Amanda Vickery tells the stories of three criminals who were transported during the 18th and early 19th centuries, and one group of desperate women who refused to go.

Half a million people were transported during the 18th century - to America, the West Indies, and Australia. Historians are just beginning to track their progress from the Old Bailey to their lives beyond. What they're discovering is as dramatic and colourful as any novel.

Amanda Vickery tells the stories of three criminals who were transported during the 18th and early 19th centuries, and of one group of desperate women who refused to go, throwing the entire penal system into chaos.

Recorded on location in the Prospect of Whitby pub in Wapping, on the River Thames, near where the prisoners were kept in hulks on the river and where many were hanged.

Contributors include Professor Peter King of Leicester University, leading historian of crime; Robert Shoemaker, Professor of History at Sheffield University and the co-founder of the Old Bailey Online; and historian of Empire, Zoe Laidlaw, from Royal Holloway, University of London, herself the descendent of a transported convict who was convicted in the Old Bailey.

With readings by Charlotte Stockley, Ewan Bailey, David Holt, and Steven Webb, and specially arranged music from singer Guy Hughes and pianist David Owen Norris.

Produced by Elizabeth Burke.

A Loftus production for BBC Radio 4.