Episode Seven: The Wanderer

In 1882, the threat of assassination was in the air. The year
before, Tsar Alexander II was killed by an assassin’s bomb, then
in July, American President James Garfield was also murdered.
Queen Victoria, on the throne for 45 years seemed vulnerable. The
final attempt on her life was from a young man named Roderick
Maclean. His father Charles was the owner of a satirical magazine
called Fun, but Roderick’s life was anything but that. Roderick
grew up dreaming of a literary career, but the family lost its
fortune and an accidental blow to the young MacLean’s head caused
a marked change in personality. Roderick began to see enemies
everywhere and became fascinated by the colour blue and the
number four. Unable to hold down a job, Roderick tramped around
England from one workhouse or asylum to another.


Dr Bob Nicholson visits the Punch Tavern in central London and
describes the Victorian love of satire and comedy in such
publications as Punch and Charles Maclean’s Fun. As he finds out
more about Roderick Maclean’s story, Bob throws a light on the
life of the Victorian wanderer, and the asylum system and
Victoria’s later life. He traces Roderick’s final journey as a
free man, from Southsea where he had befriended a landlady named
Mrs Sorrell, up through Hampshire and into Windsor, where he
waited, armed with a pistol, for the Queen to arrive.