Sunday, June 10, 2018

John Bodkin Adams and Countryfile

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This blog has dwelt before on the case of the Eastbourne doctor John Bodkin Adams, who appears to have been the Harold Shipman of the 1950s.

His elderly patients developed the convenient habit of changing their wills in his favour and expiring shortly afterwards.

We have seen that Theresa May's father was chaplain at the hospital to which Bodkin Adams was attached and that Harriet Harman's father was the medical defence witness when he was tried for murder and acquitted.

But this case reaches deeper into the heart of the British Establishment than that. It even involves Countryfile.

Bodkin Adams was first investigated by Eastbourne Police when they received an anonymous call expressing concern at the death of a lady called Gertrude Hullett.

That call was made by her friend Leslie Henson.

Henson was an entertainer who began his career in the Edwardian music hall, progressed to silent films and was one of the founders of ENSA, the organisation that entertained our troops in World War II.

He married three times and had two sons. The younger is the actor Nicky Henson, who is known for cult films like Witchfinder General and Psychomania and was married to Una Stubbs.

Leslie Henson's second son Joe did not enter the theatrical profession but became a farmer. He developed an interest in rare breeds before they were fashionable and opened the Cotswold Farm park.

And Joe's son Adam is also a farmer - and one of the presenters of Countryfile.

You see how it all fits together?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Not Bournemouth - Eastbourne.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Bodkin_Adams

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Bodkin_Adams

https://www.biography.com/people/john-bodkin-adams-17172156

Jonathan Calder said...

You are right, of course. That's what comes of not looking things up.

Bournemouth was Neville Heath.