Perp Culture

Red and white pop-art style speech bubble and text, reading 'Perp Culture'; in the background are serigraph-like images of historical criminals' faces.

a mixed format podcast from Dr Sarah Wride exploring the history and ethics of true crime fiction

Gallery of publicity images for fifteen true crime TV dramas: Des, Dahmer, Manhunt, Baby Reindeer, Black Bird, A Cruel Love: The Ruth Ellis Story, Love and Death, The Staircase, The Long Shadow, Unbelievable, The Pembrokeshire Murders, Whitechapel, Steeltown Murders, Four Lives, In Plain Sight

COMING SOON

each pair of episodes dives into one TV or film fictionalisation of a historical crime case

  • What ‘really’ happened?
  • How does the fiction diverge from this—and why?
  • How did creators, cast, and production teams research and adapt the case?
  • How has the adaptation influenced the real world—has it brought new evidence to light? led to changes in the law? shifted public perceptions?
  • How else has the case been adapted? How have similar historical crimes been fictionalised over time? and can we track these fictions’ after-effects?

Gallery of fictions associated with four specific historical cases, dubbed the 'Ratcliffe Highway Murders' (1811), 'Aigburth Poisoning' (1889), 'Crumbles Murder' (1924), and 'Acid Bath Murders' (1944-49): a row is devoted to each; the reader moves (left to right) from a newspaper or pamphlet clipping and through various images of book and album covers and adverts.