Smoking Gun

Episode 1: The House Brick

Killers and criminals can be identified in many different ways. In this episode, we find out how a regular house brick carried the evidence which would prove a man's guilt in a complex murder enquiry. Narrated by Romola Garai, and with expert insight from forensic specialist Tracy Alexander, we tell the story of a long-running murder case, a desperate hunt for clues, and the sequence of events that led to a killer being identified from the clues contained on a brick.
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In every murder investigation, there's one key item that could bring a killer to justice.
But finding it....and knowing what evidence it contains....well that's the challenge. Because the smoking gun could be anything. A bouquet of flowers...a Chinese meal...a mosquito.
In this series we tell the remarkable true stories of how everyday items such as these have been the key to unlocking a criminal case. And we unpack the science - revealing the cutting edge techniques and the disciplines mastered over decades, which allow specialist forensic scientists to find this evidence.
Hosted by actor Romola Garai, and the UK's most prominent forensic scientist Tracy Alexander.