Was Lord Lucan killed by a hitman?

My new piece in The Daily Express.

AS a new TV drama tells the story of the murder that caused the missing peer to flee, a baronet who moved in the same high society gambling circles makes a startling claim.

It was, in the words of one writer, as if Upstairs Downstairs had been reshot by Alfred Hitchcock. The mysterious murder of 29-year-old nanny Sandra Rivett, bludgeoned to death in the basement kitchen of the London home of Lady Lucan on November 7 1974, the attack on Lady Lucan that same evening and the disappearance of the prime suspect, the latter's estranged husband Lord Lucan, dominated the headlines at the time.

It continues to fascinate us almost 40 years later, as shown by a new two-part drama series on the case starting this week on ITV1.

Various theories have been put forward as to what really happened on that fateful evening in Belgravia but the most sensational of all comes from Sir Rupert Mackeson, an Old Harrovian baronet and member of the brewing dynasty who was on the fringe of the high society gambling Clermont Set of which Lord Lucan was a member.

You can read the whole piece here.