BBC Sounds

“We are about to be confronted by something truly inhuman.”

After some intriguing updates on previous cases, we head to France for our next episode, and an exciting backpacking trip with two teenagers from Belfast, Ian and Dermot, who were travelling around the country and sleeping rough, possibly to have more beer money? No judgement!

This brings them to Langeais Chateau in the beautiful Loire Valley, and it is indeed a place that a Disney Princess would be proud to call home. Google it, it’s going straight on my ‘to visit’ list. Specifically, they find themselves sheltering for the night under the drawbridge that leads to the portcullis in the now-drained and grass-covered moat.

Big mistake. Big, huge.

A “weird and petrifying” – and decidedly malodorous – creature with hooves passed over the two boys on its way over the bridge. Only it was invisible. And scared the shit out of them. The Devil? Undoubtedly “something dark”.

Again, as with Room 611, the witnesses hail from Belfast and the phenomenon took place at the same time as The Troubles. Rather than give them an anxious disposition, this actually de-sensitised the teens, and made them “accustomed to extreme stuff going on around [them]”. Fair point, well made.

The thing that stays with me from this case is the fact that one of these teenage kids went on to work in the police for 30 years, with exposure to unimaginable gore and violence… yet that night with the Beast of Langeais remains the most terrified he’s ever been. Chilling stuff.

Verdict: We may have found evidence of the real castle from ‘La Belle et la Bete’ – but a darker, alternative version, perhaps? 8/10

Claire Smith