Leading criminal barristers Sasha Wass and Jeremy Dein investigate their oldest case yet, the murder of a female canal boat passenger 180 years ago, for which boatmen were convicted and publicly hanged in front of 10,000 spectators.\n\nRugely, Staffordshire, 1839. At dawn on a summer morning, labourers pull the lifeless body of 37-year-old Christina Collins from the Trent and Mersey Canal. She had drowned. Christina had been the sole passenger of a narrow boat, and within an hour the crew were in custody, most of them still drunk from the whisky they had stolen from their cargo hold. They claimed Christina had committed suicide.\n\nAn initial trial cleared the men of rape, but before a murder charge could be considered, the proceedings were halted. At a second trial eight months later, without the boatmen's conflicting accounts being presented to the jury, three men including 27-year-old George Thomas were convicted of Christina's murder and sentenced to death.\n\nNow, 180 years on, George Thomas's relatives Jeanette and Patricia are convinced of his innocence and have called upon Sacha and Jeremy to see if they can shed new light on the unusual situation of the two trials. Exploring questions of character, forensic evidence and legal history, can the barristers find enough new evidence to convince a judge that George Thomas was wrongly convicted?
Source: BBC 1
Series 4: 8. Dainton
Leading barristers Jeremy Dein QC and Sasha Wass QC examine the drowning of a wife and mother in Victorian Bath, re-evaluating the chain of evidence that led to the conviction o ...
26-06-2025
BBC 1
Series 4: 9. Brown
Top criminal barristers Sasha Wass QC and Jeremy Dein QC re-examine an infamous case of a housewife accused of murdering her young husband. She became the last woman to be publi ...
25-06-2025
BBC 1
Series 4: 7. Read
Top criminal barristers Jeremy Dein QC and Sasha Wass QC re-examine their oldest case yet - the murder of a military veteran by his estranged wife nearly 200 years ago.\n\nLeice ...
24-06-2025
BBC 1
Series 4: 10. Shaw
Leading criminal barristers Sasha Wass QC and Jeremy Dein QC investigate their first Scottish case, the murder of a reclusive pensioner nearly 70 years ago. Two men stood trial, ...
23-06-2025
BBC 1
Series 4: 6. Staunton
Top criminal barristers Jeremy Dein QC and Sasha Wass QC re-examine the complex case against a Victorian auctioneer accused, alongside his brother and two others, of murdering h ...
06-06-2025
BBC 1
Series 4: 5. Dumbleton
Top criminal barristers Jeremy Dein QC and Sasha Wass QC re-examine the case against a young farm labourer convicted of the brutal murder of a travelling watch repairman in 1880 ...
05-06-2025
BBC 1
Series 4: 4. Lowson
Leading criminal barristers Sasha Wass QC and Jeremy Dein QC re-examine a brutal murder of a policeman. Three men were tried for the crime, but only one was hanged. \n\nButterkn ...
04-06-2025
BBC 1
Series 4: 3. Fg Browne
Top criminal barristers Sasha Wass QC and Jeremy Dein QC re-examine a notorious murder of a policeman that led to the execution of two known criminals. \n\nEssex, 1927. On a qui ...
03-06-2025
BBC 1
Series 4: 2. Bainbridge
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. \n\n ...
02-06-2025
BBC 1
Series 4: 1. Maybrick
Leading criminal barristers Sasha Wass QC and Jeremy Dein QC re-examine an infamous Victorian poisoning case in which a wife was convicted of the murder of her husband. \n\nLive ...
28-05-2025
BBC 1
Series 3: Episode 8
Barristers Sasha Wass and Jeremy Dein investigate whether the murder of a gentleman farmer in the late Victorian era was really carried out by a 19-year-old rabbit poacher.\n\nS ...
07-03-2024
BBC 1
Series 4: 7. Read
Top criminal barristers Jeremy Dein QC and Sasha Wass QC re-examine their oldest case yet - the murder of a military veteran by his estranged wife nearly 200 years ago.\n\nLeice ...
24-06-2025
BBC 1
Series 4: 8. Dainton
Leading barristers Jeremy Dein QC and Sasha Wass QC examine the drowning of a wife and mother in Victorian Bath, re-evaluating the chain of evidence that led to the conviction o ...
26-06-2025
BBC 1
Series 2: Episode 5
Top criminal barristers Sasha Wass and Jeremy Dein investigate the murder of a young lady found partially naked, lying in an alley known as a local ‘lovers lane’.\n\ ...
04-05-2022
BBC 1
Series 5: 6. Fox
Leading criminal barristers Jeremy Dein QC and Sasha Wass QC reinvestigate a case of matricide dating from the 1920s, in which a renowned fraudster went to the gallows accused o ...
06-10-2023
BBC 1
Series 2: Episode 2
Barristers Sasha Wass and Jeremy Dein reinvestigate the brutal killing of a young German woman at the hands of her Cypriot mother-in-law.\n\nHampstead, July 1954. In the middle ...
16-03-2022
BBC 1
Series 3: Episode 1
Leading criminal barristers Sasha Wass and Jeremy Dein investigate their oldest case yet, the murder of a female canal boat passenger 180 years ago, for which boatmen were convi ...
04-03-2024
BBC 1
Case Closed? Series 2: 1. Seddon
Leading criminal barristers Sasha Wass and Jeremy Dein return to their investigation of a notorious poisoning from 1911, when a wealthy lodger suddenly died. Did the landlord ha ...
13-02-2023
BBC 1
Case Closed?: Episode 3
Top barristers Sasha Wass and Jeremy Dein look back at their investigation of the murders of two policemen in the 1950s and the mysterious case, conviction and execution of Alfr ...
14-06-2023
BBC 1
Series 3: Episode 9
Leading criminal barristers Sasha Wass and Jeremy Dein investigate the fatal poisoning of a 49-year-old wealthy lodger at a family mansion.\n\nLondon, 1911. Insurance salesman F ...
08-03-2024
BBC 1