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Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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Siksi Vaasan Sähköllä on asiakkaita joka ikisessä Suomen kaupungissa. Ai Vaasan Sähköllä.
Just niin. Pitkä historia ja yli hyvä hinta vetää puoleensa.
Siis näinköhän.
Kurkkaa sopparit osoitteesta.
Siis onko Rovaniemellä?
Siellä ollaan myös. Tampere? Kyllä. Kurkkaa osoitte. Siis Oulussakin. On, on. Ja osoite on.
Vaasan Sähkö.fi
Lapland Hotels invites you to experience the summer of Lapland. A sleepless night and a beloved morning. Enjoy the summer nights in Lapland. Now every sixth night at LaplandHotels.com BBC Sounds.
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Chapter 2: What happens after Shirley's exorcism?
I imagine so. Shirley, my dear. Hello again. Sorry to keep you waiting.
Maxwell?
How have you been? So Ronald Maxwell, Shirley, is the journalist we heard your dad invite into the house back in episode three when you made contact with Donald. What was he like? He was a big thick set man with dark curly hair and he had this big cashmere coat on. He swaggered about, you know. I didn't like him. Sorry about all that cloak and dagger stuff with John.
We just wanted to make sure you'd come. Thought you might like a can of fizzy pop. They brought in a tizer, I think it was, and a bowl of sweets. This all feels a bit creepy, Shirley. It was. You know, I'd never come across anything like this. But I knew I didn't want to be there.
Some bugs.
Is this Fleet Street then?
Indeed, the hallowed offices of the Daily Mail.
Some woman came in and made me strip to my underwear.
Yes, apologies. We just needed to check you weren't, you know, hiding anything.
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Chapter 3: How does the media influence Shirley's story?
Or might Donald still be here?
I think I have. I might have felt him.
Do you think we could contact him? Show John how we did it last time?
I can't control the noises. It just happens.
Of course. But perhaps you could try. Now?
Donald? Are you there?
John?
Yep. He's come back.
I thought he might.
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Chapter 4: What is the significance of the police involvement in the haunting?
So you're looking for a kind of a single source, a single explanation, and you're tying the two things together. And the thing that's tying them together is the poltergeist or it's Shirley. But they are two separate things. So tapping has a number of different possible explanations. Banging has other explanations, which in the main, I think, would be different to the tapping sounds.
Really, the only thing that's linking the banging at number 63 and this tapping in the Daily Mail office is Shirley.
Yes, that is the only thing that's connecting them. And, you know, the focus for all of this phenomena does appear to be Shirley.
Which I guess means one of two things, doesn't it? Either Donald is now following her everywhere she goes or Shirley herself is somehow responsible for these noises. Incredible, isn't it? Look this way. The noise seems to be coming from the floor area, by your feet.
Yes.
Does it do that a lot?
Well, sometimes it's in the walls or furniture.
But always near to where you are? I suppose so. I do like your boots. Thanks. I wonder if you could take them off?
Alright.
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Chapter 5: What new developments occur in Shirley's life?
A journalist pretended to be your brother. This is outrageous, Shirley. Now looking back... My God, I must have been gullible, you know. And then their article came out. Oh, yes, and the picture was on the front page of me holding up this silly boot. Spook was in girls' big toe. Pardon? That's the headline in the weekend mail.
I've no idea what you're talking about.
Shirley Hitching's right big toe has hoaxed the world. Millions of TV viewers have seen Shirley telling them about the mysterious tapped messages from Donald, her pet spirit. We have news for... Come and have a look at this.
Shirley is doing the tapping subconsciously by cracking the joint in her right big toe. Well, that's that then.
Right.
Oh, I don't think so. They're a funny bunch, poltergeists. Doubt them and they tend to want to prove themselves. Will you pass the salt, dear? So this is the first big sceptic theory about the case that tries to explain what's been happening. I'm going to call it the hammer-toe theory.
And it's basically that Ronald Maxwell had suspected that Shirley was somehow responsible for the noises herself. And that doctor they took her to had diagnosed a deformity called hammertoe, which she'd picked up from childhood ballet dancing. And the theory goes that the deformity in the bone produces a clicking noise, and that explains the taps from Donald. So could this be true?
Well, there's a possible precedent that It's another poltergeist case back in 1848. It happens in a house in a tiny hamlet called Hydesville in rural upstate New York. There are two sisters, Kate and Maggie Fox. They're 11 and 14 years old and just like Shirley, they start to hear banging in their house. And then they start answering.
Now, if you've heard of the Fox sisters, it might be because they're credited as the founders of spiritualism, the religion that Harry Hanks, our exorcist, followed. It's a branch of Christianity that's based on contacting the dead. So also like Shirley, the sisters start to become famous and it gets to the point where they're performing in big halls to packed audiences.
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Chapter 6: How do the journalists investigate Shirley's claims?
So these sounds that people have believed to be the work of spirits for so many years are apparently being made by Maggie's clicking joints in her toe.
The story of the Fox sisters does really make you think. Firstly, were the Daily Mail journalists aware of it? and also was surely aware of it herself. But I guess the biggest question is, can the click of a toe bone really be mistaken for ghostly taps? It's time for another little experiment, I think, with my unsuspecting wife, Eva. Can I just play you something spooky?
Just turn out that light behind you. Okay, it's totally dark now, apart from Bridget and Frozen. I'm on the television. Okay, I'm going to play something to you.
What is it? That doesn't sound that scary to me.
What if I said that was the sound of a poltergeist tapping on the wall? That's a genuine recording from a house.
That was freaky.
Can we turn the lights back on? What if I now told you that that was the sound of people cracking their bones?
That's people cracking their toes and knuckles. Ew, that's almost...
Even worse.
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