After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds & the Paranormal

This 1897 New York murder case that has it all - a villain, an incredibly useless police force, and a duck who saves the day. The incredible Dr Cat Byers (@heymorguegirl) joins Maddy and Anthony to tell this story.

Edited by Tomos Delargy. Produced by Freddy Chick. Senior Producer is Charlotte Long.

Please vote for us for Listeners' Choice at the British Podcast Awards! Follow this link, and don’t forget to confirm the...

Through the industrial fog of Victorian London, in one of the city's most notorious slums, a murder took place that shocked a nation.

The Bermondsey Horror, as it was called at the time, centred around a young woman and her older partner, and a wealthy man who was lured to their home one night.

How did the gruesome events unfold? What did Charles Dickens have to say about the public execution? And what was the social impact o...

It was a murder mystery that gripped 19th century France and changed crime investigation forever.

Who was the body in the trunk? What were the groundbreaking techniques used in the forensics investigation? And how did the murder case unfold from there?

Taking Anthony and Maddy back to France in 1889 and through this story is historian and author Dr. Cat Byers.

This episode was edited by Tom Delargy and produced by Stuart B...

What happens when you're left on a desert island with a psychopath? This is a story so horrendous it would be hard to believe were it not for the skeletons left behind. Maddy Pelling takes Anthony Delaney through the shipwreck of the Batavia.

Edited by Tim Arstall. Research by Phoebe Joyce. Produced by Freddy Chick. Senior Producer is Charlotte Long.

Please vote for us for Listeners' Choice at the British Podcast Awards! Foll...

For Albert Pierrepoint, execution was a family affair. His father and uncle were hangmen and from the 1940s until the late 1950s Albert was Britain's "Number One" executioner. Which meant he was the one sent to hang the Nazis who ran the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp at the end of the war.

Who was Albert Pierrepoint? What does it take to be able to execute hundreds of people? And what is 'The Drop'?

Edited and produced by ...

Today we’re going behind the foreboding doors of the Victorian workhouse to ask - ‘Could we survive it?’. From Oliver Twist's gruel to songs about flogging, from lice-ridden clothing to soul destroying isolation. Our guest is Oskar Jensen, author of "Vagabonds: Life on the Streets of Nineteenth Century London".

Edited by Tim Arstall. Produced by Freddy Chick, Senior Producer is Charlotte Long.

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If you think your job is bad, have you tried being a plague doctor in 17th century Venice?

Join Anthony and Maddy as they wake up on a quarantine island and take you through a day in the life of a plague doctor, including the sights, smells and horrors of what you would have seen as you explored plague-riddled Venice in 1631.

Find out what they would have worn, what they did on their lunch break, and what the perks of the job...

Conspiracy theories swirl about the final days of Napoleon. Was he poisoned by a friend? By the British? By his wallpaper? Did he cologne himself to death? Was his penis taken away by a vengeful priest!? Anthony and Maddy sweep aside the myths to find the truth of the final days of Napoleon Bonaparte.

Edited by Tim Arstall. Research by Phoebe Joyce. Produced by Freddy Chick. Senior Producer is Charlotte Long.

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What was it like living in London, 1665, when the plague first crept in?

Within weeks, the gruesome symptoms were being spotted around London, crosses were marked on the doors of the damned, and King Charles II had fled the city.

To take us back to this time and find out how the city reacted, Anthony and Maddy are joined by historian and author Rebecca Rideal.

Edited by Tim Arstall. Produced by Stuart Beckwith. Senior Prod...

Would you have joined the OG Luddites? In 1811 and 1812 across the midlands and north of England which were the Silicon Valley of the day, Luddites smashed machines. They would not stop, not even at murder, in order to fight technology that was tearing down their way of life. Maddy tells Anthony the story this week.

Edited by Tomos Delargy, produced by Freddy Chick, Senior Producer is Charlotte Long.

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In the 6th century, the Roman Empire was split and its future hung in the balance.

Emperor Justinian dreamed of restoring it to its former glory. That was until the first great plague devastated Constantinople.

Thousands died, bodies were piled in the streets - even the Emperor fell ill.

How did this effect ambitions to restore the Empire to its former glory? And how did citizens react to this deadly disease?

Joining An...

Against a time of radical change, a gothic masterpiece was written by the teenage Mary Shelley.

Published in 1818, Frankenstein takes us into a dark world where man and monster meet in mutual torment. A world of raw, animalistic fear.

How was this story influenced by the tragedies in Mary Shelley's own life, and the early 19th century obsessions with playing God?

Edited by Tomos Delargy. Produced by Stuart Beckwith. Senior...

Last week we heard about Mary's formative years. Today we get to her reign, the infamous burnings and ask ourselves if Bloody Mary was as bad as people think.

Edited by Tomos Delargy. Produced by Stuart Beckwith. Senior Producer is Charlotte Long.

Please vote for us for Listeners' Choice at the British Podcast Awards! Follow this link, and don’t forget to confirm the email. Thank you!

You can now watch After Dark on...

In the aftermath of the bloody Russian revolution, the Romanovs went from being a glittering royal family, to vulnerable everyday citizens who were soon murdered.

In the wake of their deaths, the that one family member survived, began to gain traction.

How do the claims of Princess Anastasia's survival begin? Why did people want her to survive? And why do humans need to believe in myths?

Joining Anthony and Maddy today is ...

Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary. Mary I is known as a brutal tyrant. But what was the reality? In the next two episodes Anthony and Maddy will explore Mary's story. Today they explore the traumatic early years that shaped her.

Edited by Tomos Delargy. Produced by Freddy Chick. Senior Producer is Charlotte Long.

You can now watch After Dark on Youtube: www.youtube.com/@afterdarkhistoryhit

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Today’s story is one that takes us to a very familiar setting - the Tower of London - but shows it in a new light. Edward Francis was an enslaved man who lived in the Lion Tower. In 1691 he decided to poison his enslavers. Maddy and Anthony are joined by (friend of the pod) Dr Misha Ewen who helped bring this history to light. Misha is the author of "The Virginia Venture: American Colonization and English Society, 1580-1660".

Ed...

It wasn't made by Druids (or Aliens or Merlin the wizard). But it was a garden centre. Get ready for the 10 strangest facts (mostly) about Stonehenge! Maddy Pelling takes Anthony Delaney back among the stones.

Edited by Amy Haddow. Produced by Freddy Chick. Senior Producer is Charlotte Long.

You can now watch After Dark on Youtube: www.youtube.com/@afterdarkhistoryhit

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You're laid out on the surgeon's table. Wide awake. He stands over you knife in hand and behind him, in the stands, is a noisy crowd all joking, smoking and scoffing oysters, waiting for the show to start. Welcome to Victorian surgery! Could you survive?

Joining Maddy Pelling and Anthony Delaney this week is Sara Yorath, from the Old Operating Theatre museum in London.

Edited by Tim Arstall. Produced by Stuart Beckwith. Senio...

A body is found at Stonehenge. It's the skeleton of a man - an archer - who lived at the time when it was built. How did he die? What secrets does his skeleton reveal about his life and the purpose of Stonehenge?

In today's episode, Anthony and Maddy investigate a 4,000 year-old murder mystery, as well as exploring the big questions that surround Stonehenge: how was it built? Who built it, and why?!

A special thanks to Adrian...