The Brutal Murder Of Sophie Toscan Du Plantier: Any Decent Podcasts?
IT’S everyone’s first, very natural response to becoming familiar with a brutal and notorious crime for the first time; “Ooh, I wonder if there’s a podcast for that”. No one could blame you. Podcasts are great. Podcasts about murders are doubly great.
And you may well have had that thought upon learning of the warrant for Ian Bailey’s arrest and extradition to France after being convicted in absentia of the murder of French woman Sophie Toscan Du Plantier being upheld by the High Court in Ireland.
You might be thinking is there any decent podcast which will give me an intoxicating blow by gruesome de-humanising blow of the murder before Netflix make it its next grisly and lurid murder documentary series which is then forms the basis of a Hollywood movie starring Jennifer Lawrence as Ian Bailey.
Murder podcasts as an entertainment medium have fortunately been around long enough that there was never any risk that such a murder wouldn’t have already been chronicled in an engrossing podcast which plays on your frankly worrying obsession with murder and allows you to pretend you’re listening is driven by your desire for the victim to be given justice. Here’s where to point your ears for your next fix:
‘Women Being Murdered’: WBM recently celebrated its 44,567th episode and hosts Dan and Sonya tackled this case in its special ‘maximum gore live tour’ last year.
‘Copied From Wikipedia’: Zac, Lizzie and Bronwyn read about high profile murder cases directly from the Wikipedia entry on them. This massive hit plays a sellout live date at the Three Arena this coming summer and will deal with this case in detail.
‘A Murder. A Town. Justice?’: Skip all the boring justice and town parts and bed down deep within the recounting of the violence because let’s be honest that’s what you’re here for and your therapist would agree if you ever got around to seeing one.
‘NYC Public Radio Presents: Ireland’s Countryside Killings’: Wow the Americans have deigned to take an interest in our notorious murders. Enjoy those rare moments of pride when you can. This one really allows you room to whisper conspiratorially with others like it was some sort inconsequential storyline on a TV soap and not the death of a real person.
‘Bailey Bales’: Comedian Bill Bailey hosts a podcast focused on…oh sorry, this isn’t crime related, it’s just about Bill Bailey’s fascination with Victorian-era watering cans and their ability to bale water out of a sinking canoe.
Those worried their insatiable desire for vicarious bloodlust would go thirsty once these podcasts are done with, fear not, next year sees Patrick Quirke’s and Graham O’Dwyer’s appeals to their murder convictions coming to a head so next year could be another bumper year for murder podcasts.