Crime Next Door
Gripping True Crime stories from neighbourhoods across the UK.Series 7. The Ballad of Big Mags A vigilante matriarch with dark secrets comes to regret stepping into the media spotlight.Previously on Crime Next Door:Series 1. An Assassin Comes to Town Gunshots kickstart an extraordinary tale of state terrorism. Series 2. Servants and Saints Exploring the story and allegations of a global religious group.Series 3. Death on the Farm After fifty years the community of Llangolman seek justice. Series 4. The Salisbury Poisonings Follow the public inquiry into the death of Dawn Sturgess.Series 5. The Golden Toilet Heist Exploring a story of art...
Episodes
3. A Family From Hell
As her public profile rises, Mags falls foul of ‘tall poppy syndrome’. It becomes clear the Haneys have numerous skeletons in their closet and, not for the first time, the community rises up. Presenter: Myles Bonnar Written by: Chris Cruic…
2. Notorious
Mags positions herself as an ‘anti-paedophile campaigner’ and appears on national TV. Back home on the Raploch estate, anger begins to boil as she hogs the headlines. Presenter: Myles Bonnar Written by: Chris Cruickshank, Marisha Currie, M…
1. Welcome to the Raploch
In the midst of a ‘paedophile panic’, residents of a Stirling housing scheme take matters into their own hands and one woman grabs the nation’s attention. Presenter: Myles Bonnar Written by: Chris Cruickshank, Marisha Currie, Myles Bonnar…
Introducing... The Ballad of Big Mags
It’s the mid 1990s. On the Raploch estate in Stirling, a local community is living in fear. This is a place with many young families, and word is spreading that a convicted paedophile is living among them, placed there anonymously by the lo…
5. Justice for my family
Dr Abdul Shakoor lost his wife and five children in a house fire in Harlow, Essex.He shares his shock at the discoveries we've uncovered relating to the investigation.Dr Shakoor still hopes that one day those responsible will be brought to …
4. Forensic evidence
Police believe someone broke into their home that night and a fire was started, but no-one has ever been charged. With claims of evidence compromised, mistakes made and missed opportunities. We turn our attention to the crime scene forensic…
3. A murder investigation
Police get a breakthrough when something was found dumped near the Shakoor family home, eleven days after the fatal house fire.The discovery means the fire is now officially a murder investigation. As enquiries increase there's a problem, w…
2. A second fire
The town of Harlow is in shock after a house fire left Dr Sabah Usmani and her four children dead. A fifth child is on life support in hospital. The father, Abdul Shakoor, is by his daughter's bedside praying for her to pull through. As th…
1. A family trapped in the fire
A normally quiet residential street in Harlow is woken in the middle of the night to screams for help. Doctor Abdul Shakoor jumps from the bedroom window of his Essex home as fire rages through the living room downstairs. His wife and fiv…
Introducing... Who Killed the Shakoors?
A father is the sole survivor of a house fire that killed his wife and five children. On 15 October 2012, Dr Abdul Shakoor jumped from an upstairs window of his house in Harlow, Essex. It was a desperate attempt to get help.His wife Dr Saba…
6. The Gold
A top bullion dealer explains how the toilet could have disappeared and where the gold might be today. Meanwhile, Jimmy Sheen’s pocketed £520,000 from the gold sale and an investigation shows he’s made big money from other crimes. Explore w…
5. The Fence
A trial begins and the three defendants plead not guilty. Details emerge about reconnaissance trips to Blenheim made days before the heist. Also, Jimmy Sheen’s voice notes are shared. They offer a rare chance to eavesdrop on the crime as it…
4. The Thief
Four years later a toilet thief is unmasked as James ‘Jimmy’ Sheen. An investigation uncovers Sheen's dark past leading up to the Blenheim burglary with a career of crime that began in his twenties. The ringleader of multiple gangs, he's ti…
3. The Failures and The Fakes
As the palace reopens to the public, curious visitors flock to witness the infamous crime scene. Behind the scenes, Blenheim’s Chief Executive scrambles to tighten palace security. An internationally renowned art hunter is hired by the insu…
2. The Rumour
Stunned Blenheim Palace staff are coming to terms with an early morning raid as the gang make their getaway with the £5 million gold toilet.Meanwhile, rumours swirl about who could have orchestrated the heist with fingers pointing to the to…
1. The Heist
The mystery of one of Britain’s weirdest art heists begins at an exhibition party at Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire, in September 2019.A £5 million solid gold toilet, created by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan, is centre-piece at the exhibit…
Introducing... The Golden Toilet Heist
A story of art, mystery and a solid gold, fully plumbed in toilet stolen from a British palace.With behind-the-scenes access at Blenheim Palace, we explore the inside story of the heist and its fallout. Installed as part of an art exhibitio…
20. The Repercussions
This final episode, recorded in December 2024, considers what the Dawn Sturgess Inquiry will achieve, and what might change as a result. BBC Security Correspondent Frank Gardner, legal commentator Joshua Rozenberg and Dan O’Brien from BBC N…
19. The Closing Statements
After 7 weeks and over a hundred hours of evidence, the public hearings of the Dawn Sturgess Inquiry come to an end. In this episode, the main participants, including Dawn’s family, make their final statements to the Chair.This episode was …
18. The Bottle and the Blind Spot
When the agents suspected of poisoning Sergei and Yulia Skripal with Novichok left Salisbury, what had they done with the nerve agent and how did the deadly chemical weapon end up in the hands of Charlie Rowley four months later? In this e…
17. Marina Litvinenko
The widow of former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko explains why she feels lessons weren’t learned between her husband’s assassination and the Salisbury Poisonings. Marina Litvinenko warns that British citizens need to be protected from fo…
16. Protecting the Public
As Salisbury starts to reopen in the summer of 2018, the authorities weigh up how to keep the public safe, when they know there could be more Novichok out there. Questions are asked about whether enough was done to protect people from accid…
15. The Suspects
Two Russian men visit Salisbury just as the former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter are poisoned with a nerve agent. They say they simply wanted to see the famous cathedral spire, but that’s not the view of the UK authorities who believe…
14. The Hunt for the Poison
When Sergei and Yulia Skripal were poisoned with a nerve agent, police faced one of the most complex investigations in their history. They had to trace a weapon which they could neither see nor smell, but it could kill thousands. In this ep…
13. Science in Secret
When Dawn Sturgess and Charlie Rowley were taken to hospital, the emergency services tried to piece together what had happened to them. We hear how they questioned whether it was a coincidence that they had treated two people for nerve age…
12. The Poisoned Detective
One of the first police officers to go inside Sergei and Yulia Skripal’s house after they were poisoned with a nerve agent was Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey. He then became critically ill himself, after touching the front door handle. It h…
11. Saving the Skripals
When the former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia collapsed on a bench in Salisbury, it was Sunday shoppers who first stepped in to help. Amazingly, two of them were highly qualified medics. We hear their stories. Also, how …
10. The Spy Next Door
Who is Sergei Skripal? The former Russian spy was poisoned by Novichok in March 2018, but until now very little has been known about him, his life in England, and his mysterious past. His friend and neighbour tells the Inquiry what he was…
9. An act of war?
An in-depth interview with the Head of Counter Terror Policing at the time of the poisonings, Neil Basu. He relives how dangerous the investigation was for the officers involved, what it took to find the suspects, and 6 years on, how he fee…
8. What is Novichok?
Andrea Sella, Professor of Inorganic Chemistry at University College London, answers the big questions about Novichok. The deadly nerve agent killed Dawn Sturgess and poisoned many more in Salisbury and Amesbury in 2018. What is it, when w…
7. Russia responds
As the inquiry prepares to move from Salisbury to London, Andy Howard and Marie Lennon review a momentous week of evidence, which saw the emergency services interrogated and the communication between them questioned. Dawn's family ask for …
6. The 999 Calls
Paramedics and police relive the moments they were called to Charlie Rowley's flat in Amesbury. First Dawn Sturgess is found unresponsive, and then several hours later Charlie falls ill too. The emergency services disagree about what has ca…
5. Dawn: A mother’s tribute
Caroline, Dawn’s mother, speaks publicly for the first time about her daughter and sets the record straight about who Dawn was. The police apologise to her family for the way she was portrayed, plus we hear evidence from the only person who…
4. The Inquiry begins
Marie Lennon and Andy Howard reflect on an extraordinary first day at the Dawn Sturgess Inquiry. We hear that there was enough nerve agent hidden in a perfume bottle to kill thousands. Dawn is described as an “innocent victim, caught in the…
3. Baroness Theresa May
Theresa May, who was prime minister at the time of the attack, recalls when she first heard about the Salisbury poisonings.Baroness May describes how it felt to stand in the House of Commons and blame the Russian state for the attack, the m…
2. Poison Perfume
More people fall ill from Novichok poisoning.It’s four months since the nerve agent attack on former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia. Salisbury is starting to return to normal and then, it happens again.Local mum Dawn Stur…
1. The Novichok Attack
Salisbury becomes the scene of a major international incident. Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia are found poisoned on a park bench.Then, an astonishing discovery: he’s a former Russian spy and they've been poisoned with Novichok, one o…
Introducing...The Salisbury Poisonings
Six years after a mum was poisoned by a Russian nerve agent in Wiltshire, will a public inquiry bring answers? In 2018, Dawn Sturgess came into contact with one of the most dangerous substances in the world: Novichok. She thought it was …
6. In Plain Sight
In this final episode of Death On The Farm - the community is still battling for a different verdict. We hear how the police are conducting a forensic review, which may or may not reveal new clues. But patience amongst the locals is wearing…
5. Blood Money
The official police report into the deaths at Ffynnon Samson is the most details account of the scene, and the events which took place. But that report, completed in 1977, led to a conclusion that it was Griff who was ultimately responsibl…