Main content
This programme will be available shortly after broadcast

The Evidence

Episode 1 of 3

Hampshire builder Neil Berriman discovers he is the son of the nanny murdered by Lucan and starts to investigate. He finds evidence that suggests the aristocrat escaped to Africa.

Is a mystery that has bewildered police and investigators for fifty years about to be solved?

On November 7th, 1974, the dead body of a children’s nanny, Sandra Rivett, was discovered in a mail sack in the basement of a Belgravia townhouse. The chief suspect was the father of the children, an Eton educated gambler called Richard John Bingham, the seventh earl of Lucan, who had disappeared. While most of Lord Lucan’s friends and family insisted that he had taken his own life, no body has ever been found. The manhunt for Lucan has lasted decades. Sightings of him have been reported as far afield as New Zealand, France, India and South Africa, but all have proved false leads. Until now perhaps.

Thirty years after the murder, Hampshire builder, Neil Berriman, opens a thick brown envelope left to him by his adoptive mother upon her death. What it reveals will transform him into the most committed and determined of all Lucan hunters, and for a very personal reason: Neil’s birth mother, the papers reveal, was the murdered Lucan family nanny, Sandra Rivett.

This series puts Sandra Rivett at the heart of the story. Along with his long term collaborator, investigative journalist, Glen Campbell, her son Neil revisits key moments and emotions of what has been a 17 year journey. The starting point is the night of the murder in Belgravia, but the two men soon uncover clues that point to Lucan having fled to a secret life in Africa.

Release date:

58 minutes

On TV

Tomorrow 21:00

More episodes

Previous

You are at the first episode

See all episodes from Lucan

Credits

Role Contributor
Consultant Neil James Berriman
Consultant Glen Campbell
Director Colette Camden
Producer Catherine Glenny
Executive Producer Nick Mirsky
Executive Producer Owen Phillips

Broadcasts