WATCHING THE DETECTIVES The Marion Crofts Murder ( BBC 1, 2003)

This is still a difficult watch for me. Marion lived and died a mile or two from where I grew up and probably passed the end of my road on that fateful day. She went to my school, although she was in my brother s year and this happened before I started there. Her teacher, the late Alan Roberts (interviewed here), was my history teacher and had a positive part to play in the direction my life took. My brother came home once saying he had been cycling along the Basingstoke Canal and had seen a soldier with blood on his clothing but, so many years on, I can t remember if this had anything to do with the murder. Everyone at Court Moor knew about Marion. We still had TV crews occasionally arriving to interview the headmaster years afterwards. I m not ashamed to say I shed a tear watching this again. I hope that bastard never gets released.