Weir mentions a trial in 1984 on "Channel 4 Television" that resulted in a not guilty verdict.
I just tried to Google it and came up with a
five-part video of what is apparently that 1984 telecast.
Quote:
The fight against injustice was a prominent theme in Josephine Tey's works, none more so than in The Daughter of Time in which Inspector Grant, laid up in hospital with an injured spine, investigates the mystery of the disappearance of the princes in the tower, supposedly murdered by their wicked Uncle, King Richard III, the monstrous crouchback of Tudor myth and Shakespearean literature.
It is a remarkable novel, ranked Number 1 Best Crime Novel of all Time by the British based Crime Writers' Association and Number 4 by the Mystery Writers of America. It is probable that The Richard III Society would not have been formed without the influence of The Daughter of Time, and much scholarly debate has been done since in an effort to present a more balanced account of the life and times of the last of the Plantaganet kings.
Introduced by His Royal Highness, Prince Richard, Duke of Gloucester a modern trial by jury was presented at the Old Bailey on the afternoon and evening of 21st February, 1984, almost 500 years after the death of the last of the Plantagenet Kings, King Richard III, on Bosworth Field, the last of the English monarchs to die in battle. It was introduced as follows:
"The charge is that King Richard III did, in or about the month of august, 1483, in the Tower of London, murder Prince Edward, Prince of Wales, and Prince Richard, Duke of York.
King Richard III stands indicted at the bar of history. In this unique work the members of the jury have been invited to deliver their verdict on a matter whch has been the subject of fierce controversy and dispute for over 500 years: whether or not King Richard III was responsible for the alleged murder of the two young princes. He himself was killed on the battlefield of Bosworth in 1485 and so is beyond the power and jurisdiction of this or any other human court. The task of the jury is, therefore, to pass historical judgement upon him. Their verdict will stimulate rather than terminate the controversy that has surrounded the deaths of the princes.
Presiding over the case is Lord Elwyn-Jones, the former Lord Chancellor, and he is ably supported by two of Britain's leading criminal Queen's Counsels.
A fascinating trial which presents evidence which offers the viewer the opportunity to join the jury in weighing the evidence and reaching his or her own verdict before discovering that of the television jury."
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