00:00 The Titch-Born case was an incredibly dramatic and captivating trial in Victorian England that involved curses, disputed inheritances, and attempts to pass off false identities, and it fascinated people for years; Zadie Smith's novel, The Fraud, brilliantly explores this case and why it obsessed people.

05:16 A Catholic aristocrat named Sir Roger Titch-Born goes missing after a shipwreck, but his mother insists that he is still alive and offers large sums of money for his return; years later, a man named Arthur Orton shows up claiming to be Sir Roger Titch-Born, despite being physically and culturally different, leading to a court case that lasts for two and a half years and captures the public's imagination due to its involvement of London, Australia, race, and social class.

09:31 Sir Henry Titchbourne, the uncle of Roger Titchbourne, is captured by the French during the Napoleonic Wars, leading to a series of complicated marriages and eventually resulting in Roger becoming the heir to the estate.

13:38 Roger Titchbourne, while trying to prove his identity, fabricates a story about impregnating his cousin based on sealed letters, while his mother consults clairvoyants and agents in Australia to find him, all while his uncle and other relatives stand to gain or lose from his existence or death, and Arthur Orton, the butcher, enters the scene coincidentally and claims to be Roger.

17:38 In 1865, a man from Wagga Wagga named William Gibbs claims to be Roger Titchbourne and is supported by a servant and the gardener, but loses his annuity from the Titchbourne family as a result.

21:33 After Sir Roger's mother recognizes the claimant as her long lost son, she gives him £1,000 a year, but then dies, leaving him without support, yet he decides to sue the Titchbourne family and continues to fight the case, even though there are doubts about his true identity.

25:59 The courtroom proceedings during the Titchborne case had a theatrical quality, with people treating it like entertainment and the defense lawyer, Edward Canealy, giving long, irrational stories, revealing the flaws in the English legal system at the time.

30:00 The Titchborne case was a study in left-wing populism and irrationality, with the defense lawyer, Edward Keneally, running a campaign outside the courtroom and the second trial being influenced by public pressure to fill the jury with working people, ultimately transforming the court system in some way.

34:23 The trial was a turning point for the English legal system, leading to a realization that calling hundreds of witnesses was impractical and needed to change.

38:18 The Titchbourne family's wealth did not continue, but their name lives on in Titchy, a word derived from the musical star Little Titch who was inspired by the Titchbourne claimant, and author Zadie Smith believes that the facts are important when writing historical fiction.