Uncanny | |
---|---|
Genre | Paranormal documentary |
Presented by | Danny Robins |
Country of origin | England |
Original language | English |
Production | |
Production companies | Bafflegab Productions & Uncanny Media (radio) BBC Studios (TV version) |
Original release | |
Network | BBC Radio 4, BBC Two |
Release | 23 October 2021 |
Uncanny is a 2021 BBC Radio series created by Danny Robins featuring explorations of the paranormal and supernatural phenomena. The series is broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and as a podcast on BBC Sounds. [1] A television version for BBC Two was first broadcast on 13 October 2023. [2] [3]
Each episode, Robins interviews a witness who has had an uncanny experience; topics include poltergeists and other ghosts, UFO sightings and cryptids. The story is punctuated by contributions from two experts who attempt to explain the experience; one expert is usually sceptical and will look to a rational psychological or natural explanation, the other will look for parallels with other similar cases. [4] Experts include Caroline Watt, Chris French, Ciaran O’Keefe and Evelyn Hollow. [5] The theme tune "Don't Have Nightmares" is by indie band Lanterns on the Lake. [6]
Uncanny has run for three series on radio, plus a number of Uncanny Live specials recorded in front of a live audience. [7] Episodes have featured guests such as Mark Gatiss, [8] Laura Whitmore, Laurence Rickard [9] and David Baddiel. [10] A series of cases exclusively from the United States, Uncanny USA, is scheduled for broadcast in April 2024. [11]
No overall | No. | Title | First broadcast | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 1 | The Evil in Room 611 | 23 October 2021 | A professor recounts a haunting he experienced as a student at Alanbrooke Hall, a demolished Queen's University Belfast hall of residence in the 1970s. Alanbrooke Hall formed the subject of several subsequent episodes as further witnesses contacted the programme. [12] [13] |
2 | 2 | The Hanging Room | 30 October 2021 | A teenager and her family move to an old farm house in the countryside in search of a new start. [14] |
3 | 3 | The Todmorden UFO | 6 November 2021 | Policeman Alan Godfrey has a close encounter - could it be connected to an unsolved murder in the area? [15] |
4 | 4 | My Best Friend's Ghost | 13 November 2021 | A young woman is visited by the ghost of her closest friend. [16] |
5 | 5 | Return to Room 611 | 20 November 2021 | Another witness to the goings on at Alanbrooke Hall tells their story. [17] |
6 | 6 | The Brooklyn Poltergeist | 27 November 2021 | A British model is made to feel unwelcome by her American flatmates...and the resident poltergeist. [18] |
7 | 7 | The Angel in the Bathroom | 4 December 2021 | A suicidal man is saved by divine intervention. [19] |
8 | 8 | The UFO in the Playground | 11 December 2021 | Follows up on the Todmorden UFO case, and features stories of two childhood UFO sightings in Wales and Africa. [20] |
9 | 9 | I Will Kill You All | 18 December 2021 | Journalist Hannah Betts recounts how her family were terrorised by the legacy of a Victorian murder. [21] |
10 | 10 | Don't Sleep in this House | 25 December 2021 | A climber spends a terrifying night at an abandoned cottage in the Scottish Highlands. [22] |
11 | 11 | The Curse of Luibeilt | 1 January 2022 | Continuation of previous episode. The climber returns to the cottage to confront the presence. [23] |
12 | 12 | Fatal Collision | 8 January 2022 | A delivery driver is involved in a life-changing accident. [24] |
13 | 13 | The Return of Elizabeth Dacre | 15 January 2022 | Moving to a large house at the seaside, a young family are haunted by visions of the house's former occupant. [25] |
14 | 14 | The Haunting of Tanfield House | 22 January 2022 | An art student is haunted by a poltergeist. [26] |
15 | 15 | Bloody Hell Ken | 29 January 2022 | Updates on the cases featured in the series - including Alanbrooke Hall. [27] |
16 | Special | Summer Special Part 1: Canadian Horror Story | 25 June 2022 | Something seems very wrong during a family holiday to a fishing village in Newfoundland. [28] |
17 | Special | Summer Special Part 2: The Room Next Door | 2 July 2022 | Further evidence in the Canadian case from another witness. [29] |
18 | Special | Summer Special Part 3: Uncanny Live | 29 July 2022 | Recorded at the Hay Festival [30] |
19 | Special | Uncanny Meets Ghosts | 27 September 2022 | Danny Robins discusses ghosts with special guest Laurence Rickard, co-creator of the sitcom Ghosts . [31] |
20 | Special | Christmas Special | 23 December 2022 | A terrifying encounter for a mother and son in a Scottish council house. [32] |
21 | Special | Uncanny Live with Mark Gatiss | 30 December 2022 | With special guest Mark Gatiss [33] |
No overall | No. | Title | First broadcast | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
22 | 1 | The Boy in Room 3 | 8 April 2023 | A young woman takes a job as a cook at Ampleforth Abbey and finds herself alone in her accommodation - except for the sound of a crying child. [34] |
23 | 2 | My Family's Poltergeist | 15 April 2023 | A malevolent poltergeist plagues a family. [35] |
24 | 3 | Leave the Lights On | 22 April 2023 | Continuation of the previous episode. [36] |
25 | 4 | Inside Room 611 | 29 April 2023 | More evidence from the haunting at Alanbrooke Hall. [37] |
26 | 5 | Uncanny Live at UncannyCon | 6 May 2023 | With special guest Laura Whitmore. [38] |
27 | 6 | An Angel Called Bernie | 13 May 2023 | A soldier's life is saved by the ghost of his grandmother. [39] |
28 | 7 | The Rendlesham UFO | 20 May 2023 | Retired USAF officer Lieutenant Colonel Charles Halt recounts his experience in the famous Rendlesham Forest incident of December 1980. [40] |
29 | 8 | The Guest Book | 27 May 2023 | A young couple discover why the previous occupant of their Victorian shop never went upstairs. [41] |
30 | 9 | The Beast of Langeais | 3 June 2023 | Two backpackers visit the Château de Langeais in France and have a terrifying encounter after dark. [42] |
31 | 10 | Harry Called | 20 June 2023 | A student participates in a Ouija board session, and receives a message from "Harry". He is soon plagued by telephone calls and visitations. [43] |
32 | 11 | Uncanny Live at Hay | 17 June 2023 | With special guest David Baddiel at the Hay Festival. A London Underground guard sees the ghost of a lost girl at Russell Square station. [44] |
33 | 12 | The Ghost That Followed Us Home | 24 June 2023 | A ghostly girl spotted on family holiday to France appears again closer to home. [45] |
No overall | No. | Title | First broadcast | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
34 | Special | Season 2 Case Update | 20 September 2023 | Looking back on some of the cases from the second series with further evidence. [46] |
35 | 1 | The Blue Man | 30 September 2023 | The apparition of a blue figure in a bedroom in Wales is witnessed by multiple people over many years. [47] |
36 | 2 | Uncle Jack | 7 October 2023 | A couple move into a dilapidated cottage - could the footsteps from the floor above be the ghost of a late relative? [48] |
37 | Special | Miss Howard, The Bearpark Poltergeist and The Oxford Exorcism - Case Update | 31 October 2023 | Updates on the three cases in the television adaptation. [49] |
38 | 3 | The Ghost Who Hated Parties | 8 November 2023 | Three students in Waterford, Ireland find their revelries disturbing a resident spirit. [50] |
39 | 4 | Elton’s Phone | 15 November 2023 | A child's toy telephone starts ringing in the night, heralding a sequence of increasingly disturbing incidents. [51] |
40 | 5 | Double Trouble | 22 November 2023 | Two doppelgänger cases are examined - a family from Newcastle witness themselves driving the other way in their classic car, and a disabled woman's suicidal thoughts are ended after seeing a vision of herself as an older woman. [52] |
41 | 6 | Good Evening | 29 November 2023 | A nurse moves into a regular suburban house with her husband and newborn baby, but keeps hearing the voice of a well-spoken man in her ear. [53] |
42 | Special | Christmas Special: The Haunting of Daisy May Cooper | 25 December 2023 | Danny Robins joins writer and actor Daisy May Cooper to investigate whether her house is haunted. [54] [55] |
43 | Special | S3 Case Update | 14 February 2024 | Updates on the cases from series 3. [56] |
Three repeated 'Classic Cases' with new introductions by Laurence Rickard, Daisy May Cooper and Reece Shearsmith were broadcast on 14, 21 and 28 October while the television adaptation was on air. [57]
A television series for BBC Two was broadcast from Friday 13 October 2023 for three episodes. Each episode is one hour long and features experts from the radio series. [2]
No overall | No. | Title | First broadcast | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 1 | Miss Howard | 13 October 2023 | Two separate families are troubled by repeated appearances of an Edwardian spectre in a house in Melbourn, Cambridgeshire. [58] |
2 | 2 | The Bearpark Poltergeist | 20 October 2023 | A boy living in a house in Bearpark, County Durham witnesses poltergeist activity. [59] |
3 | 3 | The Oxford Exorcism | 27 October 2023 | Three students find their student house in Oxford plagued by an evil spirit. [60] |
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