Here for the History
Who Invented the “Whodunit”?
Up next
17 September 2026
Available for over a year
It was the vicar that did it! In the billiards room! With a candlestick!
To many fans of a murder mystery, this is perhaps a familiar sounding phrase from a classic “whodunit”. But just how did this endlessly popular genre come to be?
Alice and Ben leaf back through the pages of history to uncover just where “whodunits” came from, who invented them, and how they’ve endured centuries of changing tastes.
They will discuss multiple lines of inquiry; from our historical appetite for the gruesome and thrilling; to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle; Agatha Christie; and even the impact of the World Wars.
Key Sources:
Agatha Christie: A Very Short Introduction - Professor Gill Plain
The TV Crime Drama - Professor Sue Turnbull
Forever England: Femininity, Literature, and Conservatism Between the Wars - Alison Light
Agatha Christie: Lucy Worsley on the Mystery Queen - BBC / Lucy Worsley
Caught in the Web of Words: Whodunit - Ken Liss
