BBC Radio 4, November 28 2022 and BBC Sounds          

NB Spoilers if you’ve not heard the episode yet

This time you’ve gone too far.

Hate is an ugly word. It’s also quite an extreme one, and it’s a word I’ve battled to let go over the years, with only limited success. Heol Fanog seems to be holding onto it for dear life… or should that be death?

As Danny says, there are incredibly strong opinions regarding exorcism and they can run both deep and hot… I very much count myself amongst those with strong opinions too. That doesn’t stop me from feeling the same way as both Ciaran and Evelyn in their rare moment of agreement! The vicar, David Holmwood, has gone way too far, it’s just too much and his involvement has to be more harmful at this point. To feed from the guilt that, for whatever reason is buried deep within Bill, is cruel. I can think of no reason why an exorcism should take months and necessitate several visits.

I believe in the same things as this vicar, but I cannot agree with or condone his course of action. It’s deeply unsettling on so many levels. Could it be hubris disguised as a battle with evil? It could be that Reverend Holmwood’s efforts have been poisoned, just as the land has been. Perhaps he’s not made the correct spiritual diagnosis, or not gone far enough with it? As Evelyn says: “Heol Fanog feels like a disease with multiple symptoms… we can’t cure it until we get to the root of the problem,” and I’m worried that everything that’s happened so far in the story has been fuelling the darkness, not dispelling it with light, however good the intentions of those who have tried to help… and well… they do say that the road to Hell is paved with good intentions. Gulp.

A significant chunk of the episode is devoted to, in Danny’s own words, a “Victorian cold case”. It’s doesn’t seem very cold though, both in the sense that it appears to have been solved, and also that there is an awful lot of heat – or should that be hate – in the crime.

The victim was called Thomas. The man who caved his head in with an axe was called James.

Two local historians from across time share their expertise with Liz, in the 90s, and Danny, now. It’s gruesome, but what could have inflamed a passion so dreadful that it resulted in such a brutal killing? It’s a question that hangs in the air, just like the growing sense of foreboding.

Poor, poor, troubled Bill. Clearly afflicted with depression, he begins to be drawn to the idea of taking his own life. Poor Liz, no longer knowing where reality ends… she starts to doubt Bill, to doubt herself. At least Lawrence escaped, at least his future now seems bright, as he escaped the darkness of Heol Fanog.

New witnesses and key players score goals thick and fast for Team Sceptic and Team Believer, and you can feel the tension ramping up with every scene.

We meet Robert McDonald, a local artist who knew Bill and Liz at time of the haunting. While he experienced some strange electrical phenomena and maintains that there was “something peculiar about the electrical personality of the house,” he also explains that some paints can be poisonous. Leading to the obvious conclusion that it’s plausible that hallucinations and Bill’s dreadful rash on his hands could have a very prosaic explanation.

My word, am I moving into Team Sceptic for this case? Please no one tell Ciaran!

Just as it’s looking like the game has been won, yet another witness to the strange phenomena at Heol Fanog comes forward.

Liz Jones, our Liz’s new vet, knew the previous tenant: Bridget Buscombe. She would sometimes feed the animals on the farm and also heard the footsteps… even when the water pipes were turned off, so there goes that explanation.

I love Liz Jones’ thought that paranormal phenomena are just like radio stations… they are always “out there broadcasting…” and that only she and our Liz are tuned in to Heol Fanog’s frequency. That absolutely tracks, for me. No one knows what we’re opening ourselves to, with the light and the dark that we all put out into the world.

Maybe I’m not moving into scepticism after all!

What is clear as we head into what is bound to be a dramatic final episode, is that James must have been filled with a pure hatred of Thomas to do what he did all those decades ago. But there’s no connection, surely? I’ll end this with Liz Jones’ words: “whatever was in that house felt like pure hate.”

Verdict: It’s a draw here at The Witch Farm as we go into the final 30 minutes of the game.. it’s all to play for. 10/10

Claire Smith