Crimewatch Redux - The Murder of Doctor Birkett (1990) 

Done properly, no backgrpund ominous music or exciteable narrotors speaking in creepy voices, straight to the point👌

I’m amazed by the diligence and doggedness of the investigators.

What a fascinating case ! How sad to lose such a smart gentle man. Excellent police work !

Very good reconstruction. Excellent detecting by the Police.

These videos are really time machines

I feel like I went back in time: the super VGA monitor, VCR, DOS, piles of paper, the old telephone ring sound. Very cool indeed. Amazing police work. I enjoyed this episode very much. Thank you for posting.

RIP Doc , incredible re-enactments , awesome production . Wow , GB really was great not so long ago .

It’s completely ironic how back then, the technology we now have wasn’t available meaning police staff spent days, even weeks looking through evidence. Everything done manually, with absolute patience. Yet now, they’ve got everything at their fingertips & are more understaffed then ever! I guess there’s far more crime to investigate now. Great detecting work in this case. So sorry for Dr Birkitt’s family & friends, he seemed a decent man.

In January 2023 he had a request to be transferred to open prison refused and his parole refused. He will have to wait now until he can apply for parole again. So luckily still locked up inside

“That took Judith a fortnight, and got nowhere” 🤣 aw bless your heart Judith. Now takes a computer minutes to match from thousands of fingerprints

Rest in peace Doctor Birket absolutely horrific crime my thoughts are with your loved ones Xxx

Modern police chiefs could learn a lot from these hardworking honest coppers.

Great to watch a programme without blaring music !

I love the way the British police worked: very persistent and organised, never giving up and all working as a team. Bravo!

'Life should mean life'. There will be many watching this in 2023 who would applaud this sentiment.

No disrespectful background music! Proper documentary.!! Rest in peace poor man. ❤

These are the police members we want. They work and protect citizens.

I adore these videos which I used to watch from time to time, but now I ve suscribed❤ and I m so happy! So well done! I enjoy very much listening to well and soft spoken English. Thanks a lot and best wishes from Uruguay, Southamerica.-

Wow what an amazing judge …. Life in its entirety!! Why don’t all judges say that? If you take a life you should never ever be free to live your own life, ever !!

Watching this reminded of when we had real policemen.

Its a great pity this senior detective was not in charge of the Ripper case.

So much more detail and effort! Something that's been lost nowadays 😕

This shows how good professional actors are.

A spokesperson for the Parole Board said: 'We can confirm that a panel of the Parole Board refused the release of Reginald Wilson following an oral hearing.14 Jan 2023

Forensics have come along way especially when it come to checking finger prints. Still they did a great job with what they had at the time. Loved crime watch one of the first true crime series. There are so many nowadays some good and bad.

Amazing detective work, literally!

Thank you so much for uploading this video. It is helping me get through the pandemic!

Hope he is still rotting away for murdering the Dr and those tiny puppies.

Very impressed with having such a personal insight. Thankyou

Fantastic detective work.

It’s sad to loose a smart doctor that helped out society for a looser flop

The world lost an intelligent, productive, hard-working human being like Dr Birkett and we are left with the absolute pond-life that killed him. No justice.

Even with his lengthy criminal record, Wilson needed to kill someone before he was finally put away.

Police in the US: “Come out or we’ll shoot”. UK “Come out or we’ll shine a torch in your eyes”

Judith the fingerprint expert. Dedicated professional

I'm a home delivery driver and know all these streets. The history is creepy

This is so sad. David RIP. I used to watch Crimewatch, it gives me anxiety, but I stopped.💗🌻🙏🧑🏻‍🦼

Troubling that one cannot feel safe chasing away loitering youths from one's neighbourhood...

Who'd be A Fingerprint Identifier? Strewth. I'd go blind. Thank God for Computers. And alert Police Persons. The Detective work in this case was amazing. Even the perp was taken aback. Well the actor anyway.

Reginald Wilson was caught by a fingerprint on a carrier bag he dropped at the scene a match was made when he was caught for stealing a motorbike without that he would probably have got away with it

So sad, he seems such a lovely man 🌷

This is what the 1990’s looked like? I was alive in the 1990, didn’t know it looked like this.

I know this will be slightly controversial, but I've been watching quite a few of these recently, and I think we should applaud our police forces for the work they do. Earlier today, I saw one reconstruction where two policemen were shot at close range, and another fired upon. The only thing they were armed with was good common sense, a truncheon and a policeman's helmet. It takes courage to face those robbers as those two policemen did, especially without a gun or bulletproof vest. And in this episode the fingerprint expert who said she had to match one thumb print manually with tens of thousands of known offenders. "It took her fortnight" but she still did it, and then had to enlarge her research parameters. This second isn't unique to our police forces but in combination with the first case, it really shows the best of the police.

V sorry about this... just a random attack from an animal... I dread to think how a family can deal with it, a really talented man.

Very sad circumstances, however, great reencctment. Good show.

R.i.p doc....not forgetting the poor puppies...r.i.p

Excellent police work and the judge backed their hard work by granting a sentence in line with public expectations - that truly dangerous people are taken out of circulation of the general public.

It´s like looking at an episode of Midsomer Murders. Just waiting for John Nettles to pop up.

Well worth watching. CHEERS

The man who noticed the men in the Phone box, I wouldn’t of even paid any attention. It goes we should always be Vigilant

25:24 This is not 26 Cornfield road as there is or was a fence running alongside the left of the property with pedestrian access walkway to the nearby college .The construction shows a house immediately on the left hand side. This looks like Cornfield Road but a bit further down towards Emerson Avenue

Fantastic police work!

This awesome (not for David), the YT time machine hits one out of the ballpark again!

Amazing police work. Fascinating to watch how police work was before computers etc.

It’s astounding how long it took to check fingerprints back then!

Repect to the forensics and police 🌷

Omg when they had to look through the delivery dockets😮😮😮😮

Thank you!

Judith your holiday was at the wrong time!

Oh, I see, this was live, that's why no background music! Contemporary documentaries are so badly made, they disrespect the victims by nonstop music and the lack of empathy is so obvious! They only make these programs to make money. This program is a prove that music is completely not needed, it's bizarre in fact!

He used to take care of my Granddad

Life should mean life! Now that’s something you don’t hear these days!

Death penalty needs to be reinstated in the UK!

It is great to see that some police officers are doing a good job

Reginal Wilson then 26 convicted of Dr Birketts murder. Incidentally, recent reports indicate it had a move to an open prison blocked by government this year. Psychopathic tendencies, came into house as a motorcycle courier. Was actually sentenced to life in 1991 but of course life means something else in the UK

Wouldn't his fingerprints have been on record if he had previous.

I've found a couple more lines of the letter(s) he sent, and they really left out the worst parts. It's horrific. This is a good documentary, but I'm surprised there isn't a couple more at least. We get more and different facts and perspectives when there are.

They always kill animals first ,poor DR did not deserve to die this way ,I am proud to say I am from Middlesbrough and our police done an EXCELLENT JOB catching Reg Wilson the local NUTTER !!!

It almost sounds like the perpetrator in this programme had watched far too many thriller movies and taken his ideas from these elaborately themed movies

The actor who played Wilson was brilliant.!! I really began to hate him . I wonder if he went on to be a success later. ?

27:26 lovely double denim

Some odd fellows from around those ways.

How clean was Middlesbrough back then. Compare to naw 😢

Now keep him in prison UK. Your lenient sentencing for sociopaths, violent, deviants is pathetic and a danger to society

Before the days of magic computerised fingerprint searchers.

Miss Crimewatch

I just read his whole life term was over turned in 2008. Any word on his release?

Wow I probably watched this on to in 1990, I was 12 at the time. Sad case though.

I hope Reg is still locked up…

Brilliant 👏work

When police officers were honest hardworking & wanted to keep the riff-raff off the streets . How the force has collapsed to the dregs .

12:30 needs tuning 😅

No computers in1990 !

In this the doc at 14:00 says they are going to prescribe Valium for exema. 🤦

"He has a personality quite weird" what a lousy journalist

UK police huh, didnt check out the address where someone said there'd been a murder. Only 2% of crime resilts in an arrest, less go to court and prison sentences are ridiculous. All this costs tax payers billions yearly.

Fascinating!

Totally excellent old school policing murder without motive some things don't change!!

The murderer is a great actor

Isn't Paleopathology the study of ancient diseases, osteology is the study of bones. Obvs the evidence of some diseases can be seen in bones as can other information but that jumped out as an inaccuracy

I’m amazed any murders get solved at all without forensic,the Police appear to be so dumb.

I feel so sorry for his dogs.

This was 3 streets away from my home 💀 the killer lived next door to my best friends house

27:24 he’s got some balls talking to a copper like that 😅

Poor little baby got her/his mother mixed up and the wrong mom did not like the little baby clinging to her.

In 2023 the Parole board recommended he be sent to an open prison;! Luckily the Home office Minister refused the recommendations. He should never het out.

top notch acting

27:42 That’s when Secretary’s were worth their weight in gold. Box files lever arch files no computers

We were having our tea and donuts so we don't respond to calls !

Difficult to follow because of the accents and the speed everybody talked at.