BBC Radio 4, April 8 2023 and BBC Sounds

“The crazy boast of a bloke who’s spent too long in his shed.”

What crazy bloke would that be? Record-breaking West-End Playwright and Podcaster Danny Robins, our favourite shed-dwelling spook-tastic storyteller.

Danny begins by reminding us that the aforementioned boast was that Uncanny would be the biggest investigation into the paranormal ever, and he can tick that off the list as series 2 begins.

One of the enduring qualities of the Uncanny community is the safe space that Danny creates so that those who have had experiences they can’t explain can come forward to share their own stories. It’s engendered a respectful community where  those with all sorts of different views and theories can work together to unravel the intriguing mysteries laid out before us.

This week we meet Marie. In her late teens in the late 1990s, she lived on the Isle of Wight and experienced the most dreadful trauma when she lost three friends on one terrible night in a car crash. Driving as far as she could, she found herself in Yorkshire with nowhere to go – that’s when Ampleforth Abbey rescued her… only she probably wouldn’t put it like that.

Begging the strange house to let her stay, she felt it had granted her wish, only to have conversations with long-dead monks and… here’s the kicker… actually interact with the tearful boy in the room next to hers – room 3.

Eloquent expert Deborah Hyde, well known to Uncanny listeners, quite reasonably points out that Marie’s preoccupation with death likely stems from the awful trauma she experienced at such a young age, and has given her a pre-disposition to contemplate premature death and loss. Barry Dodds, Podcaster & Paranormal Investigator, doesn’t pull any of his punches and agrees that her experiences may echo her grief and loss… but to have the same experiences night after night in hearing the boy in room 3 cry, to seemingly interact with him, seems to contradict ‘stone-tape’ theory and suggest that there was actually someone or something there that was soothed when Marie would suggest his mother would be there soon. It’s heart-breaking.

I won’t add too many spoilers here as I’d encourage anyone who has been living under a rock to listen, but if you weren’t afraid of Ouija boards before, Marie will give you a very good reason to be!

Verdict: Uncanny is back with a… cry? Get theorising, #TeamUncanny! 8/10

Claire Smith