Greene kills off the Golden Age of Murder Fiction

Dr Lucy Worsley

‘The Golden Age’ was broadcast on Monday 7th October 2013, and is the third in a series of three programmes televised on BBC4 and titled A Very British Murder with Lucy Worsley.

 

In this final programme the historian Dr Lucy Worsley tells the story of one of the first high-profile killers, Dr Crippen, who was hanged in 1910 for poisoning and dismembering his wife. Then she turns her attention to the interwar period, when detective fiction reached the peak of its popularity at the hands of authors Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers. After undergoing the elaborate initiation ceremony of the Detection Club, which was set up by a group of British writers in 1930, Dr Worsley considers how Alfred Hitchcock's films and Graham Greene's novels eclipsed the traditional murder-mystery story in the depiction of homicide.

 

She suggests that Greene’s Brighton Rock is ‘a new kind of novel with the emphasis off the detective and onto the murderer himself’. Comparing Greene’s settings to those of Christie or Sayers, she argues: ‘We are in a very different environment. The story of Brighton Rock takes place in tea-rooms and pubs and amusement arcades. The murder happens in a public toilet. It’s a long way from the rarefied country houses of the classic golden age detective novels. Graham Greene loves taking us into the sleazy underbelly behind the shiny ships and the hotels of the Brighton sea front.’ She concludes that, like Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins and the writers of melodramas, ballads and broadsides, Graham Greene tapped into a significant strand in the national psyche, a very British relish for murder as presented in fiction.

In her review of ‘The Golden Age’ in Radio Times Alison Graham wrote:

‘Lucy Worsley is always effervescent, but, when discussing her favourite author of detective fiction, Dorothy L Sayers, she bubbles like an overheating foot spa. “She’s my absolute favourite,” says Worsley. ‘She had a very big brain.” Worsley’s favourite Sayers novel is Gaudy Night, thanks largely to its gutsy protagonist, the feminist Harriet Vane, who was to become the wife of Sayers’ great detective creation, Lord Peter Wimsey.

‘Worsley is the perfect guide through the bloodied hallways of murder scenes, both real ([such as] Dr Crippen) and fictional, in a series that’s caught the interest of BBC4 viewers, even beating the mighty 'Only Connect' in ratings.

‘She strikes just the right tone; yes, she might be as jolly as a young gel who’s just won a lacrosse match, but she’s not frivolous. Murder, after all, is a serious business, as she discusses with the peerless PD James.’ (Radio Times. London: Immediate Media Company, 5-11 October 2013.)

Lucy Worsley studied Ancient and Modern History at New College in the University of Oxford (England, UK), and was awarded a PhD by the University of Sussex (England, UK) for her research into the architectural patronage of William Cavendish, which research she published under the title Cavalier: A Tale of Passion, Chivalry and Great Houses (London: Faber and Faber, 2007). She is Chief Curator at Historic Royal Palaces, the independent charity which runs Kensington Palace State Apartments, Hampton Court Palace, the Tower of London, Kew Palace at Kew Gardens and the Banqueting House in Whitehall (London, UK).

‘The Golden Age’ will be screened again on BBC4 on Wednesday 9th October 2013, and is available for viewing or downloading on BBC iPlayer until 11.59pm (BST) on Wednesday 16th October 2013.

Cast

Presenter: Lucy Worsley

Creative Team

Director: Matthew Thomas

Executive Producer: Michael Poole
Producer: Matthew Thomas
Series Producer: Alastair Laurence