Uncanny BBC2

[witchycat2]

A TV version of the Danny Robins podcast.
Is anyone watching?

I find the experts bit drawn out and am far more interested in the narrative of the experience.

Was the program shorter last series?

I thought Julian may have dreamed the tall man during his trauma at losing his dad. He said he was screaming and his mum started screaming too, which may have reinforced it was real. Normally you'd comfort and reassure a child having a nightmare.

but that was the night of the day his dad died. This mum would have been traumatised too

I know. I'm actually a widowed mum. My kids were 11 and 13 when we lost dh suddenly. I just think you have to comfort kids.

the follow up podcast bit scared me even more- with the policeman saying they couldn't stay in the house for long!

He looks like one of the McGann brothers

Interesting post mortem program

One thing that I took from it was his dad had played with ouja boards before Julien was born and had invited the evil into their lives. He seemed to die in odd circumstances as well so something not to be messed with

Why isn't the post mortem programme on I player ?

It is as I've just watched it

Oh, I couldn't find it on there earlier on

I did the search and it came up Hopefully

I thought a mix of John Hamm and Justin Hawkins.

I don't know what to think about this one. He did seem sincere but was clearly a troubled, grieving teen at the time.

I haven’t seen the after show yet but I thought Danny was really nice with Julian who obviously had had an absolutely awful time. I really felt for him. Danny seems to be a really nice bloke, when his neighbours turned up last week they all looked like they all got on so well.

So I love the podcast and the show, and always find the sceptic explanations sooo far fetched.
So does that mean ghosts are real?
What's the alternative? People are unwell? Imagining it?
I do think there's a lot in how suggestible people are, that could explain some things.

Yes, people are suggestible,and also human night vision is the worst in the animal kingdom.

I did find this one a little odd. It would be entirely understandable if he was having some kind of mental breakdown, having lost both his parents so young and within a few years.
The friends from his youth seemed very matter-of-fact about it, they didn't really express fear about what they'd seen. And Julian's description of what he saw in the house was at times phrased in terms of "you would see .." instead of "I saw ..", which had a distancing effect.
Didn't know what to make of it really.

I love Uncanny, I’ve been a fan of the podcast for years. However, I do think an hour is just too long to stretch out one story, the experiments are boring, I find.

I seem to remember last year’s series featured more than one story and branched off into subjects like time slips.

The charity shop story really reminded me of a shop I worked in - the same narrow, dark staircase with blind corners but this one lead to an empty stockroom where our lockers were. It had a concrete floor and one half was filled from floor to ceiling with wire coat hangers. I used to think that anything could be lurking in there.

Julian’s story reminded me of when hormonal teenage girls suffer from poltergeist activity - but instead he was a troubled teen boy who saw a terrifying apparition.

Lovely guy, I hope he’s found peace now.

This last episode was pretty disturbing. What I can't square is how quickly he was able to put it behind him after speaking to the house's new occupant. If she had had experiences in there that aligned with his, presumably these were equally unpleasant but he seemed to feel that their experience of the place was overwhelmingly positive & that all it had known was joy & new life as opposed to loss & grief. Maybe the experiences she's had were just low level like radio coming on etc & he's just chosen to allow their positive experience there to kind of cleanse away all the distress of previous times. He literally did a 180 tho within minutes & wish we'd been given more info onto how that was brought about.

I don't understand:
A, why he didn't get rid of the cabinet
B, why, as a 23 year old, he chose to stay in the house alone, after his parents had both died. Sleeping on the sofa - why? Why not get his own place, where he didn't feel totally terrified?
C, why his dogs were only mentioned in passing - they can breathe loudly!
D, why on earth the police weren't called and the vicar questioned when blood was found in the walls.
E, why there is no photographic or video evidence of the blood or the cabinet unlocking and opening.

I noticed that Julian's and Martin's accounts of the blood differed significantly. Martin also described them as teenagers during one event, when Julian would have actually been 23 or 24 years old.

I'm not at all convinced by this one. His friends didn't seem particularly scared and I suspect they didn't want to broadcast the conversation with the new owner because it might disprove his claims, to some extent.

Found the Shadow Man very scary, it’s up there with The Curse of Luibeilt in series one of the radio series.

it is hard to explain away, in the post mortem, the sceptic is really reaching with his mouldy bread theory.

Agree that an hour is too long. But then I don't believe in any of the stories. I mean, I suspect some of the people on the show believed that something paranormal happened but I'm 100% Team Sceptic so lose interest before an hour is up.

I listened to the post mortem, and found myself feeling a bit more sceptical than while watching the TV programme. When Danny asked Julian whether he’d noticed anything while his dad was still alive, and then “oh yeah, I heard my dad screaming, I think he’d used an ouija board”, I don’t know, it just felt a bit too pat.

I had similar feelings. His friends didn't express any fear (even an acknowledgement of past fear) at all. They almost seemed a bit jokey about it. And I felt the way Julian described some of his experiences was quite "third person" ("you would see .." rather than "I saw.."). And his response to the current owner of his home was a bit dismissive, almost "nothing to see here" ..
I'm not dismissing his own experience, what he went through in terms of losing his parents so young must have been incredibly traumatic, I suppose my sense is that the whole thing was some kind of a reaction to his trauma.

I agree - when he mentioned his dogs my first thought was how did they react bcos if things were moving around a room or there was a presence they definitely would react. There was just so much stuff to unpack it was like a horror film. I mean the blood as well?? Why did they not ask the priest what had happened? Thing is I don’t disbelieve him. I think the friends were embarrassed bcos of the stigma & that bcos it wasn’t happening to them per se they still can’t accept it truly happened. Plus he was bereaved & in a really bad place in his life. It’s a proper head mash this one. Then the discovery that late father messed around with ouija boards…how come the new owner is soo at peace there??

I don't know how he managed to sell the house!