Lucan Review - BBC iplayer
Another day, another programme about Lord Lucan, otherwise known as Richard John Bingham, seventh earl of Lucan, the man who disappeared suddenly the same night in 1974 that his children’s nanny, Sandra Rivett, was brutally murdered in the basement of the family home, which he had vacated weeks earlier. In case anyone unfamiliar with the case wonders if his disappearance was coincidental, his estranged wife Veronica had that night run to a pub begging for help as her husband also attacked her in the basement. There had been harassing phone calls for weeks, Lucan had tried to have his wife declared unfit to take custody of their three children, but she won the court case, and, as a doting father, some of Lucan’s violence may have been spurred by deranged grief that he would lose access to his children. Not that any level of sorrow is an excuse for violence, and this act was preplanned, with Lucan sneaking into the house and removing the light bulb from the basement ceiling and then lying in wait for his wife. Tragically, the nanny was not supposed to be there that night. Her then boyfriend, who also features in this documentary, had changed his location of work which required him to work on his previous night off, when he would normally see Sandra.