BRISTOL IT’S CRIMINAL?
BRISTOL: IT’S CRIMINAL
Bristol made its fortune on trade, empire, rebellion — and sometimes outright criminality.
BRISTOL: IT’S CRIMINAL is a dark history and true crime podcast from Show of Strength, presented by Sheila Hannon. Each episode, in conversation with a knowledgeable guest, uncovers the city’s most notorious stories: pirates and press gangs, public executions and body snatchers, corruption, colonial violence and the blurred line between legal power and crime.
This isn’t sanitised heritage. It’s storytelling rooted in rigorous research from the company that brings Bristol’s past to life on the streets every week. It’s also told with a great deal of humour to lighten the darkness.
Created to complement Show of Strength’s acclaimed Theatre Walks in Bristol and Bath, the series blends theatre, archive and conversation — asking not just what happened, but who benefited, who suffered, who got to write the history
If you love dark history, true crime, and stories with teeth told with humour then this is for you — welcome aboard.
Show of Strength
Founded in 1986, Show of Strength is a Bristol-based theatre company specialising in bold, intelligent work rooted in local history. The company created the theatres at the Hen& Chicken (1989) and Tobacco Factory (1998).
Non theatre spaces, promenade performances and long-running Theatre Walks across Bristol and Bath - Show of Strength animates real places with real stories — revealing the drama hidden in plain sight.
Work combines meticulous research with theatrical storytelling, inviting audiences to walk through the past rather than simply observe it.
Full info and Theatre Walks tickets via www.showofstrength.org.uk
Sheila Hannon
Sheila Hannon is a writer, performer and Creative Producer of Show of Strength Theatre Company. For decades she has researched and created performance work exploring Bristol’s hidden histories — from maritime brutality to social injustice and notorious impostors. Drama for BBC Radio 4 includes THE FEMALE HUSBAND available on Penguin Classics.
As presenter of BRISTOL: IT’S CRIMINAL, Sheila brings sharp curiosity, clarity, a refusal to look away from uncomfortable truths and a lot of humour. Her research underpins all of Show of Strength’s Theatre Walks, now a staple of Bristol’s cultural life. She’s one of 10 finalists for Visit England’s Tourism Superstar 2026 award, nominated by Visit West.
Listen on:
Episodes
Friday Mar 13, 2026
Friday Mar 13, 2026
BRISTOL: IT’S CRIMINAL is back! In CHAPTER TWO, Show Of Strength’s Creative Producer Sheila Hannon is joined by Dr Rose Wallis, Associate Professor of British Social History, to reveal the dark history behind the Skeleton in the Cupboard…. a tale of love, lust, murder, and the medical profession.
Together, Sheila and Rose explore
The life and death of John Horwood, the first person to be executed at Bristol New Gaol in 1821
The often-overlooked story of Eliza Balsum
The machinations of Bristol’s leading surgeon, Dr Richard Smith (yes, he’s the bad guy)
Gender, injustice and victim blaming in court
Trial by media
The local myths and misnomers that surround the trial of John Horwood (and explode a few)
The spectacle of public punishment
Beyond the crime and its punishment, this case offers a rare glimpse into the lives of young working people at the beginning of the nineteenth century, ones that are far more familiar than we might imagine. But their afterlives were extraordinary. Join us next time for the Skeleton in the Cupboard part 2
Sheila Hannon, Show Of Strength’s Creative Producer, researches and writes the company’s nine (soon to be ten) THEATRE WALKS – true tales of extraordinary people and places in Bristol, Bath and Beyond – and leads several of them. The story of THE SKELETON IN THE CUPBAORD features in our BLOOD AND BUTCHERY IN BEDMINSTER TOUR see https://showofstrength.org.uk/
Guest: Rose Wallis is a social historian of crime and criminal justice based at the University of the West of England. Rose worked with Show of Strength to explore forgotten working class lives with women in HMP Eastwood Park. Their work was recorded to produce From Bristol to Botany Bay: a film reimagining the experiences of ten women transported to the other side of the world in 1817. Rose’s current book project, ‘Reading the book of skin’, explores the lives - and afterlives - of John Horwood and Eliza Balsum.
Friday Mar 06, 2026
Friday Mar 06, 2026
Was the most infamous pirate in history actually a Bristol man?
In Episode One of BRISTOL: IT’S CRIMINAL, Sheila Hannon is joined by Bristol-born actor and long-time Show of Strength performer Gerard Cooke to explore the evidence linking Edward Teach — better known as Blackbeard — to Bristol.
Together they dive into:
The case for Blackbeard’s Bristol origins • The “posh pirate” theory — clergy, merchants and Jamaica • The thin legal line between privateer and pirate • Bristol’s role in Atlantic trade and slavery • Public executions on Queen Square • Press gangs and forced recruitment • The theatre of terror — how Blackbeard built his legend • The brutal final battle of 1718
Behind the smoke, fuses and myth lies a darker story about empire, violence and reputation management.
If Blackbeard was Bristol’s export — what else did the city send out into the world?
Guest: Gerard Cooke
Gerard Cooke is a Bristol-born actor working across stage, screen, radio and immersive performance.
He has performed with Show of Strength since 2008 and has led Theatre Walks since 2017 — most prominently as the pirate guide in Blood, Blackbeard and Buccaneers and Treasure Island Story Walk.
Described by the Bristol Post as “a ball of energy… spinning on his heels and regaling us with stories of battles, treasure and grisly ends,” Gerard is best known to audiences as Captain Cuttlefish — tricorn hat, red coat and parrot included.
Combining Sheila Hannon’s research with charismatic delivery and character-driven storytelling, his performances bring seventeenth-century Bristol vividly to life.
In this episode, Gerard steps out from behind the tricorn to explore the history behind the performance — and the uncomfortable truths beneath the romance of piracy.
Reference & Further Reading
Baylus C. Brooks — Quest for Blackbeard: The True Story of Edward Thache and His World • Charles Johnson — A General History of the Pyrates (1724) • David Cordingly — Under the Black Flag: The Romance and the Reality of Life Among the Pirates • E.T. Fox — research into early Blackbeard sources • UK National Archives — Admiralty and privateering records • Jamaican parish records (late 17th century)
Episode Timeline
(00:00) Intro — Was Blackbeard Bristol Born?(00:40) “Edward Teach of Redcliffe” — The Bristol Claim(01:30) The Records That Vanished — Redcliffe & WWII Bombing(02:15) Jamaica, Burial Records & The Expanding Paper Trail(03:30) The “Posh Pirate” Theory — Clergy, Merchants & Plantation Wealth(05:15) Pirate or Privateer? The “Piece of Paper” That Changed Everything(06:45) Queen Square — Public Hangings & Bristol’s Pirate Past(07:45) Branding Fear — Smoke, Slow Fuses & Psychological Warfare(09:10) Press Gangs, The Queen’s Shilling & The Hole in the Wall(10:45) Treasure, Doubloons & The Pop-Culture Pirate Myth(12:00) The Final Battle (1718) — Lieutenant Maynard’s Trap(13:20) Five Shots, Twenty Cuts — The Death of Blackbeard(14:00) The Skull, The Legend & What Bristol Chooses To Remember