The Dark Side of the Vikings
04 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
How dark really were the Vikings? How much of a part did human sacrifice play in their world? And wh...
The Only Prime Minister Ever Assassinated
01 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Was this moment the closest Britain came to revolution? When Prime Minister Spencer Perceval lay dyi...
Who Was Medieval Europe's Most Evil Monarch?
27 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Who was the very worst of all the Medieval monarchs? No spoilers but we've got monarchs driven psych...
Who was the Last Witch of Scotland?
24 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
With the nights closing in, what better time to re-visit a favourite episode of ours.In 1727, Janet ...
Could you Survive the Medieval Apocalypse?
20 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
For Medieval Europe, the Apocalypse wasn’t just a metaphor - it was very real and very imminent.We...
Why Did Henry VIII Kill Catherine Howard?
17 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In 1540 Henry VIII was getting old, and his eyes turned to teenager Catherine Howard.He fell hard an...
Who Was Nostradamus?
13 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Did Nostradamus really predict everything from the Great Fire of London to the rise of Hitler?We pre...
Day in the Life of a Tudor Executioner
10 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Did they wear black hoods? Whose axe did they use? How did you get the job in the first place? Today...
Henry VIII's Murderous Reign
06 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Henry VIII was a monarch everyone was excited for, and turned into someone who weaponised his powers...
The Perfume Poisoner Who Killed 500 Men
03 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Deep in Renaissance Rome, it is said that a woman called Giulia Tofana supplied poison to kill some ...
Introducing a chilling new podcast: TWISTED TALES WITH HEIDI WONG
01 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Reality is the real horror.Every Monday, poet and paranormal obsessive Heidi Wong unearths the chill...
Truth About Irish Funeral Beliefs
30 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What are the origins of keening for the dead? What is the history of Irish wakes? And why must you n...
'She Devil' Serial Poisoner of Victorian England
27 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Sarah Dazley was one of the most infamous women in the world for a moment in 1843 when she was accus...
Witches of Cornwall
23 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
From the spookiest corner of the British isles, comes two stories of witches. Stories of fairies and...
Britain's Coldest Murder Case
20 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Eugene Aram was an 18th century schoolmaster who got away with murder for fourteen years. Then a ske...
Day in the life of a Black Death Rat
16 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What did Medieval people think about rats? Did they have any idea that they were the cause of the Bl...
The Dark Truth About Madam Tussauds
13 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Behind the current display of celebrity waxworks lies the dark and bloody history of Madam Tussauds....
Who Was The Ultimate Tudor Traitor?
09 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The Tudor court was dangerous and high stakes at the best of times, where survival could often mean ...
The Railway Murder That Shook Victorian Britain
06 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
It's 1864 and the height of industrialisation. The thrill of railway travel is shattered with the fi...
The Dark Reality of Life at Sea
02 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Dan Snow joins After Dark to reveal the brutal reality of life of sailors during the golden age of s...
Dark Side of Elizabeth I
29 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The end of Elizabeth I's life was shrouded in darkness and plots as powerful figures circled her thr...
Who Was Ancient Egypt's Most Evil Pharaoh?
25 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
We often think of Egyptian Pharaohs as a glamorous god-king of Ancient times, yet the truth of these...
Who Was Ancient Rome's Darkest Emperor?
22 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
There are a disturbingly high number of contenders for the title of Rome's Darkest Emperor - so as y...
Day In The Life Of A Body Snatcher
18 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Join Anthony and Maddy as they spend a day - or should that be night? - in the life of a 19th centur...
Georgian England's Notorious Dumpling Poisoner
15 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Did she do it? Did serving girl Eliza Fenning poison the dumplings she served the Turner family? Thi...
Dark Truth About Ancient Egypt's Mummification
11 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The Ancient Egyptians had a very different idea about death than most people do today.And the idea o...
Who was the 'Man-Monster' Of New York?
08 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
On June 16, 1836, in New York City, Mary Jones stood in a courtroom that was a cauldron of hatred. M...
BONUS: Hear a chapter of Anthony's new book, Queer Georgians
05 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Hear a chapter of Anthony's new book, Queer Georgians: A hidden history of lovers, lawbreakers and h...
Dark Side of Ancient Rome's Colosseum
04 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In today's episode, we're taking you inside the towering walls of Ancient Rome's Colosseum to find o...
Gay Sex Scandal that Outraged the Georgians
01 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What price might a man pay for sex in the 18th century? Well, if it was with another man, he might p...
Jack the Ripper: Invention of a Monster
28 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Jack the Ripper as we think of him, is an invention of the Victorian media. They took the complete a...
The Dark Side of Medieval England
25 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This episode contains descriptions of execution and torture.To be Hanged, Drawn & Quartered. Put on ...
The Darkest Scandal in Victorian Britain
21 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Today we step into the shadowy world of W.T. Stead—a Victorian journalist whose life was as contro...
New York's Wildest Murder Case
18 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This 1897 New York murder case that has it all - a villain, an incredibly useless police force, and ...
Victorian Love Triangle Murder
14 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Through the industrial fog of Victorian London, in one of the city's most notorious slums, a murder ...
The Body In The Trunk: France's Shocking 19th Century Murder Case
11 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
It was a murder mystery that gripped 19th century France and changed crime investigation forever.Who...
Bloodiest Mutiny & Shipwreck in History: Batavia
07 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What happens when you're left on a desert island with a psychopath? This is a story so horrendous it...
Britain’s Most Prolific Executioner
04 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
For Albert Pierrepoint, execution was a family affair. His father and uncle were hangmen and from th...
Could You Survive The Victorian Workhouse?
31 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Today we’re going behind the foreboding doors of the Victorian workhouse to ask - ‘Could we surv...
Day In The Life Of A Plague Doctor
28 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
If you think your job is bad, have you tried being a plague doctor in 17th century Venice?Join Antho...
Final Days of Napoleon
24 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Conspiracy theories swirl about the final days of Napoleon. Was he poisoned by a friend? By the Brit...
The Great Plague of London
21 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What was it like living in London, 1665, when the plague first crept in?Within weeks, the gruesome s...
Dark History of the Luddites
17 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Would you have joined the OG Luddites? In 1811 and 1812 across the midlands and north of England whi...
The Plague That Shook The Roman Empire
14 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In the 6th century, the Roman Empire was split and its future hung in the balance.Emperor Justinian ...
The Truth About Frankenstein
10 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Against a time of radical change, a gothic masterpiece was written by the teenage Mary Shelley.Publi...
How Bloody Was 'Bloody Mary'?
07 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Last week we heard about Mary's formative years. Today we get to her reign, the infamous burnings an...
The Final Days of Anastasia Romanov
03 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In the aftermath of the bloody Russian revolution, the Romanovs went from being a glittering royal f...
Bloody Mary: The Real Woman in the Mirror
30 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary. Mary I is known as a brutal tyrant. But what was the reality?...
Poison in the Tower of London
26 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Today’s story is one that takes us to a very familiar setting - the Tower of London - but shows it...
Stonehenge: 10 Strangest Facts
23 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
It wasn't made by Druids (or Aliens or Merlin the wizard). But it was a garden centre. Get ready for...
Could You Survive Victorian Surgery?
19 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
You're laid out on the surgeon's table. Wide awake. He stands over you knife in hand and behind him,...
Murder at Stonehenge
16 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A body is found at Stonehenge. It's the skeleton of a man - an archer - who lived at the time when i...
Dark Side of Ancient Mesopotamia
12 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A four thousand(ish) year old murder trial. A procession of the dead. Kings who believed they could ...
Final Days of Sir Walter Raleigh
09 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
'Strike, man, strike!' were the last words of Sir Walter Raleigh as his neck lay on the block. After...
Inside the Paris Catacombs
05 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Beneath the streets of the French capitol lurks a city of the dead: the Paris Catacombs.Why they wer...
Victorian England's Most Gruesome Murder
02 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
It was one of the most gruesome crimes of the Victorian era... and it ended up in David Attenborough...
The Ghost of Mary Queen of Scots
29 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
*TW: This episode contains references to sexual violence.*Mary Queen of Scots' life was defined by v...
The Truth About the Knights Templar
26 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Why are the Knights Templar surrounded by myths and legends? Is there any truth to the tales of the ...
Final Days of Abraham Lincoln
22 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
One split second - and one individual - can upturn an entire nation.This was definitely the case whe...
Lost Colony of Roanoke: the Untold Story
19 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The lost colonists left behind one clue, the word "Croatoan" carved into a tree. Who were the Croata...
The Dark Side of Ancient Egypt
15 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
When people talk about Ancient Egypt, they often focus on the amazing pyramids, mummies, and the ...
Lost Colony of Roanoke: Mystery of Virginia Dare
12 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
WTF happened to Virginia Dare, America's first English child? How did her and her mother's legend gr...
The Murder That Shocked Edwardian Britain
08 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
It was a murder that shook Edwardian Britain, and became a media sensation around the world.Joining ...
The Dark Side of Ancient Rome
05 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
As a lot of new listeners have joined us, and it's a bank holiday in the UK, we thought we'd re-run ...
Spring-Heeled Jack: Terror of Victorian London
01 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The grimy streets of Victorian London were stalked by a shadowy menace: Spring-Heeled Jack! He had g...
England's Darkest Folklore
28 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A spectral Black Dog with hellish eyes; a homicidal water spirit who drowns children; a mermaid who ...
Final Days of 'Mad' George III
24 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
How did George III die? Was it raving in a straightjacket? Who stayed with him at the end of his lon...
Hammersmith Ghost: How to Murder a Poltergeist
21 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Can it be murder if you think you're killing a ghost? In 1804 the London suburb of Hammersmith was b...
Wales' Darkest Folklore
17 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Wales is set apart from a lot of countries, with one of its folk tales - the Red Dragon - featuring ...
Ireland's Darkest Folklore
14 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
*TW: This episode contains discussions and themes of infertility.*Fairies have long been part of Iri...
Tudor England's Dumbest Murder
10 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Alice Arden wanted her husband Thomas dead. So did the rest of the village of Faversham. What follow...
Scotland's Darkest Folklore
07 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
From misty mountains to deep-sea caves, we explore the dark side of Scottish folklore. Tales of Selk...
Easter Rising: First World War In Dublin
03 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
(Part 2/2) On Easter Monday in 1916, Irish rebels read a proclamation of independence that sparked a...
Black Death: Scapegoats & Persecution
30 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
***This episode contains a description of mass murder***As the Black Death moved across Europe, some...
Easter Rising: Build-Up To Irish Rebellion
27 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
(Part 1/2) With Britain engaged in the First World War in Europe, Irish rebels sensed an opportunity...
Black Death: 5 Strangest Cures
24 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
It was a plague like no other. It provoked strange cures like no other. Anthony Delaney takes Maddy ...
Final Days of Joan of Arc: Trial & Execution
20 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
(Part 2/2) Joan of Arc, mystic leader of a French army, was captured and sold to the English who tri...
Black Death: Inside Medieval Lockdown
17 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Around 50% of everyone in Europe died during the Black Death. It's very hard to make sense of that. ...
Final Days of Joan of Arc: Rise to Fame
13 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
(Part 1/2) So many things make Joan of Arc iconic. The fearless, crossdressing warrior saint who die...
Black Death: The Origin Story
10 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The myth goes thus: the Black Death reached Christendom at the Siege of Caffa when Mongols catapulte...
Death at the Savoy Mansions: Post-War London's Drug Underworld
06 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
During the victory celebrations of World War One, a rising star is found dead in her bed after a sus...
The Servants' Revenge: Arsenic & a Poisoned Pint of Beer
03 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Why did two servants living in Plymouth, England, poison their whole household in 1675? How did they...
The Curse of King Tutankhamun's Tomb
26 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Untimely deaths followed the opening of Tutankhamun's tomb by Howard Carter. Coincidence or ancient ...
Final Days of Thomas Cromwell
24 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
From ruthless schemer to pragmatic hero - who is the real Thomas Cromwell? And how did he meet his e...
Glencoe Massacre: Haunted Highlands
20 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
(Part 2/2) On the 13 February 1692, Scottish government troops slaughtered between 30-40 members of ...
Peasants' Revolt: Murder in the Tower of London
17 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
(2/2) A boy King, a rebel army, and the first ever execution at Tower Hill. Maddy Pelling tells Anth...
Glencoe Massacre: Hell in the Scottish Highlands
13 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
On the 13 February 1692, Scottish government troops slaughtered between 30-40 members of Clan MacDon...
Peasants' Revolt: Medieval Rebellion
10 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
1381, England, the world turned upside down as the commoners rise up and dismantle the mechanisms of...
Final Days of the Romanovs (Part 2)
06 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
(2/2) We join the captive Romanovs as they are moved from The Alexander Palace to Siberia and then t...
Sweating Sickness: Deadly Tudor Plague
03 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
It's a medical-history-mystery: the Sweating Sickness. Things get clammy as Anthony Delaney and Madd...
Final Days of the Romanovs (Part 1)
30 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
(1/2) As Russia collapses, the Romanovs find themselves trapped by delusions and failed ideals; by r...
Typhoid Mary: Original Super-Spreader?
27 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Mary Mallon aka "Typhoid Mary" is a macabre figure who spread disease and death everywhere she went....
Is the Devil Dead?
23 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
(2/2) What does the resurrection of a hanged woman have to do with the Devil? Did the Enlightenment ...
Final Days of Henry VIII
20 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
You could smell Henry VIII's rotting legs from three rooms by the end. He was in constant pain, bare...
Origins of the Devil
16 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
(1/2) How has the devil been depicted through history? What are his origins? And why should he be po...
Great Fire of London: Mobs, Firestorms, and Revenge
13 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
(2/2) As the Great Fire of London worsens mob rule begins to appear and a hunt for a scapegoat takes...
Final Days of Mary Queen of Scots
09 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The moment Mary Queen of Scots set foot in England, she became Elizabeth I's prisoner. Mary was flee...
Great Fire of London: Who started it?
06 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
(1/2) London's Burning! London's Burning! Disaster strikes in 1666 as the dense, mostly wooden, city...
Final Days of Rasputin
02 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Grigori Rasputin, Russian mystic, survived multiple assassination attempts on the same night. He was...
Is the Loch Ness Monster real?
30 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
What lurks beneath the dark waters of Loch Ness? The legendary monster? A piece of Celtic folklore? ...