Lucan 

A two-part drama about infamous aristocrat John Bingham, 7th Earl of Lucan, who mysteriously disappeared in 1974 after being accused of murdering his children's nanny.

Stars:

Rory Kinnear, Catherine McCormack, Christopher Eccleston

Cast

Complete series cast summary:
Rory Kinnear	...	Lord Lucan 2 episodes, 2013
Catherine McCormack	...	Lady Veronica Lucan 2 episodes, 2013
Christopher Eccleston	...	John Aspinall 2 episodes, 2013
Alistair Petrie	...	Jimmy Goldsmith 2 episodes, 2013

Storyline

In 2003, author John Pearson (Paul Freeman) interviews elderly John Burke (Sir Michael Gambon) and Susie Maxwell-Scott (Jane Lapotaire) for his book "The Gamblers", centering on the Clermont Club, a Mayfair casino run by ruthless zookeeper John Aspinall (Christopher Eccleston) around thirty years earlier. His chief client is John Bingham, 7th Earl of Lucan (Rory Kinnear), ironically nicknamed "Lucky" due to his consistent losing streak. When Lucan's long-suffering wife Veronica (Catherine McCormack) protests at his profligacy, he gets violent, and, under Aspinall's malign influence, tries, and fails, to discredit Veronica's sanity to gain custody of their children after their divorce. While Veronica delights in the friendship of her nanny Sandra Rivett (Leanne Best), Lucan, once more led on by Aspinall, arrives at Veronica's house with murder in mind, but, in the dark, accidentally kills Sandra, rather than intended victim Veronica. Realizing his mistake, he attacks Veronica, but she ...

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Plot Keywords:

tv mini series | character name as series title | one word series title | surname as series title | nanny | 

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Taglines:

The incredible story of a high society murder and the most famous fugitive of all.

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Genres:

Biography | Crime | Drama

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Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

2 February 2015 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Mystery of Lord Lucan

Filming Locations:

London, England, UK

Company Credits

Production Co:

ITV Studios

Technical Specs

Runtime:

63 min

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Quotes

[after the fatal attack on nanny Sandra Rivett, Aspinall has called together Lord Lucan's friends]
John Aspinall: Right. You all know why you're here. A friend of ours is in trouble. As far as we can tell, there was some sort of incident last night at 46 Lower Belgrave Street, and Lucky Lucan is wanted for questioning over an attack on his wife and, it seems, the death of his children's nanny. I'll begin by asking if anybody has heard from Lucky in the last twelve hours.
[everyone shakes their heads]
Dominick Elwes: What about...
[...]

User Reviews

Lucan for clues

I was around 13 when the story of the disappearance of suspected, later convicted, murderer Lord Lucan broke and have quite strong memories of the publicity of the day. Indeed in a "Where's Wally" kind of way, he became almost a figure of fun, as he escaped detection then as now, despite many false trails and red herrings ever since.

Therefore, although criticised by representatives of both viewpoints, for and against the Lord, for its interpretation of the events of the night of the family nanny Sandra Rivets' brutal murder and the subsequent events, at least this two-part TV drama doesn't sit on the fence on the question of Lucan's culpability. As presented here, we get a mostly plausible sequence of events, including the startling but questionable conclusion that Lucan's society friends had him killed off before he could return to defend himself and attempt to fight for the custody of his children.

The drama goes into details on the events leading up to the night of the murder highlighting Lucan's relationship with his upper-class, snobbish society friends, with it his addiction to gambling (hence his ironic nickname "Lucky" Lucan) and the breakdown of his marriage. He's presented as a weak-minded, out-of-control gambler, a mother's boy and eventually a ruthless husband, shamefully trying to have his long-suffering but still sane wife committed to a psychiatric hospital against her wishes.

I found the first part of the drama leading up to the murder more gripping than the aftermath conveyed in part two, perhaps instinctively due to the latter's lack of conviction as to how events supposedly turned out. I also didn't really like the "Citizen Kane" device of framing the story with a writer's retrospective investigation, recreating imaginary present-day interviews with key characters recollecting the past events.

The acting I found of a mixed quality too. Rory Kinnear for one thing doesn't seem tall enough in the part and fails to convince he's a bored aristocrat while you can hear Christopher Ecclestone put on his posh accent every time he speaks as Lucan's so-called friend and adviser John "Aspers" Aspinall.

Nevertheless the programme did work for me as a study of the idle rich with all their inherent class snobbery and blind loyalty to one another, but in concentrating on the Lucans and their rich in-crowd, it could be said to have been denigrating to the memory of the lowly commoner who was unlucky enough to fall into their orbit, although it tries to exonerate itself on that score with a brief scene giving the dead girl's parents the right of reply.

The Lucan mystery may never be solved and while I didn't fully believe this reconstruction of what happened after his disappearance, it is undeniably a story worth telling, particularly in the commendably sober and straightforward manner as here.