After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds & the Paranormal
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After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds & the Paranormal
This is After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds and the Paranormal. The podcast that takes you to the shadiest corners of the past, unpicking history’s spookiest, strangest, and most sinister stories.Join historians Anthony Delaney and Maddy Pelling, every Monday and Thursday to take a look at the darker side o...
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The Victorian's Dark Obsession with Ancient Egypt
The Victorians had a lot of twisted fascinations, but their fixation on Ancient Egypt might be the darkest of the lot.
From 'mummy unwrapping pa...
The Deadly Arctic Witch Trials
It all started when a huge storm drowned 40 men on Christmas Eve, 1617.
The people of Vardø, northern Norway, needed someone to blame.
Wha...
Great Fire of London As It Happened
The Fire that struck London in 1666 was one of the city's darkest chapters. In this episode, Anthony and Maddy examine the accounts of people who witn...
Day in the Life of a Salem Puritan
What did it feel like to wake up Salem Village during the darkest days of the witch trials? Would you be able to swallow down your beer and pottage br...
Inside the Victorian Asylum
One of the dark symbols of the Victorian age is the asylum. It struck fear into the mind but what was the reality of life inside its walls? Maddy Pell...
The Truth about the Conjuring's Ghost Hunters
Ghost hunting couple Ed and Lorraine Warren transformed twentieth century America into an enchanted land dotted with haunted houses, cursed objects, a...
Banshees: Herald of Death
Today we're delving back into the After Dark vaults to revisit our episode on Banshees...
Siobhan McSweeney (Derry Girls) joins Anthony Delaney...
Ghosts of Henry VIII's Palace
We’re re-running this episode because it’s one of our favourites — and it’s worth another listen!
The ghost of Catherine Howard, fifth wife of H...
Dark Truth About Sweeney Todd
Sweeney Todd - the demon barber of Fleet Street who beheads people and then sends their bodies through a trapdoor to be made into pies. It's just a st...
The Most Notorious Viking Raid
The Viking attack on the monastery at Lindisfarne, a remote tidal island in North East England, sent psychological and cultural shockwaves through the...
Oscar Wilde's Very Victorian Scandal
In 1895, the world witnessed its first true celebrity trial when Oscar Wilde was charged with “Gross Indecency". To tell the powerful story of Wilde's...
Does Every Family Hold A Dark Past?
Maddy and Anthony dig into their own family history in collaboration with Ancestry! They find stories from the darker side of the past in their own fa...
What Happened The Day Pompeii was Destroyed?
We all know the story of Pompeii: the Roman town reduced to ash when Mount Vesuvius erupted. Roughly two-thousand years later, archaeologists have bee...
The Dark Side of the Vikings
How dark really were the Vikings? How much of a part did human sacrifice play in their world? And what was their relationship with magic?
Joinin...
The Only Prime Minister Ever Assassinated
Was this moment the closest Britain came to revolution? When Prime Minister Spencer Perceval lay dying on the floor of the Parliament, many feared it...
Who Was Medieval Europe's Most Evil Monarch?
Who was the very worst of all the Medieval monarchs? No spoilers but we've got monarchs driven psychopathic by love, terrible sadists, and egos that s...
Who was the Last Witch of Scotland?
With the nights closing in, what better time to re-visit a favourite episode of ours.
In 1727, Janet Horne of the Highland community of Dornoch...
Could you Survive the Medieval Apocalypse?
For Medieval Europe, the Apocalypse wasn’t just a metaphor - it was very real and very imminent.
We are talking about the four horsemen, locusts...
Why Did Henry VIII Kill Catherine Howard?
In 1540 Henry VIII was getting old, and his eyes turned to teenager Catherine Howard.
He fell hard and fast for Catherine - his "rose without a...
Who Was Nostradamus?
Did Nostradamus really predict everything from the Great Fire of London to the rise of Hitler?
We predict that you'll find out in this episode.....
Day in the Life of a Tudor Executioner
Did they wear black hoods? Whose axe did they use? How did you get the job in the first place? Today Anthony Delaney takes Maddy Pelling inside the wo...
Henry VIII's Murderous Reign
Henry VIII was a monarch everyone was excited for, and turned into someone who weaponised his powers for murder.
What happened in his life that...
The Perfume Poisoner Who Killed 500 Men
Deep in Renaissance Rome, it is said that a woman called Giulia Tofana supplied poison to kill some 500 abusive men.
Is this the stuff of myth a...
Introducing a chilling new podcast: TWISTED TALES WITH HEIDI WONG
Reality is the real horror.
Every Monday, poet and paranormal obsessive Heidi Wong unearths the chilling true stories behind the world’s most te...
Truth About Irish Funeral Beliefs
What are the origins of keening for the dead? What is the history of Irish wakes? And why must you never put a coffin down on the way to the funeral?<...
'She Devil' Serial Poisoner of Victorian England
Sarah Dazley was one of the most infamous women in the world for a moment in 1843 when she was accused of poisoning not one but two former husbands. O...
Witches of Cornwall
From the spookiest corner of the British isles, comes two stories of witches. Stories of fairies and magical powers, of skeletons and haunted history....
Britain's Coldest Murder Case
Eugene Aram was an 18th century schoolmaster who got away with murder for fourteen years. Then a skeleton was unearthed and a case that had been forgo...
Day in the life of a Black Death Rat
What did Medieval people think about rats? Did they have any idea that they were the cause of the Black Death? How did they use charms and poisons to...
The Dark Truth About Madam Tussauds
Behind the current display of celebrity waxworks lies the dark and bloody history of Madam Tussauds.
Join Anthony and Maddy as they go back to t...
Who Was The Ultimate Tudor Traitor?
The Tudor court was dangerous and high stakes at the best of times, where survival could often mean betraying others.
Enter: Jane Boleyn, thrust...
The Railway Murder That Shook Victorian Britain
It's 1864 and the height of industrialisation. The thrill of railway travel is shattered with the first murder that takes place on it.
Join Anth...
The Dark Reality of Life at Sea
Dan Snow joins After Dark to reveal the brutal reality of life of sailors during the golden age of sail. From the cat o' nine tails, to the pressgang,...
Dark Side of Elizabeth I
The end of Elizabeth I's life was shrouded in darkness and plots as powerful figures circled her throne. How did Elizabeth hold off contenders reachin...
Who Was Ancient Egypt's Most Evil Pharaoh?
We often think of Egyptian Pharaohs as a glamorous god-king of Ancient times, yet the truth of these people is a lot, lot darker.
Who was the fi...
Who Was Ancient Rome's Darkest Emperor?
There are a disturbingly high number of contenders for the title of Rome's Darkest Emperor - so as you can imagine, things get extremely disturbing in...
Day In The Life Of A Body Snatcher
Join Anthony and Maddy as they spend a day - or should that be night? - in the life of a 19th century body snatcher.
Find out which months they...
Georgian England's Notorious Dumpling Poisoner
Did she do it? Did serving girl Eliza Fenning poison the dumplings she served the Turner family? This is a true crime case from 1813 that brings toget...
Dark Truth About Ancient Egypt's Mummification
The Ancient Egyptians had a very different idea about death than most people do today.
And the idea of mummification is (excuse the pun) wrapped...
Who was the 'Man-Monster' Of New York?
On June 16, 1836, in New York City, Mary Jones stood in a courtroom that was a cauldron of hatred. Mary was African American and one of the first know...