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...
Recent Episodes
295 episodes
The Story of England's First Drag Queen
Born John Cooper, "Princess Seraphina" was one of the first English Drag Queens. Princess Seraphina was an 18th-century gentleman’s servant who openly...
The Woman Who Had Sex With Ghosts
Ida Craddock is a name that should be much, much better known. She was a maverick sex educator who fought violent censorship in turn of the century Am...
The Tragic Execution of a Victorian Murderess
In 1856, Martha Brown was led to the scaffold and hanged for the murder of her abusive husband. Her execution was clearly an injustice, even at the ti...
The Witch Men of Iceland
When we think of the great witch trials of history, we usually picture innocent women accused of impossible crimes... but that wasn't always the case....
The Secret Lesbian Affair under Mary Queen of Scots
16th century Scotland was a hard time to be a woman, far harder if you happened to be a woman who loved women. Yet from this dark time a dazzling ligh...
The Murder Network That Terrified Versailles
In 17th century France, Louis XIV's court sparkled with luxury. It also teemed with poison, occult rituals and aristocrats trying to murder their way...
History's Greatest Ghosts with Uncanny's Danny Robins
In this special episode of After Dark. Anthony and Uncanny’s Danny Robins delve into historical ghost stories and explore why our obsession with death...
Most Famous Murder In Ancient Egypt
Millenia ago, a plot was hatched within the highest echelons of Egyptian society which ended with royal blood being spilt. This assassination, known a...
The Dark History of the Quakers
17th century England was a world turned upside down.
A civil war resulted in King Charles I being executed, and from this moment a religious mov...
The Sicilian Catacombs of the Living Dead
*Warning: this episode contains discussions of child death*
Deep beneath the sunny streets of Palermo Sicily, the Capuchin Catacombs are home to...
How Boudica Took On The Roman Empire
Ancient Britain was occupied by the Romans, and tension was building with local tribes.
Their brutal occupation reached a breaking point.
...
The Gruesome History of Sexual Disease
*Warning: this episode contains discussions of puss*
Gonorrhea and syphilis are no laughing matter, especially in a time before antibiotics.
Who tried to kill Queen Victoria?
Queen Victorian was an icon of Britain at the zenith of its power... but that didn't mean she was invulnerable to attack. In today’s episode, we’ll be...
Burke & Hare's Serial Killing Dissection Business
What did Ancient Egyptians discover while dissecting bodies? What did the first medieval dissecting manual say? Who were the serial killers who suppli...
Ancient Rome's Bloodiest Murders
Today we're delving back to an early episode of After Dark, where Anthony and Maddy explore the goriest murders of Ancient Rome.
From flesh-eati...
The Doctor Who Shocked Victorian Britain
What lurks behind the door of Dr. Kahn's Grand Anatomical Museum in Victorian London?
Step inside and find out what shocked the public (and medi...
Inside the Egyptian Underworld
For the Ancient Egyptians, death marked the beginning of a new chapter: a journey through a shadowy realm of trials, monsters, and divine judgment, ru...
400 Year Old Artist's Dark Revenge
Artemisia Gentileschi's paintings personify female rage against men. She paints women beheading men, hammering nails into their skulls, brandishing th...
BONUS: Hear a chapter of Maddy's new book, Hoax
Hear a chapter of Maddy's new book, "Hoax: Truth and Lies in the Age of Enlightenment". It's out now! It's the story of three women and their hoaxes i...
Human Sacrifice In The Aztec Empire
When you think of the Aztec Empire, what do you picture? Human sacrifice?
In today's episode, Anthony is joined by Aztec expert Dr. Caroline Dod...
The Dark Mystery of Princess Caraboo
Today we are celebrating the upcoming publication of Maddy's new book 'Hoax: Truth and Lies in the Age of Enlightenment' by sharing one of the stories...
The Haunting of Cock Lane
Today we are celebrating the upcoming publication of Maddy's new book 'Hoax: Truth and Lies in the Age of Enlightenment' by sharing one of the stories...
Speaking with the Dead: Ancient Necromancy
In Ancient Mesopotamia, the boundary between the living and the dead was not always fixed... some even believed it could be crossed. But why would the...
Dark Side of Prehistoric Britain
Across prehistoric Britain people raised vast stone circles, buried their dead in monumental tombs, and left offerings in rivers and bogs. Archaeologi...
Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand
On a summer day in Sarajevo in 1914, a young man fired two rounds of his pistol in the middle of the street, killing a Royal couple... He didn't know...
Titanic's Biggest Myths Debunked
Is it true that third-class passengers were locked below decks? Or that more lifeboats would have saved more lives? Did the band really play as the Ti...
The Murder that Shook Mary Queen of Scots
On the night of Saturday the 9th of March, 1566, a pregnant Mary Queen of Scots was having a dinner party.
It was a night that ended in the brut...
The Victorian Sex Scandal of Fanny & Stella
The Victorians are seen as the ultimate guardians of rigid gender boundaries.
When Fanny Park and Stella Boulton transgressed those imagined lin...
Henry VIII's Descent into Darkness
He's known as one of history's most murderous kings, but was he always a monster? Or was he acting in ways expected of a king during his time.
J...
The Victorian Era's Wildest Murder
It was one of the most gruesome crimes of the Victorian era... and it ended up in David Attenborough's garden! Kate Webster, a servant, killed and dis...
The Real Outlander
The book and TV series "Outlander" has introduced millions of fans to Scottish history and the story of the Jacobites.
One of those fans is Madd...
The Man Who Ate Everything
Listener warning: this episode contains a description of cruelty to animals
One of the strangest tales to emerge from Napoleonic France was that...
Britain's First Ghost Hunt
It was the original modern ghost hunt, the one that set the template for all the haunted houses to come. When a wealthy plantation family moves into a...
Dark Side of the Celts: Whicker Men and trophy heads
The Ancient Celts: feared in battle, guided by Druids, and bound together by ritual.
Long before Rome pushed north, Celtic peoples ruled forests...
Were the Princes in the Tower murdered?
It's one of history's greatest mysteries - 'what happened to the Princes in the Tower?' In 1483, young Edward V and his brother Richard were awaiting...
The Human Cost of Fame
You might think the idea of “celebrity” is a modern invention. In reality, its roots stretch back centuries... perhaps even millennia. People have alw...
The Black Death As It Happened
Eyewitness accounts of life during the Black Death are surprising. Sure, there's horror. But there's also d*ck jokes, complicated scientific theories,...
Who Killed Julius Caesar?
In 44 BCE, Roman senators assassinated Julius Caesar to stop his ascent towards becoming a king. Dr Jess Venner takes Anthony blow-by-blow through the...
The Medieval Murder of Thomas Becket
Anthony is joined by the iconic Eleanor Janega from our sister podcast 'Gone Medieval' to tell the story of the most famous murder of the medieval wor...
Mysterious History of Tarot Cards
Maddy and Anthony get their Tarot cards read by Melissa Mercury! As well as reading their cards, Melissa tells us about the history of Tarot cards and...