There are no embellishments to this look at a murder trial – and it’s all the better for it. This is an engrossing, dramatic take on the justice system which has you hanging on every thrust and parry
Nuance and subtlety? In a true-crime documentary? Murder Trial: The Killing of Dr Brenda Page shows it can be done. In a genre awash with lurid exploitation, this programme makes a convincing case for respectful diligence.
Brenda Page, a geneticist at the University of Aberdeen, was found bludgeoned to death in her flat in the city in July 1978. She was 32. The only suspect was her ex-husband, research scientist Christopher Harrisson, but at the time there was insufficient evidence to pursue him. The case was reopened in 2015, with the hope of utilising advances in DNA technology; Harrisson was duly charged, and his trial took place in February 2023.
