Lord Lucan has been missing for 50 years

On the night of seven November 1974, aristocrat Lord Lucan fled his Belgravia house after bludgeoning his kids’s nanny, 29-year-old Sandra Rivett, to demise. His whereabouts have been the topic of fascinated gossip ever since. Nearly 50 years to the day since that fateful night time, the primary episode of BBC docuseries Lucan re-examines the case by way of a brand new protagonist: a builder referred to as Neil Berriman, Sandra’s organic son. After years of digging, he thought he had lastly tracked down his mom’s assassin.

Though Neil has at all times identified he was adopted, it was solely as an grownup that he found his delivery mom’s identification and commenced the investigation that may outline his life. In an envelope left to him by his adopted mum, he discovered his delivery certificates, a letter from the adoption company and a newspaper article about Lord Lucan – it didn’t take Neil lengthy to piece the puzzle collectively.

Understandably, the realisation heralded one thing of a fixation: as he places it, “The probabilities of you being adopted and discovering out your actual mom is likely one of the largest homicide mysteries of all time – it’s unbelievable.” And whereas the prevailing police principle is that the homicide was a case of mistaken identification (that Lucan meant to kill his spouse Veronica as an alternative) Neil isn’t so positive.

However first issues first. Setting the scene, associates of Lucan and specialists within the case paint an image of a flawed man, a compulsive gambler who fell aside when he misplaced custody of his kids after a bitter divorce. “He did develop into obsessional and he was stalking [Veronica],” says Laura Thompson, writer of A Totally different Class of Homicide: The Story of Lord Lucan, of the weeks main as much as the incident. “It was actually the tip.”

Whereas Lucan has been “noticed” numerous instances over time, no official affirmation of his whereabouts has ever surfaced. In 1999, he was declared legally lifeless, and a demise certificates was issued in 2016. However the documentary gives tantalising clues that there would possibly nonetheless be loads to find. We meet Marianne Robey, who labored for certainly one of Lucan’s shut associates in 1979 and who claims to have organised a go to to Africa for the Lucan kids after their father disappeared, and heard about an tackle ebook from the late 70s itemizing an tackle for Lucan in Mozambique.

A cocktail of cash and melodrama, the glamour of Lucan and his troubled marriage have traditionally eclipsed the story’s true tragedy. The primary episode of Lucan rights that improper by talking to individuals who knew Rivett in addition to her killer. John Dankins, her boyfriend on the time of her demise, wells up as he remembers Rivett as humorous, light and robust; it’s heartbreaking to think about a life reduce so brief.

For Neil, that heartbreak feels each distant and nearer to house. “Even watching a reconstruction is horrendous,” he explains. “I’ve obtained no large reference to Sandra so once I see one thing on the display […] that’s my mum.” Think about if the worst factor that ever occurred to you was the topic of countless commentary and dramatisations – and that but by some means, you’d by no means met any of the folks concerned.

“I’m no detective, however you don’t actually must be,” says Neil. “I’m so tenacious, I received’t let something lie.” However the toll of that tenacity on Neil and his household is evident. “It’s good having a mission in life, however not on the expense of your individual,” says his accomplice Kim. “He’s pushing himself, his personal psychological well being, however for what function?”

I’m rapt by the Cluedo-esque story of the Earl within the basement with the lead pipe – simply because the nation has been for 50 years. However Neil’s all-too-human seek for solutions is much more scintillating. The twin give attention to each a excessive society chilly case and the person consumed by it makes for extraordinary viewing. It is a story that may change the best way you consider tales altogether.

‘Lucan’ continues tomorrow at 9pm on BBC Two