Podcast Episodes

Banshees: Herald of Death

Episode 237

Today we're delving back into the After Dark vaults to revisit our episode on Banshees...

Siobhan McSweeney (Derry Girls) joins Anthony Delaney and Maddy Pelling for the story of the Banshee.

The Bansh…

Published on 11 hours ago

Ghosts of Henry VIII's Palace

Episode 236

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 Henry VIII, screaming down a corridor. A nursemaid's spin…

Published on 4 days, 11 hours ago

Dark Truth About Sweeney Todd

Episode 235

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 story right? Right? There's not any real history to…

Published on 1 week ago

The Most Notorious Viking Raid

Episode 234

The Viking attack on the monastery at Lindisfarne, a remote tidal island in North East England, sent psychological and cultural shockwaves through the history. It's a story of blood and terror, but t…

Published on 1 week, 4 days ago

Oscar Wilde's Very Victorian Scandal

Episode 233

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 life in its fullness, Anthony and Maddy are join…

Published on 2 weeks ago

Does Every Family Hold A Dark Past?

Episode 232

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 family trees. Huge thanks to Ancestry's genealogist…

Published on 2 weeks, 4 days ago

What Happened The Day Pompeii was Destroyed?

Episode 231

We all know the story of Pompeii: the Roman town reduced to ash when Mount Vesuvius erupted. Roughly two-thousand years later, archaeologists have been able to uncover the stories of its victims. Wha…

Published on 3 weeks ago

The Dark Side of the Vikings

Episode 230

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?

Joining Anthony and Maddy in today's episode is historian, aut…

Published on 3 weeks, 4 days ago

The Only Prime Minister Ever Assassinated

Episode 229

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 was the start of bloody revolt. We discover the a…

Published on 4 weeks ago

Who Was Medieval Europe's Most Evil Monarch?

Episode 228

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 straddled a continent. They were the worst of the …

Published on 1 month ago