Home
App
This summer's best crime podcasts

This summer's best crime podcasts

Week 31 Podcasts Mark Horgan

BBC

Stakeknife

Want to see this content?

This page contains content provided by Spotify. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as Spotify may use cookies and other technologies. To view this content, choose 'Accept and continue' to allow Spotify and its required purposes.

Accept and continue

Using secret recordings, reporter Mark Horgan traces the double life of Freddie Scappaticci, an IRA member tasked with punishing informers, who was also British Army mole “Stakeknife”

What originally inspired you to make the podcast?

I have a long-term interest in the conflict in Northern Ireland, and Stakeknife is one of the most contentious characters of the Troubles. I read a book that mentioned him, and realised there were many elements to the story. Going through the BBC archive, I found incredible secret recordings by Army figures and by Scappaticci himself, plus apparent confession tapes. I realised the audio would work really well to tell the story.

What was your biggest surprise in researching the series?

The series took three years to make, with dozens of interviews, and I couldn’t believe the number of families who have been affected by either Stakeknife or just by being related to alleged informers, and how that has stayed with them their whole lives.

What have you hoped to achieve with this podcast?

The history of Northern Ireland is largely ignored. I think it’s important for people here, and in mainland Britain, to know their history, and that the British state took an active role in the Troubles. I also wanted to give people the opportunity to tell their story for the first time about something that was really contentious and stigmatised them. I wanted to give them a voice.

Is the story over?

No, the families of alleged informers are only just getting their reports from the Operation Kenova inquiry, set up to investigate the activities of Scappaticci. That’s happening
right now. It’s an ongoing story. CAROLINE FROST

The Grave Robbers

Week 31 Podcasts Sue Mitchell

Sue Mitchell.

In her latest podcast, award-winning radio producer turned presenter Sue Mitchell investigates the criminal gangs who are faking wills to steal people’s inheritance

Want to see this content?

Accept and continue

Sue Mitchell is cross. “You know the saying, safe as houses?” she asks. “That’s because, once you have a house, nobody’s meant to be able to steal it from you. It’s a rum do when houses themselves are not safe.”

The presenter has form when it comes to sniffing out wrongdoing. Her previous podcast, The Willpower Detectives, explored the abuse of power of attorney in England, whereby one man succeeded in controlling the finances of dozens of vulnerable people.

Now, in The Grave Robbers, she details how a gang operating in the UK is stealing houses from people who die without a recent will. Having been contacted by someone expressing concern for sisters Lisa and Nicole, Mitchell discovered that the pair had been left a £1 million house in south-west London by their estranged aunt, but that a false will had been produced to claim the inheritance before they were able to do so. “Evidence showed it had happened in other cases,” says the journalist, “and I ended up uncovering a crime gang that is doing this on a wide scale.”

Mitchell is as angry with the system as she is with the people exploiting it. “The sisters tried to pursue it through the police. But despite everyone’s efforts, no authority had been interested in investigating.” She smiles. “The minute we went to air, the Ministry of Justice swung into action. They’ve removed the public list of people who have died without wills, but it’s been in existence for 50 years, so criminals have had all that time to abuse it.”

Mitchell is concerned that the number of potential targets remains huge. “Only around a third of adults in the UK have wills, and there are 6,000 names on unclaimed estates. We have no idea how many of those are being targeted. Even if it’s a fraction, that’s an awful lot of innocent victims.” CF

Not Another Crime Podcast

Want to see this content?

Accept and continue

Not to be confused with the possibly-a-parody Not Another True Crime Podcast presented by “partners in crime, wine and time” Danny Murphy and Sara Levine, this Australian offering has journalist Georgia Love and civilian Sammy Petersen discuss the often gruesome deaths of, usually, women, also over a glass or two of wine. Because nothing goes with discussions of violent misogyny like a chardonnay. GM

Operation Seal Bay

Want to see this content?

Accept and continue

A sleepy Welsh coastal village. Some strange goings-on down at the beach. Retired locals set out to investigate, in the true story of what happened when some wrong’uns chose a quiet Pembrokeshire cove to stash their… I won’t spoil it. Six enjoyable episodes remind us there’s no sleuth like a pensioner, especially when a stranger starts dropping £50 notes in the village pub. CF

Stalked

Want to see this content?

Accept and continue

The horrors of one of the most pervasive and pernicious of modern crimes, cyber stalking, are laid bare in this empathetic series, which gently draws listeners into the story through the relationship between investigative journalist Carole Cadwalladr (who exposed the workings of Cambridge Analytica) and the victim, who happens to be her ex-stepdaughter, Hannah. DC

Get the Christmas double issue

Too much to watch at Christmas? Let Radio Times do the choosing to find something the whole family will enjoy.

Subscribe by 3 Dec