JUST as the jury is about to announce its verdict, Nat Fraser's knees are shown trembling, out of sight of almost everyone else in the courtroom, but caught by a small, remote-controlled TV camera.

It is one of many revealing moments in a two-hour-long TV documentary shown tonight.

The Murder Trial, shot at the High Court in Edinburgh after three years of painstaking negotiation, made British legal history by capturing such a trial in its entirety for the first time.

Fraser had originally been found guilty in 2003 of the murder of his wife Arlene and was jailed for 25 years. But he embarked on a long appeal process, which led to the conviction being quashed and a re-trial.

At the end of that six-week trial last May, he was found guilty by a majority verdict and sentenced to at least 17 years in prison after being convicted of instructing, instigating and organising the murder of the mother of his two children.

The documentary, covering the second trial from start to finish, weaves witness testimony from inside the courtroom and interviews with members of Arlene's family and others, and evocative home-video of the victim.

It opens with crates of documents being wheeled into the courtroom, and the key personnel – Lord Bracadale, the judge, advocate-depute Alex Prentice, QC, and defence QC John Scott –taking their places.

Fraser, in a blue shirt, is led into the dock and sits between two security officers. The cameras show him looking tense at first, but he seems to relax.

The documentary is full of captivating moments – Fraser giving his full attention to the screening of a police video shot inside the Frasers' Elgin home, for example, and the showing, in court, of footage of the couple's wedding and other private moments.

At one point, Natalie Fraser, daughter of Nat and Arlene, says in an interview she thought Hector Dick, not her father, was responsible. At another, watching a video of her pregnant mother on a sun lounger, she points at her mother's stomach and says: "That's me there."

Mr Dick himself gave evidence over several days at the trial. He has denied any involvement in the murder.

Lord Bracadale recalled: "I don't think I have ever seen a witness going into a seventh day in a High Court trial."

There are also revealing moments once court has ended for the day. Mr Scott says he is getting married in August; Mr Prentice, laughing, asks: "When you speak at the wedding breakfast, are you going to refer to the prior statements of all the guests?"

On the final day, after the verdict has been announced and the jury discharged, one of Mr Scott's team jovially tells Mr Prentice: "Pleasure trialling with you – beat you one day."

The jury is, of course, never identified and the 70-plus witnesses were asked after the trial for permission to screen their testimony. Fraser was approached after the trial and consented to being included in the film.

Nick Holt, who filmed and directed The Murder Trial, said: "We rigged the courtroom with six small, remotely operated cameras the size of your hand.

"That meant they could be placed in the courtroom corners, out of the way and sitting among the court furniture.

"It meant there would be no cameramen, no distraction for people giving evidence or for people working in the courtroom.

"That was quite an important requirement for the trial judge. One of his main concerns was – would the act of filming itself interfere with the process? These cameras meant that wouldn't happen."

London-based Windfall Films first approached the authorities in Scotland in 2009 and two years later it began talking to counsel who would be involved in various trials.

Mr Holt added the film was "an opportunity for a wider audience to understand open justice in practice - what it really looks like". He said: "A great deal of the public's understanding of High Court trials has been almost exclusively through dramatic reconstructions or dramas."

l The Murder Trial, tonight, 9pm, Channel 4