Tony Robinson's Crime and Punishment

Tony looks at the first millennium AD and the waves of foreign invaders that left their mark on the way we organise ourselves and sort out disputes, from Anglo Saxon family blood feuds in which it was perfectly legal to bump off a rival, to a surprisingly sophisticated system of courts and written laws established by King Alfred.

Tony Robinson continues his fascinating and sometimes bizarre journey to discover the origins of our laws and what we do to people when they break them. In this episode, Tony gets medieval and finds out how a turbulent 150 years left us with professional judges, trial by jury and a set of laws for the entire country.

Tony Robinson continues his fascinating and sometimes bizarre journey to discover the origins of our laws and what we do to people when they break them. In this episode,Tony examines the 16th century and the reign of Henry VIII, whose marital problems cast Britain adrift from Europe and changed the course of our legal history.

This is the concluding episode of Tony Robinson's fascinating and sometimes bizarre journey to discover the origins of our laws and what we do to people when they break them. The 18th century was a golden age for business, when property was king but the fear of crime meant that 200 offences, including pick-pocketing, were punishable by death.