Radio 4 podcast produced by Bafflegab Productions, available on BBC Sounds

Time to meet our leading lady…

Quite literally, because Shirley Hitchings is still alive and she’s our star witness. We’re informed by Harold that poltergeist hauntings often attach themselves to a ‘focus’ but is that focus an innocent young girl or a manipulative, attention-seeking adolescent? Shirley is the next item in Danny Robins’ forensic spotlight.

The events of her teenage years, while she looks back on them with the wisdom of age, clearly left a mark because you can still hear the fear in her voice – the fear that persecuted her entire household. Cue a deep dive into that fear and into what influences the human brain to react in such a way. What happens when you have a ‘fight or flight’ reaction but you don’t know what you’re fighting and you can’t run? Anxiety, sleep deprivation and being cooped up for too long (very relatable for a lockdown-weary world) all contribute, but can fear alone make pots and pans fly across a room?

A chilling experiment follows that proves the strength of the human mind. Even when Danny applies reason to his unsettling jump-scare filled VR experience, his logic creates its own misperception, and you begin to see how prolonged exposure to such an environment could make anyone fearful. Create the right environment and the mind makes its own smoke and mirrors, which is both a wonderful and a terrifying fact to ponder.

Verdict: Thoroughly fascinating in its balanced presentation of the facts, evidence and the human story, I feel both entertained and educated. 9/10

Claire Smith