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Trial by Media

Lucy Worsley is joined by journalist Anoushka Mutanda Dougherty to discuss the first four cases and put the media in the dock.

Lucy Worsley continues the new series Lady on Trial, where courtroom drama meets history with a twist.

Lucy and her team are meeting women who find themselves at the centre of extraordinary legal battles, from the 18th century to the 1920s.

But in this episode, we鈥檙e putting something else on trial - the media itself.

In our first four cases, Caroline Norton, Elizabeth Chudleigh, Audrey Jacob and Annie Kenney, aren鈥檛 just judged in the courtroom. They are also judged in newspapers, pamphlets and gossip columns.

Lucy is joined by journalist and broadcaster Anoushka Mutanda Doughtery, who hosts the 麻豆社 Sounds podcast Fame Under Fire, and Professor Rosalind Crone from The Open University. They鈥檒l discuss if it's ever really possible - either then, or now - for a woman to have a fair trial when a case goes viral. And why, three centuries on, women are still being judged in the court of public opinion.

Producer: Julia Hayball
Readers: Clare Corbett, William Hope, Jonathan Keeble and Dave Mason
Head of Production: Claire Myers
Sound design: Chris Maclean
Assistant Producer: Alice Homewood
Executive Producer: Kirsty Hunter

A StoryHunter production for 麻豆社 Radio 4

Release date:

28 minutes

On radio

Tue 14 Jul 2026 15:00

Broadcast

  • Tue 14 Jul 2026 15:00

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