I Confess: The Power of Confession: Episode 5 (Radio 3)

I Confess: The Power of the Confession looks at the history of confessions, which links the legal world of Cicero to our own. In Episode five, journalist and writer Andrew Brown considers the modern public role of confession. Why do we want confession despite its often chilling heritage? When Tiger Woods confesses to cheating on his wife, or a tearful Jade Goody confesses to bullying Shilpa Shetty in the Big Brother House, what is in it for us? Why, in a society where these actions are not crimes, do we want the television interviewer or journalist to step into the inquisitor's shoes and the media to serve us up the heart of the 'wrongdoer' on a plate? Surely in a society where confession has sat at the heart of miscarriage of justice again and again, we ought to be wise to its potential for deception by now? Yet like the inquisitor Bernard Gui, even as we list the caveats of the process we are still unwilling to give it up.