When former Durham miner Tommy Ball joined Aston Villa in 1920 they were the most successful football club in history with six league trophies and five FA Cups. Their manager, George Ramsey's record would only be matched almost a century later by Alex Ferguson.
This episode is about football and justice in the 1920s. Tommy Ball rises into the Aston Villa first team and has international options for three nations at the time of his sudden death. And when the wheels of justice are triggered, things move speedily. The judge, Sidney Arthur Taylor Rowlatt seems keen on a conviction, to the point of trying to disprove the defence's claims himself.
The series relies heavily on research by Colin Brown, author of The Armistice Day Killing: The Death of Tommy Ball and the Life of the Man who Shot Him.
Post production by Istorias Media, sound editing by Sasha Sadikov.