In 1882, the threat of assassination was in the air. The year before, Tsar Alexander II was killed by an assassin’s bomb, then in July, American President James Garfield was also murdered. Queen Victoria, on the throne for 45 years seemed vulnerable. The final attempt on her life was from a young man named Roderick Maclean. His father Charles was the owner of a satirical magazine called Fun, but Roderick’s life was anything but that. Roderick grew up dreaming of a literary career, but the...

In March 1868 Queen Victoria’s son Prince Alfred was at a charity event in Sydney, Australia when an Irishman named Henry O’Farrell walked up behind him and shot the young prince at point blank range in the back, just missing his spine. O’Farrell was captured, beaten, swiftly tried and found guilty of attempted murder, and then hanged. Alfred survived the attack, but the Victorian world was clearly becoming a more dangerous place for the Royal Family. Queen Victoria hadn’t encountered an...

In 1846 a soldier named Robert Pate moved to an expensive apartment off Piccadilly - one of the most exclusive areas of London.  Unlike the first four would-be assassins, Robert Pate came from a wealthy family, so for the first time in this series Dr Bob Nicholson is exploring the world of affluent London. Pate's wealth and class helped to smooth his path through life - his father's money bought him a gentleman's education, and a commission in the army, but Robert was not well and developed...

The 1840s were a revolutionary decade. France and Italy had been rocked by revolution; Queen Victoria and Prince Albert feared that Britain might be next. In April 1848, a movement demanding universal male suffrage known as the Chartists announced they would march on Parliament.  Lamps outside Buckingham Palace had been smashed by a crowd shouting republican slogans - the Royal Family fled, fearing for their lives. To the relief of the Royal Family, the revolution never happened; Victoria...

Seventeen year-old John Bean worked as a newsvendor in London. His disability - an acute case of curvature of the spine – meant that throughout his life he had been the target of cruel discrimination. In mid-June 1842, just before his 18th birthday, and days after John Francis’s attempt on the Queen, Bean ran away from home. Presenter Bob Nicholson finds a letter John wrote to his parents telling them he’d run away but promising to stay on the straight and narrow – no matter how bad things...

Dr Bob Nicholson explores police archives and rarely seen documents to uncover the story of the second assassin - 19-year-old John Francis, who gave up a successful career as a carpenter in the West End of London to become a tobacconist. The business soon failed and after his landlord caught him stealing money, Francis bought a pistol and on the 29th May 1842, he fired at the Queen outside Buckingham Palace. Prince Albert spotted him from their carriage, but none of the guards saw Francis,...

During Queen Victoria’s 63-year reign, seven young men, many of them teenagers, made the fateful decision to attack her. After each attempt the news shot through Britain like lightning – journalists, politicians, police and the public all clamoured for information.  Why on earth did they do it?  Dr Bob Nicholson is an expert in Victorian journalism and popular culture, but the seven assailants were unknown to him – even though their lives intertwined with the most famous woman on the planet....

During the 63 year long reign of Queen Victoria, seven men took the fateful decision to try to kill her. The seven men were within seconds of changing history - each could have brought the Victorian era to a premature end, yet each has been forgotten to history. This new podcast series narrated by Dr Bob Nicholson will look to answer the question of what led these men to try to kill the most famous and influential woman on the planet.