. Was the man he calls his uncle really a cold-blooded killer or the victim of a perfunctory judiciary, unsympathetic to the nuance of his situation at the height of Wold War II?\n\nJeremy and Sasha explore the couple’s state of mind and crime scene evidence. Can they find any evidence to convince a judge that a miscarriage of justice took place?

Source: BBC 1