A Most Mysterious Murder - The Case of George Harry Storrs

AUSTRALIA |ABC| Sunday 12 November @ 2.00pm

A Most Mysterious Murder is a classic drama series re-telling real murder mysteries. Oscar award-winning Julian Fellowes appears as a historical detective who takes the audience back in time to observe and resolve unsolved murders - it is period drama with a unique twist.

One fog-bound night in an isolated Victorian Hall, a wealthy industrialist, George Harry Storrs met his untimely death as the small household waited on dinner, Storrs was confronted by a masked intruder. When help finally arrived, Storrs had been brutally stabbed and died calling for his wife. The victim's brother put up a reward of £100 - upped to £500 by his widow.

Subsequent police investigations led to two arrests and two trials - the first, of Cornelius Howard (the victim's cousin), the second of Mark Wilde (a disgruntled, syphilitic local). Both trials ended in sensational acquittal. On the eve of the first trial, James Worrall (the victim's loyal coachman) hanged himself. Storrs’ past reveals an emotionally bankrupt marriage and a passionate affair with his lawyer's German governess.

Storrs’ sense of doom increases when he's threatened by Mark Wilde, the fiancé of a girl he's sacked from his mill, and when he spurns a plea for employment by his impoverished cousin Cornelius. Relations with his oldest brother James are also increasingly fraught. When he starts to receive anonymous threatening letters, he confides in his coachman, James Worrall. Following an attempt on his life one evening, he installs an alarm bell. Tragically - to no avail.