Murder Trial: The Killing Of Dr Brenda Page (BBC2)
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The alarming reality of The Traitors, which reaches its nerve-jangling climax on BBC1 tonight, is that we all think we can spot a liar — and we can’t.
Most of the accusations and detective work on this gothic reality show have been no better than guesswork. And that has serious implications, not least for our legal system.
For hundreds of years, the assumption in our courts has been that, by weighing the evidence and paying diligent attention to the statements of witnesses and defendants, a jury will be able to determine who is telling the truth.
But if the deliberations in a jury room are anything like the confused, fraught debates at the round table in The Traitors, then the scales of justice might be no more accurate than the toss of a coin.
Screened over two nights, Murder Trial: The Killing Of Dr Brenda Page (BBC2), filmed mostly in the Aberdeen high court, has invited us to test our own instincts, in a case that took nearly 50 years to be resolved.
Brenda Page and Christopher Harrisson met in 1971
Detective Sergeant, Vanessa Renne
Prosecutor Alex Prentice KC
The head of Aberdeen University’s genetics department, Dr Page was found beaten to death in the bedroom of her rented flat.
She was 32, and divorced from a man she claimed was violent and emotionally abusive. In the days and weeks before her murder, she voiced her fears to multiple people that her ex-husband, Dr Christopher Harrisson, wanted to kill her.
Harrisson was questioned after her death but released, for lack of evidence. Many people believed Dr Page could have been killed by an unknown assailant: she was working as an escort to supplement her income, providing company and a sympathetic ear to men who worked on the North Sea oil rigs.
The fascination of this two-part documentary was to watch 82-year-old Harrisson’s face. Mostly, he was impassive, sometimes frowning as he took notes.
He appeared to show little reaction as details of his ex-wife’s appalling injuries were shown — she was struck more than 20 times on the head with a blunt instrument.
Police mugshot of Christopher Harrisson from 1978
Christopher Harrisson, now 82, had denied murdering his former wife
Even when the guilty verdict was returned, there was no flicker of shame or remorse. But at moments, he seemed to be lost in his thoughts, with an expression of what looked like regret. Was he wishing that he could have controlled his murderous temper, or simply feeling self-pity?
In the dock, as he tried to laugh off the prosecuting barrister’s questions, he appeared cold-hearted, a born deceiver. And in excerpts from a police interview in 2020, he contradicted himself.
But my faith in my ability to spot a liar, at least on screen, has been shaken to the core by The Traitors. I don’t know what to believe any more.
Both sides were still entrenched in their versions of the truth, 40 years after an industrial dispute that bordered on civil war, in The Miners’ Strike 1984: The Battle For Britain (Ch4).
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Cop who clashed with miners at the 1984 Battle Of Orgreave reveals how police tactic was to disable people by aiming for arms and legs
This opening episode in a three-part documentary focused on the divided workers and their families at the Derbyshire pit town of Shirebrook
Shirebrook miners voted against the strike — and their democratic choice was over-ruled by the union
This opening episode in a three-part documentary focused on the divided workers and their families at the Derbyshire pit town of Shirebrook — with no contribution from former police or politicians.
We heard from wives and children who shrieked abuse at the strikebreakers, with no mention of Arthur Scargill’s flying pickets, militants brought in from miles away to bolster the battle lines.
Most of those interviewed were hardcore strikers, proud of their defiance.
One opponent, though uneasy at the prospect of opening old wounds, did stand his ground: Roland Taylor, the first to cross the picket lines, reminded us that the Shirebrook miners voted against the strike — and their democratic choice was over-ruled by the union.
By that definition, he was one of the original Faithfuls.