In TV dramas, criminal profilers solve crimes that the police cannot. Presenters Dr Julia Shaw and Amber Haque look at a real life case.

An anonymous blackmailer threatens acid attacks unless his demands for pornographic photos of female airline staff at Gatwick are met. The police are stumped. So, they call in a professor of criminal psychology. What he says astounds them.

Further information:

Julia refers in this episode to the following study: Analysing criminal profiling validity: Underlying problems and future directions. Rita Alexandra Brilha Ribeiro, Cristina Branca Bento de Matos Soeiro. International Journal of Law and Psychiatry Volume 74, January–February 2021, 101670

Cracker is a 1990s ITV drama series about a fictional criminal profiler. The series was produced by Granada Television, written by Jimmy McGovern and starred Robbie Coltraine. In August 2024, the series was available on ITVX.

Jimmy McGovern appears in this June 2021 episode of Bad People, talking about another one of his crime dramas: Time.

The Real Cracker was a documentary series produced by Oxford Films. It was inspired by the TV drama Cracker. A book based on the series was published in 2002 by Channel 4 Books: The Real Cracker: Investigating the Criminal Mind by Stephen Cook.

Producer: Innes Bowen
Editor: Philip Sellars
Unit Manager: Lucy Bannister
Production Coordinator: Juliette Harvey
Researcher: Rhiannon Cobb
Mix Engineer: John Scott
Recording Studio: 88Hertz
Commissioning Editor: Dylan Haskins
Assistant Commissioners: Adam Eland and Sarah Green