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From ghostly phantoms to UFOs, The Battersea Poltergeist’s Danny Robins investigates real-life stories of paranormal encounters in the new Radio 4 podcast Uncanny, available on BBC Sounds.

Appealing to believers and sceptics alike, the podcast is an expansive investigation into the paranormal, turning the listeners into armchair supernatural sleuths.

Uncanny is hosted by award-winning writer and journalist Danny Robins, presenter of The Battersea Poltergeist and writer of West End hit stage play 2:22 – A Ghost Story, starring Lily Allen.

This gripping series explores 15 new cases, each one an individual story of a deeply strange encounter. Danny, a self-declared “sceptic who wants to believe”, investigates alongside a team of experts including paranormal psychology specialists Chris French, Ciaran O’Keefe and Evelyn Hollow. Taking a ‘true crime’ approach, Uncanny will hunt down answers by throwing open each case to the listeners, asking for questions, theories and accounts of the audience’s own experiences.

Talking exclusively to Sci-Fi Bulletin, Robins notes, “I’m so excited to be dropping this new series right before Halloween. Dim your lights, pour yourself a stiff hot chocolate and make sure you have a comfortable armrest to grip in terror… these are properly spooky stories, but, they can be very moving too. As a society, we keep asking ourselves do ghosts exist? They clearly do in some form as people are having these experiences all the time – the question is why? Is it supernatural, psychological or enviromental? It’s a question that obsesses me and this series throws up some delicious mysteries that will push our rational explanations to the limit! Come with me and try to solve them!!!”

Across the series, listeners hear model Charli Howard talk about being terrorised by a supernatural stalker in her Brooklyn apartment, and from a policeman who says he encountered a UFO in the midst of a bizarre murder inquiry. A young nurse details claims of paranormal forces saving a patient, and teenage hikers recount spending the night in an abandoned house that was anything but empty, encountering what could be the Scottish Highlands’ version of The Blair Witch. Uncanny shines a light on a student dorm room that spooked inhabitants over many years, connects strange sounds in a family home to a Victorian murder, plus much more over the course of the 15 episodes.

Robins says: “One of the most amazing aspects of making The Battersea Poltergeist was how many people sent me their own ghost stories. It made me realise that experiences like these are more common than we might think. Now Uncanny gives me a chance to tell these stories and many others I have received, talking directly to the people who had the experiences and investigating with them to see if we can find answers.

“This is the show I have always wanted to make. It lets me be a supernatural Sherlock Holmes, trying to solve real-life paranormal mysteries, and I’ll be wanting the listeners to be my Dr Watson.”

Rhian Roberts, Radio 4 Commissioning Editor for Digital and Podcasts, adds: “Uncanny has some deeply unsettling stories lined up, the sort of tales that can still make you go cold long after you first heard them. The success of The Battersea Poltergeist showed us that podcast and Radio 4 listeners are ready for more. I’ll be listening with the light on.”

The show’s haunting theme tune is composed and performed by Mercury Prize-nominated band Lanterns On The Lake. The series is co-produced by Danny with Simon Barnard of Bafflegab Productions.

Radio 4’s Uncanny will be available on BBC Sounds from 20 October, it will also be broadcast on Saturday nights at 11.30pm on Radio 4 from 23 October.

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