Princes in The Tower - Popular Culture

Popular Culture

• The first series of the British sitcom Blackadder is set in a comic alternative history where the Princes in the Tower survived and grew to adulthood, Prince Richard assuming the throne as Richard IV upon Richard III's death at Bosworth Field. Edward V is ignored by the storyline, and is never mentioned in script.
• The truth about the Princes is "discovered" in The Kingmaker, an audio drama based on Doctor Who.
• An episode of the Canadian children's documentary series Mystery Hunters is dedicated to the unsolved case of the missing princes.
• In 1984, Channel 4 broadcast a four-hour "trial" of Richard III on the charge of murdering the princes. The presiding judge was Lord Elwyn-Jones and the barristers were recruited from the Queen's Counsel, but had to remain anonymous. Expert witnesses included David Starkey. The jury was composed of ordinary citizens. The burden of proof was left to the prosecution. The jury found in favour of the defendant.
• The Japanese anime series Kuroshitsuji details a possible scenario of what happened to the Princes in the Tower in Episode 16 ("His Butler: The Lone Castle"). Under orders from 'relatives', King Edward V and Richard were executed in the Tower of London, and had their bodies disposed of in the River Teme. This revelation allows their ghostly forms to ascend to heaven after 400 years of haunting Ludlow Castle.
• The Rich Kids had a hit song with, and an album named, "Ghosts of Princes in Towers" which made reference to the Princes and drew on rumours of their haunting the Tower of London.
• Kate Beaton, cartoonist of webcomic Hark! A Vagrant, devoted one of her comic strips to the story of the Princes.