The Haunting of Birmingham House

“I myself don’t believe it, I wouldn’t believe it of someone else… but it did happen.”

Hannah Betts doesn’t believe in ghosts, as she tells us at the outset… at least, it seems she doesn’t want to. I’m even more conscious of spoilers for this review, because this episode is so action packed, I’d urge you to listen to it before going any further. It truly does have it all, and as a fan of haunted house stories, many of the tropes (as Hannah herself explains) are adhered to.

Which came first, though? The phenomena or the trope?

Our sceptical expert this week, Hayley Stevens, explains very reasonably that the power of suggestion might be a factor here, as the family were told of the fact that the house was supposedly haunted when they moved in. But thinking about a white bear doesn’t necessarily mean that there isn’t, in fact, a white bear inhabiting the cold room next to the loo that freaked your little brother out.

I find Peter Laws’ whack-a-mole theory both amusing and accurate. Hit one phenomena over the head with a plausible non-supernatural explanation and another springs up that can’t be as effectively knocked down in the same way.

The way Hannah described her experience of caring for her dying parents and the way she felt about the house at that point is so very touching. “Real life can be a lot scarier than the terror of the unknown,” she states. How very true, and don’t we all know it after the last couple of years.

My take on case 9: There is no single answer that adequately explains every experience the Betts had. Some of it could be a prank but the abject terror that Hannah very pragmatically describes as being so real has to have been caused by something… paranormal? I have questions and I’m looking forward to Uncanny fans’ sleuthing skills on some of the aspects of this case, if its revisited.

Verdict: The truth is stranger than fiction in a haunted house tale that has it all. 9/10

Claire Smith