RedHanded
RedHanded is an award winning true crime podcast that offers a weekly dose of murder, wit and “WTFs” delivered with all the facts, anecdotal tangents aplenty, serious societal scrutiny and real BRITISH flavour.
There’s a reason Redhanded was named the #1 most popular true-crime podcast in the U.K. back in 2020 and won the BBC Listener's Choice Award three times in a row (2021,2022, and 2023). From mysterious murders to cold cases, Hannah and Suruthi are experts on all things creepy. Some days you’ll get a new take on a big-time story; other times, you’ll learn all the spooky details about a case you’ve never heard of. Best of all, they do it with British accents.
The Hosts
7 years ago hosts Hannah Maguire and Suruthi Bala met at a party, they got drunk and decided to start a true crime podcast together. Within months they had started recording the very first episodes of RedHanded, with a £10 microphone, locked in a cupboard under Hannah’s stairs.
Hannah Maguire
Hannah thought she was going to be an actor, then like many, she was a teacher, and then like not so many, she wound up co-hosting the true-crime podcast RedHanded. As a dyslexic devourer of audiobooks and a lover of stories, podcasting was made for her. On a whim, Hannah studied Social Anthropology at SOAS, because she thought it would make her sound interesting. Luckily, it lent her an anthropological appetite to understand why people do what they do.
Suruthi Bala
Suruthi has always been an independent, overachiever. Whether she was a 3-year-old with loose laces because she refused to let anyone tie them, or a 5-year-old who had just moved to the UK, and could write perfect cursive with a fountain pen but couldn’t speak a word of English. After graduating from The University of Birmingham with a BSc and an MSc in Economics, and quickly becoming disillusioned with the world of finance she went into the relentlessly tiring world of events. After a year of travelling, she met Hannah, and RedHanded was born.
The Show
RedHanded the podcast jumps head first into all manner of macabre madness. We cover everything from big time serial killers (and those you may never have heard of), to hauntings, possessions, disturbing mysteries, bizarre whodunits and basically anything that tickles our creepy fancy
Today, RedHanded is an internationally-renowned, hit podcast racking up millions of downloads every single month from self-proclaimed ‘Spooky Bitches’ (the fanbase’s affectionate nickname for itself). Since the good old cupboard days, the show has gone from strength to strength, including: winning Gold at the British Podcast Awards in 2021, 2022, and 2023 penning a Sunday Times Best-Selling book in 2021 and selling out multiple live tours in the UK, Europe, USA, and Australia and New Zealand.
There are different 'branches' or shows - there's the full-fat RedHanded (how the girls call it) - the 'main' show. For patreons there are weekly 'Under the Duvet' shows with more personal stuff and current topics. Then there are also the Spotify-exlusive 'Sinister Societies' - a podcast about cults and the Amazon-exlusive 'ShortHand' where they talk about anything and everything and you can learn about topics you never even heard of before.
I love this podcast, cause the storytelling is top notch, the girls are funny and their chemistry is just perfect. I'm every week looking forward to listening to the newest episode!
If you're new to this podcast and want to start listening now, you'll have plenty of episodes to enjoy. RedHanded is at episode 374 right now, Under the Duvet has 224 episodes, Sinister Societies has 49 episodes, and ShorHand has 119 episodes.
The Book
Based off Hannah Maguire and Suruthi Bala's popular podcast of the same name, RedHanded explores real-life true crime cases to help answer once and for all if a killer is born or made.
What is it about killers, cults, and cannibals that capture our imaginations even as they terrify and disturb us? Do we find these stories endlessly and equally compelling and frightening, because they hold up a mirror to society’s failings and to the horrors that we humans are capable of? RedHanded rejects the outdated narrative of killers as monsters and that a victim “was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.” Instead, it dissects the stories of killers in a way that challenges perceptions and asks the hard questions about society, gender, poverty, culture, and even our politics. With their trademark humor, research on real-life cases, and unflinching analysis of what makes a criminal, Bala and Maguire take you through what drives the most extreme of human behavior to find out once and for all: what makes a killer tick?