BBC Sounds, June 7, 2023

“Sometimes, I think the scariest thing is uncertainty.”

As we hit series 2 episode double-digits, there is no sign of the spooky letting up any time soon, with a corker of a case featuring one of my favourite sinister characters… a monstrous apparition that repeatedly shows itself and drips with dark energy. This time, it’s not a house that’s haunted… it’s our witness.

That witness is Will, and – spoiler alert – he doesn’t have a friend called Harry.

It starts off like any case, with the most likely explanation being student shenanigans. A home-sketched Ouija board against some creepy advice that Will received – no, I wouldn’t mess with them – introduces Will to our eponymous anti-hero. It’s definitely a prank, that’s where you’ll be at around eight minutes in, after hearing about prank calls that Will’s never around to take – until he is, and he doesn’t like what he hears. Then Danny lobs the proverbial grenade into proceedings, as is his wont, and points out that ‘Harry’ would have needed to know Will’s room number. So if this isn’t his mates pulling a fast one, that’s nasty. Evelyn Hollow hits the nail on the head: “Maybe it’s not the Ouija board we should be looking at, maybe it’s Will.”

Naturally, there are all the perfectly reasonable sceptical arguments against Ouija boards being doomed portals to an evil world, but in true Uncanny style, that’s not even half the tale.

Cue the king of rationality, Ciaran O’Keeffe, talking about people “genuinely getting phone calls from the dead,” and I’m ‘shook’. With much more diplomacy than a politician, he soon assures us that he doesn’t buy it and normal service is resumed.

I don’t want to give away too much at this point, other than to heartily recommend you listen, especially during a nice summer storms on a dark night. You know, the torrential kind that feels like an entire ocean is depositing itself all at once on the secluded private park you’re in. The kind of rain that can distort a driver’s vision… with the top-notch sound-scaping and tense, vivid descriptions, I can see ‘Harry’ in my mind. This is Uncanny on top form.

Verdict: A cracking episode that will stretch out your nervous system with every new encounter… until it snaps. Is that your phone ringing? 10/10

Claire Smith