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Secrets from The Clink
Starts Wednesday 6 August 9pm on ITV
In a brand new, two-part series, entertainer Len Goodman, comedian Johnny Vegas, actress Michelle Collins, broadcaster Mariella Frostrup and reporter Daisy Mcandrew, discover the crimes their ancestors committed dating back to the Victorian Era and the punishments they received.
The Victorians built many of the prisons that are still in use today such as Wormwood Scrubs, Strangeways and Pentonville but life inside them was very different. Back then prisoners were subject to hard labour and isolation and the alternative was the death penalty or transportation. Through exploring the story of each of the star's ancestors, Secrets From The Clink gives an insight into the Victorian penal system and what day-to-day life was like for convicts.
In episode one, Len Goodman is shocked to discover that his great-great grandfather James Blackhall, was assaulted by his own son Henry.
Entertainer Len Goodman visits the Old Bailey, to find out what happened when his great-great grandfather gave evidence against his own son, Henry. Len is shocked to discover that Henry threatened to kill his father with a pickaxe, assaulted his mother and was sentenced to five years penal servitude.
Len says: He was obviously a hooligan, basically, out of control, and with a vicious temper. Well, I think Henry got his just desserts.
The Old Bailey stands on the site of Newgate, once one of Britain's most notorious prisons and the site of London's gallows. Len is shown Dead Man's Walk, which led the condemned towards the hangman's noose. Len realises that if Henry had carried out his threat of murder, he would have never have left Newgate alive.
Instead, Henry was then transferred to Pentonville where he spent nine months in the separate system'. The Victorians believed that prisoners should be kept totally isolated from each other to reflect on their crime. Prisoners spent hours working alone in their cells, had to walk at set distances from each other during exercise and wear special masks over their faces to make them anonymous and prevent communication.
After the mental torture, came physical hardship. After doing hard labour building the docks at Chatham, Henry was transferred to the remote prison of Portland on the Dorset coast where he was made to quarry for stone.
Having learned about the conditions his ancestor was subjected to, Len's opinions on whether Henry's punishment fitted his crime, begin to change:
Len says: It makes me feel so sad for him. We all lose our temper, and what he did was terrible, but we all have that trait in us. I just hope and fingers crossed that Henry comes good in the end.
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