Lady Killers with Lucy Worsley
BBC Radio 4

The first tranche of this 10-part series (25 April) featured thirtysomething Florence Bravo, who in a celebrated case from 1876 was suspected, though not convicted, of murdering her husband Charles. The series’ aim, Lucy Worsley (inset) informed us, was to examine the crimes of Victorian women “from a contemporary, feminist perspective”, utilising the skills of a “crack team of all-female detectives”.

Florence had a previous husband, who had left his widow the not inconsiderable sum of £40,000. His successor died in mysterious circumstances at the couple’s grand house at Balham, retiring to bed after a dinner in which quantities of drink had been taken and then succumbing to stomach pains. “He’d been poisoned,” Worsley exclaimed. The poison was later identified as antimony, which was thought to have been added to the wine.