It feels right that Vishal’s family are at the heart of this series. All too often, relatives are an afterthought in podcasts about cold-case murders, their thoughts and feelings presented as secondary to those of the heroic sleuthing journalist. Vishal is simultaneously a story of a family left in limbo, a murder mystery and a vivid portrait of a moment in time.

Perhaps the most memorable testimony comes from a former neighbour of the Mehrotras named Matthew, who was the same age as Vishal and had played with him in the street. He recalls a commemorative mug being given to schoolchildren at the time of the royal wedding, which now stands as a reminder of a time when “the nation was playing at princes and princesses . . . And yet the dark side of that fairytale is something very folk tale-ish: the abduction and murder of a child.”

 https://www.ft.com/content/4b160ee4-9bb2-4440-af8b-559ad1a136ad#comments-anchor