462 Escape

First  viewed  : 12  September  1980

This  obscure  series  of  six  50  minute  dramas  was  producer  Frank  Cox's   successor  to  the  uncelebrated  Life  At  Stake  from  two  and  a  half  years  earlier. Whereas  that  had  got  the  cover  of  Radio  Times  and  a  BBC1  slot  this  was  stuck  away  on  BBC2.

Escape  followed  the  same  formula  as  the  previous  series  with  dramatic  reconstructions  of   major  news  stories  from  the  previous  two  decades , this  time  focusing  on  celebrated  bids  for  freedom. This  time  round  though, the  dramas  had   overarching  narrators  to  help  the  viewer  make  sense  of  them.

The  only  one  I  saw  was  the  first  which  featured  the  case  of  Lord  Lucan. It  was  an  odd  choice  given  that  we  still  don't   know  the  details  of  how  he  evaded  justice  so  the  drama  necessarily  focused  on  the  investigation  and  the  inquest  into  the  death  of  nanny  Sandra  Rivett. This  included  the  following classic  exchange :

QC : So  what  happened  next ?

Lady  Lucan : I  grabbed  his  testicles

QC : What  happened  then ?

Lady  Lucan : He  moved  back    

The  inquest  of  course  ended  with  the  verdict  of  "Murder  by  Lord  Lucan". There   was  a  caveat  at  the  end  of  the  programme  to  explain  that  since  that  time  ( 1974 )  an  inquest  jury's  right  to  name  a  perpetrator  had  been  abolished  by  the  Criminal  Law  Act  1977. In  fact  Lucan  was  the  last  person  to  be  so  named.