Latest news with #BalladofLucySands
BBC News
02-04-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Murder mystery series aims to memorialise teen
A director who spent 15 years developing a self-funded TV series about a murdered Victorian teenager, is hoping it will get spotted by a network and finally memorialise her. The Ballad of Lucy Sands is based on the true story of the unsolved murder of a young woman in Workington, Cumbria in 1881. The seven-part production was filmed in Cumbria and Cornwall over seven and director Stephen Baldwin said he hoped the series would be picked up by a television channel or streaming service to provide Lucy with a lasting legacy. It has taken Mr Baldwin 15 years to research, fundraise, film and edit Lucy Sands' story after a strange dream led to him finding out about the unsolved 1881, the 16 year old's body was discovered hidden under a pile of stones beside a railway line in Workington, had gone to meet friends in town but never Baldwin said the discovery of Lucy's body attracted worldwide attention and dominated the local news at the time. Her murder came a few years before the attacks in White Chapel, London perpetrated by notorious serial killer Jack the then, Mr Baldwin said: "This (her murder) was massive. "It was billed as the most heinous crime against any female in Victoria's reign until the White Chapel murders."He says her story fell into obscurity however, adding: "I feel like I've been tasked with the job of being messenger, to find out what happened and give her some peace... giving her the justice she's been robbed of." This is Mr Baldwin's first time writing and directing a TV used to be a tailor and moved to Tavistock to bring up his in the South West he became an extra on two series of the BBC One drama he wanted to find out how to provide costumes for the show, but found himself increasingly intrigued by how television was made and ended up wanting to film his own drama. He had connections to both Cumbria and the South West and recreated Lucy's story using locations he knew in Cornwall and Devon that would fit the story. Flambards Victorian village provided the perfect ready made Baldwin said: "It became like a second home to us. "We had uninterrupted usage of the place." Cornish actor Emma McGee added that it was like fulfilling a childhood dream: "I went there many times as a child. "So to be there as a film set and sort of explore it, rather than just to move through it and to live in it, felt really real." Tavistock court and Bodmin Railway were also used as film locations to tell Lucy Sands' railway doubled as the place where her body was Pilgrim, who played Detective Inspector Isaac Bird, said: "The strange thing about it is the platform and the waiting room is almost a carbon copy of a photo of the one it's meant to represent."Jimmy James who works at the Bodmin Railway and doubled up as an extra as a guard on the steam train, said: "They took over, it was very different and lots of fun." The series is still looking for a home on UK television but those who want to see Cornwall's starring role in it, can join some of the cast at a screening on 5 July at The Old Library, Bodmin.
BBC News
27-02-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Lucy Sands' murder: Workington memorial for Victorian teenager
A memorial has been created to remember a teenage girl whose murder has remained unsolved for almost 150 Sands was just 16 when she went to meet friends and disappeared in Workington, Cumbria, in December 1881. Her body was found under a pile of cobbles three months later.A plaque and a rose bush have been installed at the graveyard in the grounds of St John's Church, on the site where she had been Schofield, mayor of Workington Town Council, which is behind the memorial, said: "It shows what a varied history we have and that you don't have to be rich and famous to go down in history - the working man and woman can too." Schofield added the memorial was a reminder of the importance for people to look after each other in the community."Safety, not just for women, but for everybody, needs to be paramount in everyone's thinking," he added. Lucy was born in Antrim, Northern Ireland, in 1865 and when her parents died, she and her brother James were sent to live with their grandmother on Christian Street in of her existence had been present in the town but disappeared between the 1960s and 1970s.A gravestone was removed when the churchyard at St John's was cleared about 60 years ago and a memorial tree was removed some time later from the town's Northside area, marking the place where her body was discovered. Her story was recently retold through a series created by independent film-maker Stephen Baldwin, which has been shown at the town's Helena Thompson the time, Lucy's violent murder had been considered one of the worst reported crimes in Victorian Britain and attracted worldwide attention, Mr Baldwin worked with more than 300 local people who appeared as actors and extras in the Ballad of Lucy Sands, a seven-part series on the teenager's life and untimely Baldwin said he was proud to see the memorial created."It's something that's been lost for too long," he said. Follow BBC Cumbria on X, Facebook, Nextdoor and Instagram.
