Sport's Strangest Crimes

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About the show

Latest episodes

• Tennis' Darkest Hour: 4. Your Friend from Thuringia

  October 5, 2026 · 31 min

  As police question the attacker, the strange motive for this appalling crime is revealed - sending another shockwave through the world of tennis and beyond. We learn more about the man who attacked Monica Seles, and a worrying obsession…

• Tennis' Darkest Hour: 3. Print It Big

  September 28, 2026 · 37 min

  After three years, women’s tennis had a new number one. Monica Seles was riding high on a wave of success; out of the last nine Grand Slams, she had played eight finals, and won seven of them. But from the highest of highs to the lowest of…

• Tennis' Darkest Hour: 2. There’s Always A Contender

  September 21, 2026 · 45 min

  Steffi Graf had been world number one for 3 years; it seemed like nobody could challenge her supremacy. But then along came a teenage girl from Yugoslavia, whose aggressive style - that came with grunting to match - challenged Graf’s…

• Tennis' Darkest Hour: 1. The Little Peanut

  September 14, 2026 · 42 min

  On April 30, 1993, one moment of madness changed the course of tennis history, and confronted the world of sport with an uncomfortable reality - how safe were its biggest stars? Teenage phenomenon, Monica Seles, had taken the tennis world…

• Tennis' Darkest Hour: Trailer

  September 4, 2026 · 4 min

  Clare Balding tells the story of how a shocking act of violence altered sporting history, and how a visionary tennis champion fought to find her way back to the life she once had

• Shadows on the Pitch: 7. “Do I Not Like That?”

  August 28, 2026 · 42 min

  Former referees and a FIFA insider: can the USA ‘94 conspiracy theory floated by the Iraqi Football Federation over 30 years ago finally be explained? James travels to Cologne to retrace the steps of England’s failed 1993 World Cup…

• Shadows on the Pitch: 6. A Dirty Game?

  August 21, 2026 · 33 min

  Patronage and power: lessons from an Italian footballing scandal. From the pitch of the San Siro to a pre-dawn FBI raid of a luxury hotel in Geneva, James gathers a new understanding of the mechanics of football-match manipulation, in a…

• Shadows on the Pitch: 5. All the Presidents Men

  August 14, 2026 · 35 min

  As the FIFA draw takes place in Washington DC and the great and the good of the footballing world convene in the US capital, spies come out of the woodwork to speak to James. Former CIA operatives and military intelligence aficionados…