After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds & the Paranormal

Have you ever wondered what the ancient origins of witchcraft is? How did the black-hat-broomstick stereotype emerge? And what causes the waves of witch trials throughout history, right up to the present day?

Ronald Hutton is back on After Dark to discuss the history of the witch, in an episode from our sister podcast, Betwixt the Sheets.

This podcast was mixed and produced by Stuart Beckwith. The senior producer was Charlotte Long...

The Victorians created the unsettling art of death photography - posing their deceased love ones in family portraits as if they were alive. How did they manage to make corpses strike poses? Why did they want to?

Maddy and Anthony are joined by Brandy Schillace, author of Death’s Summer Coat - What Death and Dying Cal Tell Us about Life and Living to flick through the strangest, and most moving, of family photo albums.

Edited by Tom Delargy. Produced by Stuart Beckwith...

Did a Tudor prophetess correctly predict the English Civil War, the Crimean War, the sinking of the Titanic, World War One and the end of days? And what does she have to do with turning teddy bears into stone?

Find out as Maddy and Anthony discuss Mother Shipton's life, legend and legacy.

Written by Maddy Pelling

Edited and produced by Freddy Chick. Senior producer is Charlotte Long...

Witch hunts blazed across Europe from the 1400s right into the 1700s. Their terror has been burned into the collective memory. But how accurate are the pictures we have in our heads?

For this episode, Anthony and Maddy are joined by Suzannah Lipscomb, host of Not Just the Tudor. She helps them delve deep into the realities of witches and witch trials in Early Modern Europe...

For Albert Pierrepoint, execution was a family affair. His father and uncle were hangmen and from the 1940s until the late 1950s Albert was Britain's "Number One" executioner. Which meant he was the one sent to hang the Nazis who ran the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp at the end of the war.

Who was Albert Pierrepoint? What does it take to be able to execute hundreds of people? And what is 'The Drop'?

Edited and produced by Freddy Chick, Senior Producer is Charlotte Long...

What is spectrophilia? Well, it's a fetish for ghosts (as well as mirrors), so being turned on by anything lurking in the non-physical realm. What are the historic origins of this fetish and phenomenon? And what real life stories can be told of it?

Maddy and Anthony talked with Kate Lister, wonderful host of our sister podcast Betwixt the Sheets.

This podcast was edited by Siobhan Dale and produced by Stuart Beckwith. The senior producer was Charlotte Long...

What lurks beneath the dark waters of Loch Ness? The legendary monster? A piece of Celtic folklore? A warning of the Nazis' rise to power? A fraudster?

Today Anthony and Maddy are examining grainy photographs, picking over descriptions of monsters and trying to work out what it all means.

Written by Anthony Delaney

Edited by Tom Delargy. Produced by Freddy Chick. Senior Producer is Charlotte Long.

This episode contains sound effects from Zapsplat...

Other countries celebrate their victories and independence. But in Britain, we celebrate a bungling terrorist from the 17th century. Why? Who was Guy Fawkes? What was the Gunpowder Plot? And why must we Remember, Remember the 5th of November?

Maddy Pelling and Anthony Delaney are joined by historian and author Steven Veerapen - author of (among other titles) Of Blood Descended: An Anthony Blanke Tudor Mystery: https://birlinn.co...

Can it be murder if you think you're killing a ghost? In 1804 the London suburb of Hammersmith was being terrorised by a ghost. One man set out to hunt down whoever, or whatever, this was. He almost swung from the end of a rope for his troubles.

Join Anthony and Maddy for this ghostly Halloween episode.

Written by Maddy Pelling.

Edited by Tom Delargy. Produced by Freddy Chick. Senior Producer is Charlotte Long...

Bodmin Jail can claim to be one of the most haunted buildings in Britain. Perhaps that's because of all the hangings that took place here. Or the postmortem punishment the jail dolled out to prisoners. Or perhaps it is because it's in Cornwall - land of giants, beasts and all things otherworldly.

Maddy and Anthony are joined by Jess Marlton, manager of Bodmin Jail, to talk about life, death and afterlife at this unique 18th century prison...