Published: November 5,2024 -- BBC Factual today announces Lucan, a 3x60’ from Five Mile Films for BBC Two and iPlayer, which follows one man’s hunt for the truth about the murder of Sandra Rivett.

On November 7, 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.

This three part series follows the deeply personal quest of Hampshire builder, Neil Berriman, whose conviction in his own ability to solve the mystery is unshakeable. The case has consumed Neil for the last two decades, and it has done so for very personal reasons: Neil’s birth mother was Sandra Rivett.

He watches every film, reads every book, meets police officers who take him through pictures of the scene of the crime, and he corresponds with Veronica, Lucan’s wife, and scrutinises every detail of Lucan’s life. Neil emerges from this research not only convinced that Lucan got away, but also that he will be the man who finally secures justice for his birth mother and finds the fugitive lord.

With the support of a former BBC investigative journalist, Glen Campbell, Neil maps out what seems Lucan’s likely escape from his homeland to a life of exile in Africa. The two men unearth persuasive evidence that one of Lucan’s powerful friends helped mastermind a new life for the aristocrat in Mozambique under the alias ‘John Crawford’. On a research trip to South Africa Glen secures a rare interview with Lucan’s expatriate brother, Hugh, who points the two Lucan seekers onto a trail that leads to Eastern religion, Buddhist retreats and ultimately the east and west coasts of Australia.

If still alive, Lucan would be about to enter his ninth decade, so the clock is ticking - will Neil be in time to find justice for his mother?

Clare Sillery, Head of Commissioning, Documentaries, says: “The disappearance of Lord Lucan, following the murder of Sandra Rivett, is a mystery that has baffled the police and fascinated the press for half a century. Whilst there have been many programmes following Lord Lucan and his possible fate, Sandra’s story has rarely been told. By following Neil’s deeply personal quest to seek justice for his mother we gain a unique perspective, one which sees an ordinary man take on the British establishment in his search for the fugitive Lord.”

Lucan, a 3x60’ for BBC Two and iPlayer, is made by Five Mile Films. It was commissioned by Clare Sillery, Head of Commissioning, Documentaries. The Series Director is Colette Camden. The Commissioning Editor is Beejal-Maya Patel.

Lucan is set to air on BBC Two and iPlayer this autumn.