Lucan
It’s rumoured Lord Lucan was once invited to audition for the part of James Bond, but you’d bet his 007 would have been dead before the end of reel one. Seldom has an aristocrat’s epithet dripped with more irony than that of ‘Lucky’ Lucan. The earl was a serial loser: of his fortune, wife, family, reputation and, finally, his very identity, if not his life. Still, he did win a place in the rogues’ gallery of history, thanks to the magical quality of mystery surrounding what might otherwise have been the passing sensation of the murder of the family nanny, after he likely mistook her for his estranged wife. The spirited two-part drama Lucan (ITV, Wednesday, 9pm) feeds our continued craving to know exactly what happened that November night in 1974 in Belgravia and in the days and years following the earl’s disappearance. Here is Lucan as a weak, selfish man, played with pitiless psychological precision by Rory Kinnear.
In a stroke of delicious dramatic cruelty, the earl is denied the lead role even in his own story, for it is John Aspinall who is ringmaster of the circus of high-born low-life in 1970s London. Christopher Eccleston’s casino owner dogmatically spouts a vicious primal creed of survival of the fittest, but you can’t help but almost be swept along by this ridiculously bombastic character, before his influence plants the fatal seeds of Lucan’s crime.
Masterly script and performances provide the closest we may ever get to a definitive version of the events that remain laced with questions and intrigue to this day.
NOT TO BE MISSED
STEPHEN HAWKING: A BRIEF HISTORY OF MINE Saturday, Channel 4, 7.15pm In a powerful film autobiography, our favourite astrophysicist reveals a surprisingly full life.
ROYAL VARIETY PERFORM ANCE Monday, ITV, 7.30pm
Join Prince Charles and Camilla for a line-up led by Dame Edna and Gareth Malone.
HIDDEN KILLERS Tuesday, BBC4, 9pm
A fascinating documentary on the killing zone that was the ordinary Victorian home, thanks to a panoply of lethal domestic products.