On November 7, 1974, the body of the children’s nanny, Sandra Rivett, was discovered in a mailbag in the basement of a Belgravia townhouse. The main suspect was the children’s father, 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 committed suicide, no body was ever found. The manhunt for Lucan lasted decades.

This three-part series follows the deeply personal quest of Hampshire builder Neil Berriman, whose belief in his own ability to solve the mystery is unwavering. The case has consumed Neil for the past two decades, and for very personal reasons: Neil’s biological mother was Sandra Rivett.

He watches every movie, reads every book, meets police officers who show him photos of the crime scene, and he corresponds with Veronica, Lucan’s wife, and scrutinizes every detail of Lucan’s life. Neil emerges from this search not only convinced that Lucan has escaped, but also that he will be the man who finally obtains justice for his biological mother and finds the fugitive lord.

With the support of a former BBC investigative journalist, Glen Campbell, Neil describes what appears to be Lucan’s likely flight from his homeland to a life of exile in Africa. The two men uncover compelling evidence that one of Lucan’s powerful friends helped arrange a new life for the aristocrat in Mozambique under the pseudonym “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 researchers on a trail that leads to Eastern religion, Buddhist retreats and ultimately the coasts eastern and western Australia.

If he were still alive, Lucan would be about to enter his ninth decade, so time is running out: will Neil be in time to get justice for his mother?

Lucan, a 3×60′ for BBC Two and iPlayer, is made by Five Mile Films. It was commissioned by Clare Sillery, Commissioning Manager, Documentaries. The series director is Colette Camden. The editor-in-chief is Beejal-Maya Patel.

Lucan airs on Wednesday 6 November on BBC Two at 9pm. All episodes will be available on BBC iPlayer.

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Neil Berriman – son of Sandra Rivett

Why is it important to tell your story now?

It’s important to tell this story now, not only because it’s the 50th anniversary, but because I’m in a position to do this, a position I never thought I’d find myself in.

With a documentary and new evidence, some of which I am still working on, I think this is the right time and almost the last chance before the old man dies and the possibility of justice slips away from him. I can never forget Sandra after all these years and Glen and I can’t go on forever – all the pieces are in place… the time is now.

How did you feel when you found out Sandra Rivett was your mother?

Oh my God, Sandra Rivett, who was she, I thought at first, a nanny murdered by Lord Lucan running a runner, how sad. It’s something that happens to others, not to me, it’s impossible. Surely my real mother would not be involved in such a horrible and brutal end to her life.

When it was confirmed that Sandra was my biological mother, I was completely shocked and couldn’t believe someone would do this to her. I was angry, angry, and wanted this man caught. The emotional side of it all was incredibly sad and painful and I felt really sorry for her. Can you imagine what she went through, total hell.

Being Sandra’s second child and being involved in the biggest murder mystery was hard to understand, she deserves justice.

What has motivated you all these years?

She’s the mother I never knew, but that doesn’t make any difference. Sandra is still my mother and I will do my best for her. There is also no real evidence that Lucan was dead and therefore might still be alive.

I was new to all of this and faced the never-ending challenge of finding the man who murdered my mother. The whole situation, the way Sandra was murdered and a man who thought he was above the law and got away, it’s so wrong. I was having none of it, and as the years brought new information, I was more determined than ever. I wasn’t going to abandon my mother, Sandra was leading me as much as I was leading me, it was a puzzle I was going to complete. No one escapes murder. It’s all about Sandra.

Glen Campbell – Investigative journalist

How long have you been working on the Lucan case?

My interest in the Lucan case began in 1995, while I was working as a crime reporter for ITV. A late night drink with a Scotland Yard detective piqued my interest when he made it abundantly clear that after personally reviewing the evidence, he believed the investigation into the murder of Neil’s mother, Sandra Rivett, had been thwarted by interference and obfuscation by the rich and wealthy of Lucan. powerful friends. In short, I was told in 1995 that far from being dead, the police secretly suspected Lucan of having fled abroad, without being able to prove it.

Did you discover anything new?

In 1999 I discovered two new Scotland Yard sources who said there was credible intelligence that organized criminals had been recruited by Lucan’s wealthy friends to take him abroad. They gave me the name of one of these suspects, but when I met him in Switzerland, he denied any involvement. I was at a dead end. But the Lucan case is “slow,” with new evidence emerging slowly, often as key people die or old alliances break down. The discovery of Lucan’s plastic surgery medical records was a glimpse into the powerful cabal that protected him and gave us leads into the murky world of Claremont as a whole. Then, in 2007, I interviewed a “new” witness. Mandy Parks was a teenager in 1974 who babysat at the house where Lucan was last seen alive. In her first television interview, Mandy swore she saw Lucan alive and preparing to flee the UK two days after Sandra Rivett’s murder. She was the first credible witness to support Scotland Yard’s suspicions. Of course, what I didn’t know when I interviewed Mandy was that in the late 1990s the Metropolitan Police were in possession of credible intelligence. Lucan was still alive and hiding in Africa. They even had a fake name he went by. The Scotland Yard investigation examined all the evidence contained in the original files and pieced together new intelligence that had trickled in since Sandra Rivett’s murder. It was seminal detective work, but it was marked as restricted/secret. In 2009, I received a copy. In a nutshell, the police strongly suspected that Lucan was alive in 2001 and hiding in various locations in Africa. This gave more impetus to our research and motivated me to travel to Johannesburg to try to interview the Right Honorable Hugh Bingham, Lucan’s brother. My timing was perfect. Hugh Bingham admitted his brother fled London in 1974 for a new life abroad because he believed he would never receive a fair trial. This confession constitutes a major breakthrough. Insider information that shattered the false story that Lucan had committed suicide on or shortly after November 7, 1974.

After Hugh Bingham’s confession, other people came to help him. Marianne Robey had worked for one of Lucan’s closest friends, and as a young woman in 1979 she had been tasked with sending the Lord’s two eldest children “on vacation” to Africa so that Lucan could see them “from afar”. The children never knew their father was there. Then we were contacted by Davina Chambers. She saw one of our Lucan stories on the Internet and contacted us to offer access to her late father’s records. His father had been the lead detective on the Lucan case in 1974 and had accumulated boxes of original Lucan documents in his loft at home, which shed new light on the investigation and helped us move forward. The cold case of 74 was very hot in 2015.

Did you encounter any difficulties while making this documentary?

The journey was one of constantly shifting sands. One year we would have significant breakthroughs, followed by months where we would be quiet, with nothing new. The biggest challenge has been assessing which information is credible and which is false. Our trip to Mozambique in 2014 was difficult because at that time the country was difficult to film, especially when we were snooping around looking for an international fugitive living under a false identity. Australia was safer to investigate, but unbeknownst to us, it has very strict privacy laws, so for an investigative journalist it is not an easy place to establish a man’s true identity which has five names. It was a matter of patience and perseverance.

Colette Camden – Series Director

Why did you want to do this series?

I met Neil and I liked him straight away. He is completely stubborn in his beliefs – and what he is convinced he has the answer to also happens to be one of the greatest unsolved mysteries of our time. No one knows what happened to Lord Lucan, but Neil does. And he is disarmingly frank about the very strong feelings he has towards his mother and her killer. Neil is also the most unlikely detective. He is not trained, he is never objective and he does not follow the rules. This should have been a good starting point.

Why do you think the Lucan case continues to capture people’s attention?

The Lucan affair still looms large because it was remarkable and unsolved – a domestic bludgeoning apparently attributable to an aristocrat who then fled, never to be seen again. It’s hard to think that could happen now. And in the 50 years of limbo that followed, wild theories took over – not only about her supposed death by drowning, shooting, or being fed to her friend’s tiger, but also about her “sightings.” strange people all over the world – as a depressed butcher. in Vancouver to a folk singer in Goa. When Neil follows extraordinary – and credible – leads to a fake Buddhist monk in Australia called Derek, it’s not the craziest idea ever.

What do you hope viewers will take away from this series?

The Lucan mystery may be the initial appeal, but it’s really a film about obsession. This is a man so consumed with the idea of ​​the mother he never knew – that he is willing to do literally anything to come face to face with her murderer and avenge her murder. Never mind the emotional toll on his family, his relationships, and his own mental health. For a story that has been told for 50 years, The Builder and the Monk is a surprising and, hopefully, compelling new take.