After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds & the Paranormal

Latest Episodes:

Palmer the Poisoner: Victorian England's Doctor of Death Dec 18, 2023

Show notes

In a century of poisoners, William Palmer stands out as the prince of them all. Charles Dickens called him "the greatest villain that ever stood in the Old Bailey".

Maddy tells Anthony the story this week, whisking us back to Victorian England and the Staffordshire town of Rugeley where Palmer plied his trade. A town where Maddy's ancestor happened to be working as the chemist at the time....

Edited by Tean Stewart-Murray, Produced by Freddy Chick, Senior Producer is Charlotte Long

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Voting is now open for the Listener's Choice Award at this year's Podcast Awards. Click to place your vote on the Spotify mobile app: https://open.spotify.com/s/xhg6PJa

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Why Do People Kill at Christmas? Dec 13, 2023

Show notes

Why do people kill in the season of goodwill? Why are we fascinated when they do? And what does it say about us?

Professor David Wilson, leading criminologist and bestselling author, joins Maddy and Anthony for this Christmas Special edition.

David's latest book is "Murder at Home: how our safest space is where we're most in danger".

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

Voting is now open for the Listener's Choice Award at this year's Podcast Awards. Click to place your vote on the Spotify mobile app: https://open.spotify.com/s/xhg6PJa

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Ghost That Solved Its Own Murder: Red Barn Murder Dec 10, 2023

Show notes

The Red Barn Murder in 1827 was ground zero for true crime podcasts. It become one of the first cases to explode in the media and caused a national sensation. It had everything - sex, murder and a ghost that revealed the location of its own corpse. What more could Britain's budding army of armchair detectives want?

Huge thanks to Una McIlvenna for her beautiful (and historically accurate) recording of the ballad the 'Murder of Maria Marten'. Una is Australian Research Council Future Fellow and Senior Lecturer in English at Australian National University. Her book Singing the News of Death: Execution Ballads in Europe 1500-1900 won the Katherine Briggs prize for folklore this year. You can find out more about her work at https://www.unamcilvenna.com/

Edited and Produced by Stuart Beckwith. Senior Producer is Charlotte Long.

Voting is now open for the Listener's Choice Award at this year's Podcast Awards. Click to place your vote on the Spotify mobile app: https://open.spotify.com/s/xhg6PJa

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The Ghost of Anne Boleyn Dec 07, 2023

Show notes

We talk the ghost of Anne Boleyn, Queen of England before Henry VIII chopped off her head, with the marvellous Tracy Borman.

Where can Anne Boleyn's ghost be seen? What form does it take? And why does she haunt us so? Get ready for carriages pulled by headless horses, spooky palaces, a weird floating cylinder thing...and a single moment in history that has haunted England, and now Britain's, imagination for hundreds of years.

Tracy's new book "Anne Boleyn & Elizabeth I: The Mother and Daughter Who Changed History" is out now.

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

Voting is now open for the Listener's Choice Award at this year's Podcast Awards. Click to place your vote on the Spotify mobile app: https://open.spotify.com/s/xhg6PJa

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hellfire Club: Sex, Scandal & Satanism in Georgian England Dec 04, 2023

Show notes

Sex, Satanism and Scandal surrounded the Hellfire Club that operated out of a network of caves in the country estate of 18th century aristocrat Francis Dashwood. The most powerful men in the country came to Dashwood's underground lair. Rumours swirled of everything from orgies to human sacrifice and Satanic spirits. But was it all as diabolical as it seemed?

Maddy tells Anthony the story this week.

Produced by Freddy Chick and Charlotte Long. Senior Producer is Charlotte Long.

Voting is now open for the Listener's Choice Award at this year's Podcast Awards. Click to place your vote on the Spotify mobile app: https://open.spotify.com/s/xhg6PJa

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Amelia Dyer: Victorian Baby Farm Killer Nov 29, 2023

Show notes

Some estimates have it that Amelia Dyer killed more than 400 babies. It's hard to say for sure because so few victims were recovered. She was a phantom that grew up in a very dark corner of Victorian society where helpless mothers were given with no better options but to give their babies to 'baby farmers'.

Anthony tells Maddy this painful history.

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

Voting is now open for the Listener's Choice Award at this year's Podcast Awards. Click to place your vote on the Spotify mobile app: https://open.spotify.com/s/xhg6PJa

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Real Origins of Witches Nov 27, 2023

Show notes

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.

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Voting is now open for the Listener's Choice Award at this year's Podcast Awards. Click to place your vote on the Spotify mobile app: https://open.spotify.com/s/xhg6PJa

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Victorian Death Photography: Postmortem Posers Nov 23, 2023

Show notes

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. Senior Producer is Charlotte Long.

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Voting is now open for the Listener's Choice Award at this year's Podcast Awards. Click to place your vote on the Spotify mobile app: https://open.spotify.com/s/xhg6PJa

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Mother Shipton: Tudor Prophetess of England's Doom Nov 20, 2023

Show notes

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.

Voting is now open for the Listener's Choice Award at this year's Podcast Awards. Click to place your vote on the Spotify mobile app: https://open.spotify.com/s/xhg6PJa

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Real Witch Hunts: Persecution & Panic Nov 16, 2023

Show notes

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.

Edited by Joseph Knight and produced by Annie Coloe and Rob Weinberg

Voting is now open for the Listener's Choice Award at this year's Podcast Awards. Click to place your vote on the Spotify mobile app: https://open.spotify.com/s/xhg6PJa

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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