Tony Robinsons Crime and Punishment

Tony Robinson goes on a fascinating and sometimes bizarre journey to discover the origins of our laws and what we do to people when they break from them. From trials by boiling water, through the decapitation of a king, to the emergence of a modern democracy, it is a journey that starts two thousand years ago and remains unfinished today. We find out how the Normans created the first surveillance society, how today’s compensation culture was started by Anglo Saxons and how a man whose body was kept in a London cupboard inspired us to stop stringing people up and start locking them up instead. Throughout his historical journey, Tony plays the part of the accused, judge, jury and executioner and discovers the often strange circumstances from which the main tenants of modern English law emerged.