Documentary overview

About Selling Bodies For Dissection: The Killings Of Burke & Hare

Maddy Pelling and Anthony Delaney investigate the case of Scotland’s most notorious serial killers, Burke and Hare. Join Maddy Pelling and Anthony Delaney on the dark streets of Edinburgh as they investigate the infamous nineteenth century case of Burke and Hare: Scotland’s most notorious serial killers. William Burke and William Hare murdered for money, killing in cold blood at least 16 times, so that they could sell the bodies of their victims to the anatomist table. Anthony follows the story of their horrific crimes right up to Edinburgh’s high society, to the medical establishment so bent on scientific progress it fuelled a clandestine trade in bodies. Maddy examines the evidence we have about the victims' lives, the poor and itinerant people who made their livings in Edinburgh’s crowded Old Town. Those unlucky people who tragically crossed Burke and Hare’s murderous path were targeted because of their isolation… but there was always more to their stories… The murders could only go on for so long… and Burke and Hare’s downfall, trial and the public execution of Burke caused a media storm.

Selling Bodies For Dissection: The Killings Of Burke & Hare is presented by History Hit. Its listed runtime is 51 minutes. The source link and publisher attribution are provided with the embedded film.

As a society documentary, Selling Bodies For Dissection: The Killings Of Burke & Hare uses selling, bodies, dissection as its central frame. Social documentaries work best as invitations to examine systems through lived experience. Distinguish individual testimony from wider claims, and consider which institutions, incentives and inequalities shape the choices shown.

Viewing context

What to consider before watching

  1. What evidence, testimony or observation does the film use to explain selling, bodies, dissection?
  2. Which people, institutions or historical conditions most influence the story told in Selling Bodies For Dissection: The Killings Of Burke & Hare?
  3. How does History Hit's framing affect the documentary's emphasis, and which perspectives may deserve further research?
Subjects

Topics covered in this documentary

Societysellingbodiesdissectionkillingsburke
Film information

Documentary details and original source

Title
Selling Bodies For Dissection: The Killings Of Burke & Hare
Category
Society
Runtime
51 minutes
Language
English
Publisher
History Hit

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