A detective story that shows how Charles Darwin lied and cheated in order to be recognized as the discoverer of the theory of evolution. New research from the Cambridge archives and long forgotten shipping schedules for the royal mail now indicate that Darwin lied about the dates on which he received letters from a young beetle collector, Alfred Russel Wallace.

We show how Darwin used the content of those letters to amend his notes at a time when he was struggling to find his own answer to the theory of evolution. On the centenary of Wallace’s death the programme reveals how Darwin’s friends conspired to deny Wallace his rightful place as the first man to discover the theory of evolution.