After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds & the Paranormal

The lost colonists left behind one clue, the word "Croatoan" carved into a tree. Who were the Croatans? What were their lives like? How can we see this whole story differently if we examine it from their perspective?Maddy Pelling and Anthony Delaney are joined today by Professor Robbie Richardson, author of The Savage and Modern Self: North American Indians in Eighteenth-Century British Literature and Culture.You can now watch After Dark, including this episode, on Youtube: www.youtube.com/@afterdarkhistoryhitThis episode was edited by Tom Delargy and produced by Freddy Chick. The senior producer is Charlotte Long.Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.  You can take part in our listener survey here.All music from Epidemic Sounds.

When people talk about Ancient Egypt, they often focus on the amazing pyramids, mummies, and the advanced civilisation.At After Dark, we love to explore the grim reality of all of this: what was life like for the people who built those pyramids? What happened if you stole from the Valley of the Kings? And how common were dark arts and sorcery?Today Anthony and Maddy are joined by Egyptologist Campbell Price, to uncover the dark side of Ancient Egypt.You can now watch After Dark, including this episode, on Youtube: www.youtube.com/@afterdarkhistoryhitThis episode was edited by Tom Delargy and produced by Stuart Beckwith. The senior producer is Charlotte Long.Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.  You can take part in our listener survey here.All music from Epidemic Sounds.

WTF happened to Virginia Dare, America's first English child? How did her and her mother's legend grow over time? Did mysterious carvings found on stones hold the answers? Anthony and Maddy explore the mysterious after life of Virginia Dare with Dr Misha Ewen, author of The Virginia Venture: American Colonization and English Society, 1580-1660You can now watch After Dark on Youtube: www.youtube.com/@afterdarkhistoryhitProduced by Freddy Chick. Edited by Tomos Delargy. Senior Producer is Charlotte Long.Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.  You can take part in our listener survey here.All music from Epidemic Sounds.

It was a murder that shook Edwardian Britain, and became a media sensation around the world.Joining Maddy and Anthony today is the best-selling historian and author, Hallie Rubehold, to explore one of the most infamous murders of the 20th century, and the rapidly changing world it took place in.You can now watch After Dark on Youtube: www.youtube.com/@afterdarkhistoryhitProduced by Freddy Chick. Edited by Tomos Delargy. Senior Producer is Charlotte Long.Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.  You can take part in our listener survey here.All music from Epidemic Sounds.

As a lot of new listeners have joined us, and it's a bank holiday in the UK, we thought we'd re-run one of our earliest, goriest episodes. Trust us, this episode is a bloody delight: from flesh-eating fish and humiliating deaths inside sacks, to a deadly re-enactment of the Icarus myth. For a culture that is seen as an emblem of civilisation (whatever that means), the Romans expended a lot of creative energy on inventing new ways to kill people. And our guest today knows them all!Anthony Delaney and Maddy Pelling are joined by the one and only Emma Southon author of A Fatal Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. Her new book is A History of Rome in 21 Women.Mixed by Tom Delargy. Producer is Freddy Chick. Senior Producer is Charlotte Long.You can now watch After Dark on Youtube! www.youtube.com/@afterdarkhistoryhitSign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.  You can take part in our listener survey here.All music from Epidemic Sounds.After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds & the Paranormal is a History Hit podcast.

The grimy streets of Victorian London were stalked by a shadowy menace: Spring-Heeled Jack! He had glowing eyes and blue flames came out his mouth. He had claws, wings. He had a tail. He had smart boots. He had literal springs in his heels. Confusing...who was Spring-Heeled Jack?Maddy Pelling and Anthony Delaney are joined by Ceri Houlbrook, whose new book "Folklore: A Journey Through the Past and Present" with Owen Davies will be out in September.You can now watch After Dark on Youtube: www.youtube.com/@afterdarkhistoryhitProduced by Freddy Chick. Edited by Tomos Delargy. Senior Producer is Charlotte Long.Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.  You can take part in our listener survey here.All music from Epidemic Sounds.After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds & the Paranormal is a History Hit podcast.

A spectral Black Dog with hellish eyes; a homicidal water spirit who drowns children; a mermaid who takes revenge on a vile cad. Maddy Pelling takes Anthony Delaney on a tour through the dark side of English folklore.Edited by Tomos Delargy. Produced by Stuart Beckwith. Senior Producer is Charlotte Long.Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.  You can take part in our listener survey here.All music from Epidemic Sounds.After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds & the Paranormal is a History Hit podcast.

How did George III die? Was it raving in a straightjacket? Who stayed with him at the end of his long illness? Today we uncover the truth about George III, the man unfairly remembered as the mad King who lost America.Produced by Freddy Chick. Edited by Tomos Delargy. Senior Producer is Charlotte Long.Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.  You can take part in our listener survey here.All music from Epidemic Sounds.After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds & the Paranormal is a History Hit podcast.

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.Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.  You can take part in our listener survey here.All music from Epidemic Sounds.After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds & the Paranormal is a History Hit podcast.

Wales is set apart from a lot of countries, with one of its folk tales - the Red Dragon - featuring in its flag. What are the mythical origins of Wales, and other dark folk tales and traditions, such as the Cŵn Annwn; the hounds of the otherworld? Why does the skull of a dead horse, the Mari Lwyd, visit people at Christmas? And how did Fleetwood Mac's Stevie Nicks play a part in Welsh folklore? Taking Anthony and Maddy through some of the darker corners of Welsh folklore is Russ Williams, author of Where the Folk: A Welsh Folklore Road Trip. Edited by Tomos Delargy. Produced by Stuart Beckwith. Senior Producer is Charlotte Long.Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.  You can take part in our listener survey here.All music from Epidemic Sounds.After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds & the Paranormal is a History Hit podcast.

*TW: This episode contains discussions and themes of infertility.*Fairies have long been part of Irish folkloric history, with its landscape dotted with thousands of 'fairy forts'. But there's a dark side to these beliefs.Changelings are thought to be evil fairies who steal humans from families, taking them to the fairy world and replacing them with weak, disfigured fairy lookalikes.It taps into a dark history of disease, poverty and even murder.Joining Anthony and Maddy today is Cecily Gilligan, author of Cures of Ireland: A Treasury of Irish Folk Remedies, to take us back to Ireland's unique and dark folk history.Edited by Tomos Delargy. Produced by Stuart Beckwith. Senior Producer is Charlotte Long.Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.  You can take part in our listener survey here.All music from Epidemic Sounds.After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds & the Paranormal is a History Hit podcast.

Alice Arden wanted her husband Thomas dead. So did the rest of the village of Faversham. What followed was a twisted dance of passion, poison, insane plots and dastardly assassins. A tale so macabre that it became a true crime sensation in its own day.Returning to help tell the story is Dr Blessin Adams whose new book Thou Savage Woman: Female Killers in Early Modern Britain is out now.Edited by Tomos Delargy. Produced by Freddy Chick. Senior Producer is Charlotte Long.Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.  You can take part in our listener survey here.All music from Epidemic Sounds.After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds & the Paranormal is a History Hit podcast.

From misty mountains to deep-sea caves, we explore the dark side of Scottish folklore. Tales of Selkies - seal folk caught between sea and shore - Kelpies - murderous water-horses -and the ancient figure of the Cailleach. Maddy and Anthony's guest today is Donald Smith, founding director of the Scottish Storytelling Centre, and a storyteller who has written and lectured widely on the folklore of Scotland.Edited by Tomos Delargy. Produced by Freddy Chick. Senior Producer is Charlotte Long.Maddy's book, Writing on the Wall: Graffiti and Rebellion in Eighteenth-Century Britain, is now available on paperback! See more information here.Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.  You can take part in our listener survey here.All music from Epidemic Sounds.After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds & the Paranormal is a History Hit podcast.

(Part 2/2) On Easter Monday in 1916, Irish rebels read a proclamation of independence that sparked a week-long battle with the British army.Over the next six days, this new bloody frontier of the First World War unfolded and became known as the Easter Rising.How did the Irish rebels plan to take on the might of the British army? How did this pave the way for eventual Irish independence? And did the 1916 Rising spark the beginning of the end for the British Empire?In this second of two-parts, Anthony and Maddy talk to Dr. Conor Mulvagh, lecturer in Irish History at University College Dublin, about the dramatic events of 1916 Easter Rising and its aftermath.This episode was edited by Tom Delargy and produced by Stuart Beckwith. The senior producer was Charlotte Long.Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.  You can take part in our listener survey here.All music from Epidemic Sounds.After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds & the Paranormal is a History Hit podcast.

***This episode contains a description of mass murder***As the Black Death moved across Europe, something darker and more insidious spread ahead of it. An antisemitic conspiracy theory that blamed European Jews for the plague. Across Europe, Jews were persecuted and often executed en masse.Maddy and Anthony are joined by Joshua Teplitsky, Professor of history at the University of Pennsylvania. He studies Jewish life in Early Modern Central Europe and is currently working on a book about plague in Prague during the early eighteenth century.Edited by Max Carrey. Produced by Freddy Chick. Senior Producer is Charlotte Long.Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.  You can take part in our listener survey here.

(Part 1/2) With Britain engaged in the First World War in Europe, Irish rebels sensed an opportunity.Irish revolutions had fought for independence from Britain in the past, would the Easter Rising be any different?In this first of two-parts, Anthony and Maddy talk to Dr. Conor Mulvagh, lecturer in Irish History at University College Dublin, about the dramatic events that lead to the 1916 Easter Rising.This episode was edited by Tom Delargy and produced by Stuart Beckwith. The senior producer was Charlotte Long.Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.  You can take part in our listener survey here.All music from Epidemic Sounds.After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds & the Paranormal is a History Hit podcast.

It was a plague like no other. It provoked strange cures like no other. Anthony Delaney takes Maddy Pelling in search of the oddest cures concocted in the face of the Black Death, busting a few myth along the way (sorry Plague Doctor, but you're in the wrong century).Edited by Max Carrey. Produced by Freddy Chick. Senior Producer is Charlotte Long.Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.  You can take part in our listener survey here.All music from Epidemic Sounds.After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds & the Paranormal is a History Hit podcast.

(Part 2/2) Joan of Arc, mystic leader of a French army, was captured and sold to the English who tried her as a witch. What do the final days of this iconic figure tell us? With so much myth swirling around her, how can we get at the real Joan d'Arc?Produced by Stuart Beckwith. Edited by Tomos Delargy. Senior Producer is Charlotte Long.Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.  You can take part in our listener survey here.All music from Epidemic Sounds.After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds & the Paranormal is a History Hit podcast.

Around 50% of everyone in Europe died during the Black Death. It's very hard to make sense of that. What did it look and feel like to live through this calamity?Today Maddy Pelling and Anthony Delaney are joined by historian Helen Carr whose new book Sceptred Isle: A New History of the Fourteenth Century is out in May.Produced by Freddy Chick. Edited by Tomos Delargy. Senior Producer is Charlotte Long.Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.  You can take part in our listener survey here.All music from Epidemic Sounds.After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds & the Paranormal is a History Hit podcast.

(Part 1/2) So many things make Joan of Arc iconic. The fearless, crossdressing warrior saint who dies a martyr's death. Today Maddy begins a two-part exploration by telling Anthony the story of who Joan of Arc was and how she rose to fame.Produced by Stuart Beckwith. Edited by Tomos Delargy. Senior Producer is Charlotte Long.Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.  You can take part in our listener survey here.All music from Epidemic Sounds.After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds & the Paranormal is a History Hit podcast.

The myth goes thus: the Black Death reached Christendom at the Siege of Caffa when Mongols catapulted diseased bodies over the walls. Where did we get this story? What actually happened at Caffa? And how did the Black Death really enter Europe?Maddy Pelling and Anthony Delaney are joined by Professor Hannah Barker, medieval historian from Arizona State University. She's the author of That Most Precious Merchandise: The Mediterranean Trade in Black Sea Slaves, 1260-1500 and "Laying the Corpses to Rest: Grain Embargoes and the Early Transmission of the Black Death in the Black Sea, 1346-1347".Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.  You can take part in our listener survey here.All music from Epidemic Sounds.After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds & the Paranormal is a History Hit podcast.

During the victory celebrations of World War One, a rising star is found dead in her bed after a suspected overdose.22-year-old Billie Carlton's death caused shockwaves across the nation, adding fuel to a growing moral panic about sex, scandal and drugs.Anthony and Maddy are joined by Virginia Berridge, Professor of History and Health Policy at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, to explore the path to drug criminalisation in postwar London following the death of Billie Carlton. Together, they uncover the extraordinary history of drugs in Soho - London's most notorious neighbourhood in the 1920s.Historic Soho has been brought to life in the new BBC show Dope Girls, which tells the story of Soho when female gangs ran the nightclubs after the First World War. You can watch it on BBC iPlayer now. All music from Epidemic Sounds.After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds & the Paranormal is a History Hit podcast.

Why did two servants living in Plymouth, England, poison their whole household in 1675? How did they sneak arsenic into the food? And what on earth is pottage?Today Maddy Pelling and Anthony Delaney talk to Dr Blessin Adams, author of "Thou Savage Woman: female killers in early modern Britain".Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.  You can take part in our listener survey here.All music from Epidemic Sounds.After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds & the Paranormal is a History Hit podcast.

Untimely deaths followed the opening of Tutankhamun's tomb by Howard Carter. Coincidence or ancient curse? When the tomb of King Tutankhamun was sealed more than 3000 years ago, it was rumoured to be protected by a curse, which would ruin the life of anyone who disturbed the pharaoh's final resting place. A mere two weeks after the tomb was discovered in 1922, one of the explorers died from a fatal mosquito bite. This wasn't the end of the bad luck, there was more to come... Anthony and Maddy are joined by Egyptologist Campbell Price to unpick fact from fiction, and get to the bottom of one of the most notorious curses in the world.Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.  You can take part in our listener survey here.All music from Epidemic Sounds.After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds & the Paranormal is a History Hit podcast.

From ruthless schemer to pragmatic hero - who is the real Thomas Cromwell? And how did he meet his end? Today Anthony Delaney tells Maddy Pelling the story.Edited by Tomos Delargy. Produced by Freddy Chick. Senior Producer is Charlotte Long.Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.  You can take part in our listener survey here.All music from Epidemic Sounds.After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds & the Paranormal is a History Hit podcast.

(Part 2/2) On the 13 February 1692, Scottish government troops slaughtered between 30-40 members of Clan MacDonald in their home in Glencoe, in the Scottish Highlands. Who was behind the killings? How has this atrocity been remembered? Is Glencoe haunted by its past?Maddy and Anthony's guests today are Dr Allan Kennedy whose new book 'Serious Crime in Late Seventeenth-Century Scotland' is out now and Lucy Doogan from the Nation Trust for Scotland's Visitor Centre in Glencoe.Edited and produced by Freddy Chick. Senior Producer is Charlotte Long.Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.  You can take part in our listener survey here.All music from Epidemic Sounds.After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds & the Paranormal is a History Hit podcast.

(2/2) A boy King, a rebel army, and the first ever execution at Tower Hill. Maddy Pelling tells Anthony Delaney the days in the summer of 1381 when rebels took control of London and King Richard II, only fourteen, restored a world turned upside down.Edited by Tomos Delargy. Produced by Freddy Chick. Senior Producer is Charlotte Long.Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.  You can take part in our listener survey here.All music from Epidemic Sounds.After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds & the Paranormal is a History Hit podcast.

On the 13 February 1692, Scottish government troops slaughtered between 30-40 members of Clan MacDonald in their home in Glencoe, in the Scottish Highlands. They fell upon them without warning, killing indiscriminately. Who were the MacDonalds? Why did this atrocity happen?Maddy and Anthony's guests today are Dr Allan Kennedy whose new book 'Serious Crime in Late Seventeenth-Century Scotland' is out now and Lucy Doogan from the Nation Trust for Scotland's Visitor Centre in Glencoe.Edited and produced by Freddy Chick. Senior Producer is Charlotte Long.Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.  You can take part in our listener survey here.All music from Epidemic Sounds.After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds & the Paranormal is a History Hit podcast.

1381, England, the world turned upside down as the commoners rise up and dismantle the mechanisms of power. They're angry about taxes, serfdom, about being forcibly kept in their place by corrupt lords...about a lot of stuff. But will they prevail? Maddy Pelling tells Anthony Delaney about how the uprising began.Edited by Tomos Delargy, produced by Freddy Chick, Senior Producer is Charlotte Long.Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.  You can take part in our listener survey here.All music from Epidemic Sounds.After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds & the Paranormal is a History Hit podcast.

(2/2) We join the captive Romanovs as they are moved from The Alexander Palace to Siberia and then to Ekaterinburg, where their dreadful murder awaits them. It's a story that still has the power to shock us. Guiding us through is returning guest Helen Rappaport, author of "Ekaterinburg: The Last Days of the Romanovs".Edited by Freddy Chick. Produced by Sophie Gee. Senior Producer is Charlotte Long.Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.  You can take part in our listener survey here.All music from Epidemic Sounds.After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds & the Paranormal is a History Hit podcast.

It's a medical-history-mystery: the Sweating Sickness. Things get clammy as Anthony Delaney and Maddy Pelling ask what was this deadly disease? What happened when Anne Boleyn got it? And why were sufferers sewn into their bedsheets?Edited by Nick Thomson. Produced by Freddy Chick. Senior Producer is Charlotte Long.Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.  You can take part in our listener survey here.After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds & the Paranormal is a History Hit podcast.

(1/2) As Russia collapses, the Romanovs find themselves trapped by delusions and failed ideals; by revolution and Russian geography. Helen Rappaport joins Maddy Pelling and Anthony Delaney for part 1 of the Final Days of the Romanovs.Edited by Tomos Delargy. Produced by Sophie Gee. Senior Producer is Charlotte Long.Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.  You can take part in our listener survey here.After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds & the Paranormal is a History Hit podcast.

Mary Mallon aka "Typhoid Mary" is a macabre figure who spread disease and death everywhere she went. But there's a lot more depth and humanity to Mary's history than this. She's someone who is hard to resist when you get to know her (despite all the Typhoid...). Anthony Delaney tells Maddy Pelling the story.Edited by Tomos Delargy. Produced by Freddy Chick. Senior Producer is Charlotte Long.Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.  You can take part in our listener survey here.After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds & the Paranormal is a History Hit podcast.

(2/2) What does the resurrection of a hanged woman have to do with the Devil? Did the Enlightenment kill Old Nick or is he still a part of our world today? Maddy and Anthony continue their exploration of the rise and fall of Lucifer with Dr Mikki Brock, author of Satan and the Scots, c.1560-1700: The Devil in Post-Reformation Scotland.Edited and produced by Freddy Chick, Senior Producer is Charlotte Long.Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.  You can take part in our listener survey here.After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds & the Paranormal is a History Hit podcast.

You could smell Henry VIII's rotting legs from three rooms by the end. He was in constant pain, barely able to move. Yet he never loosed his grip on the lives of everyone around him. Could he squeeze in one last wife? One final execution? How did the bloodiest monarch in English history bow out? Anthony Delaney tells Maddy Pelling the story this week.Edited by Tomos Delargy, produced by Freddy Chick, Senior Producer is Charlotte Long.Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.  You can take part in our listener survey here.After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds & the Paranormal is a History Hit podcast.

(1/2) How has the devil been depicted through history? What are his origins? And why should he be portrayed as beautiful?In the first part of a two part mini-series on Lucifer himself, Anthony and Maddy talk with Professor Michelle Brock of Washington and Lee University, to find out how the devil has been present in peoples' lives; especially in the 17th century with the rise of witch trials.This episode was edited by Tom Delargy. The producer was Freddy Chick. The senior producer was Charlotte Long.Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.  You can take part in our listener survey here.After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds & the Paranormal is a History Hit podcast.

(2/2) As the Great Fire of London worsens mob rule begins to appear and a hunt for a scapegoat takes over. Maddy Pelling tells Anthony Delaney the story, including a special contribution from Pete Zymanczyk, a retired LFB firefighter who is now a City of London Guide. They offer dozens of historical tours of the City of London. Find out more: https://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/Edited by Tomos Delargy. Produced by Freddy Chick. Senior Producer is Charlotte Long.Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.  You can take part in our listener survey here.After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds & the Paranormal is a History Hit podcast.

The moment Mary Queen of Scots set foot in England, she became Elizabeth I's prisoner. Mary was fleeing from war and misogyny, hoping for help from her fellow queen. What lay ahead was twenty years of increasingly desperate imprisonment and, eventually, her death.Maddy Pelling and Anthony Delaney's guest to tell this story is Jade Scott author of the new book Captive Queen: The Decrypted History of Mary, Queen of Scots.Edited by Matt Peaty. Produced by Freddy Chick. Senior Producer is Charlotte Long. Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.  You can take part in our listener survey here.After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds & the Paranormal is a History Hit podcast.

(1/2) London's Burning! London's Burning! Disaster strikes in 1666 as the dense, mostly wooden, city of London begins to burn. Who started the fire? Why did it spread like none before or since?Maddy Pelling tells Anthony Delaney the story, including a special contribution from Pete Zymanczyk, a retired LFB firefighter who is now a City of London Guide. They offer dozens of historical tours of the City of London. Find out more: https://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/Edited by Matt Peaty. Produced by Freddy Chick. Senior Producer is Charlotte Long.Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.  You can take part in our listener survey here.After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds & the Paranormal is a History Hit podcast.

Grigori Rasputin, Russian mystic, survived multiple assassination attempts on the same night. He was poisoned, he was shot, he was drowned in a freezing St Petersburg river. His corpse was emasculated. What is myth here and what is truth? Who was the real Rasputin? Why did so many people want him dead?Our guest today is Douglas Smith, author of the acclaimed biography Rasputin: The BiographyEdited by Tomos Delargy. Produced by Sophie Gee. Senior Producer is Charlotte Long.Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.  You can take part in our listener survey here.All music from Epidemic Sounds/All3 MediaAfter Dark: Myths, Misdeeds & the Paranormal is a History Hit podcast.

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.Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.  You can take part in our listener survey here.After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds & the Paranormal is a History Hit podcast.

In 1872 the ghost ship Mary Celeste is found sailing across the Atlantic without a single crew member left on board. Theories over what happened on the Mary Celeste range from insurance fraud to a violent mutiny... this week, Maddy and Anthony discuss what they think happened to the ship's crew.Edited by Tom Delargy. Produced by Freddy Chick. Senior Producer is Charlotte Long.Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.  You can take part in our listener survey here.After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds & the Paranormal is a History Hit podcast.

The life of Joseph Merrick, the man they dared to call "The Elephant Man", will fill you with pain and anger. He was treated so cruelly by society that he found becoming a freak show exhibit preferably to the life available to him elsewhere. Yet alongside darkness there is light and love in his story, and a sense of his own indomitable spirit throughout it all.Visit https://www.changingfaces.org.uk/ to learn more about living with visible difference today.Written by Anthony Delaney. Edited by Tomos Delargy. Produced by Freddy Chick. Senior Producer is Charlotte Long.Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.  You can take part in our listener survey here.After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds & the Paranormal is a History Hit podcast.