Testimony: The Body on Seaham Beach - Part 2
The next instalment of our true crime podcast is out now!
Testimony: The Body on Seaham Beach is a new two-part podcast series launched to mark 16 years to the day since the discovery of human remains on the Featherbed Rocks in north-east England.
In the first episode of the podcast, listeners heard about the case of unidentified remains, which has confounded investigators since the day they were discovered.
On the podcast, Fiona Thompson - who covered the story as a reporter for the Sunderland Echo at the time - takes listeners through the actions of police and others in the weeks, months and years that followed, in the exhaustive attempt to identify these remains.
In the second episode of the podcast, listeners will hear from Coroner’s Officer Neville Dixon, who worked on the case and inquest. He explains why the case was so unusual then and even now.
Other contributors include Professor Caroline Wilkinson of Liverpool John Moores University, who worked with Cliff Down, the lead police officer, and his team to carry out a facial reconstruction of the unidentified man.
Dr Wilkinson is famed for doing a similar reconstruction of King Richard III, following the discovery of his remains in a Leicester car park in 2012.
As well as the specifics of this case, the podcast sheds light on how missing people cases and unidentified remains are treated by the authorities and investigators.
Testimony is a Laudable production for the Sunderland Echo and NationalWorld. It is presented, produced and edited by Kelly Crichton.
The Northern Agenda: how to move forward from the North’s industrial past
On this week’s Northern Agenda podcast, our guests are politicians on either side of the party divide, but each represent northern towns looking for answers about how best to move forward from their industrial pasts.
Lisa Nandy and Miriam Cates are both speaking at the Restitch Social Fabric Summit this week - a conference organised by think tank Onward about how to create more connected and rooted societies.
Miriam Cates, the Tory MP for Penistone and Stocksbridge, tells Northern Agenda editor Rob Parsons about how a manufacturing revival is needed if the steel town that dominates her constituency is to thrive.
She also discusses how the tax system is not working for families.
And Wigan MP Lisa Nandy shares her party's vision for levelling up - and how she has told Michael Gove "not to get too comfortable in that new office in Wolverhampton" because she is sizing it up already.
As well as talking levelling up, Northern towns, Hunger Games-style bidding and Leigh splitting from Wigan, Labour's shadow levelling up secretary answers questions about her long-term political ambitions.