The telltale tics that gave away a greedy, murderous husband
GENTEEL viewers, who faint at the sight of blood and who can only watch film of a surgical operation through their fingers, still relish the story of a murder . . . an actual killing, one that claimed a real person’s life.
It’s a contradiction. Some psychologists suggest our fascination with fatal crime harks back to the spectacle of public executions. Others believe it stems from a survival instinct, our primal need to feel fear.
Perhaps what really hooks us is the mystery, treachery and deception. We love to test ourselves, to find out if we can spot a liar — and Susanna Reid’s crime documentary, Who Killed Sharon Birchwood: Police Tapes (ItV), offered plenty of opportunity for that.
It’s a convention in true crime shows that the tale begins with the 999 call, and this one raised suspicions from the start. the caller, 53-year-old Graham Birchwood, seemed unnaturally calm, speaking a carefully prepared script as he reported finding a body in a suburban Surrey bungalow.
And he seemed reluctant to admit the victim was his ex-wife. From the outset, he sounded guilty.
this was a sharply edited programme. the case was more than ten years old, but it was presented as urgent and up-todate. We glimpsed the inside of Sharon’s cluttered home, where her body had been trussed and smothered with blankets, and cut straight to the interview room.
It’s here that the deep appeal of these shows is based. We want to see every twitch of the suspect’s face as he spins and fabricates.
the art is in spotting where truth ends and lies begin. Birchwood had built himself a crude but solid alibi: he could not have killed his ex, even though he stood to inherit her house and savings, because CCtV pictures showed he was miles away at the time, in a shopping centre.
the commentary from detectives helped us understand how they extracted the truth: Birchwood had hired a hitman, a former bank robber called Paul Cryne. they explained that they won the suspect’s confidence by hiding how much they had already deduced.
But the crucial detail was revealed by a body language expert, who showed us how to decode Birchwood’s face. When he frowned and narrowed his eyes, he was lying. When he cupped his bald head with one hand, he was calculating his next lie. Once his tics and tells were exposed, this callous, greedy man appeared as guileless as a little boy.
the callousness of people who exploit the health service was revealed in different ways, in Celebrities On The NHS Frontline (BBC1). When elderly patients are admitted for treatment, some relatives are quick to take advantage.
Families disappear on holidays abroad, leaving the hospital to look after granny — even when she’s made a full recovery.
Other couples announce they can never care for an old relation again, because they’ve decided to get a divorce. the result is that vital beds are occupied by healthy people with nowhere else to go.
Former tory Shadow Health Secretary Ann Widdecombe was fuming at all the waste: ‘the nHS is there to treat and make well. It is not there to solve every last social problem.’
Ann has a knack with a soundbite that makes her permanently good value. Stomping around an overcrowded ward, she harrumphed: ‘If you had two glass eyes, you could see it’s a system under pressure.’
this shallow two-part documentary tended to meander, but whenever Ann was around she made her point.