Kenya Murder Mystery (2009)

Channel 4 UK and The History Channel

The latest film in the consistently superb True Stories strand is particularly prescient — it gives a detailed insight into the trail of Thomas Cholmondeley, the aristocratic heir (Delamere family) to an immense colonial estate in Kenya, accused of murdering a poacher in 2006, who was found guilty a couple of weeks ago. It was the second African the Old Etonian was alleged to have killed in as many years (he was acquitted of the first), and his trial went beyond guilt or innocence to encompass the thorny issues of land reform, British colonial rule and the shortcomings of the Kenyan police and judicial system.

Both the case itself and the surrounding issues are more complex than the sensationalist headlines would suggest; at the same time, it becomes abundantly clear why 40-year-old Cholmondeley and his clan are the focus of such intense local hatred.