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BBC's Uncanny podcast

Started by Keebleman, December 30, 2021, 06:09:43 PM

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Keebleman

Anyone been listening to this?  Each episode is a well presented half-hour about a purportedly genuine supernatural event, usually a haunting, centered on interviews with one or more eyewitnesses.  They are very well structured, with twists in the narrative being held back until they will have most impact on the tension, creepiness or weirdness of the story.

Of the stories in the series so far, the majority concern phenomena which can be fairly easily explained away by one or more mundane reasons.  A couple though seem to have just one possible explanation: that the principal eyewitness is making it up.  But they are all an entertaining listen even so.  And the theme song is great: sounds like a spooky Thom Yorke.

holyzombiejesus

I've listened to these and really enjoy them although often fall asleep before the end. One of them (the UFO one) is set in the small town where I live.

Keebleman

#2
The UFO one is one of the weakest, especially as during the two eps they give some passing credence to the Rendlesham Forest event, which is about as comprehensively debunked as it's possible to be without actually being there when it happened.

bgmnts

Usually, British supernatural/paranormal events are so shit it's pointless even making a thing of it.

What was that one in the 80s where it was a guy with a computer getting messages from someone from the past?

Keebleman

Quote from: bgmnts on December 31, 2021, 02:33:09 AMUsually, British supernatural/paranormal events are so shit it's pointless even making a thing of it.


Don't be so unpatriotic! Britain is the most haunted country in the world!  (Or so loads of books when I was a kid had it.  Not sure what census data they used to confirm this.)

paruses

Quote from: bgmnts on December 31, 2021, 02:33:09 AMUsually, British supernatural/paranormal events are so shit it's pointless even making a thing of it.

What was that one in the 80s where it was a guy with a computer getting messages from someone from the past?

The past and the future. I hadn't heard of that one before but YouTube threw it up. Have to say I was quite hooked watching that presentation of it. It was very gently debunked at the end mainly by a linguist going "Nah". Can't find it in my history for some reason.

holdover

Quote from: Keebleman on December 31, 2021, 02:47:15 AMDon't be so unpatriotic! Britain is the most haunted country in the world!  (Or so loads of books when I was a kid had it.  Not sure what census data they used to confirm this.)

In the first haunted bothy episode one of the guests actually makes that claim for Scotland "because Scotland's history is full of war and violence and oppression"

Unlike everywhere else which has always just been peace and kindness obv.

paruses

Just got through the first one. Really enjoyed it. It's a well chosen subject not opening itself up to dismissal in the first 10 mins. As @Keebleman says well structured holding back bits and releasing them after each "explanation" insert to keep the mystery alive. Ultimately it could be explained using the sceptics hypotheses (is that the plural spelling?) plus little bits of misremembered information, and shared information between the students that's not known about.

Hope it keeps up the quality. Really good recommendation.

Fake edit - this is from the The Battersea Poltergeist man. That's in my downloads. Has anyone listened to it. Think it's more a dramatisation.

Icehaven

Yep I've been listening and enjoying this since just before Halloween. I'm not a believer but it's very atmospheric and has genuinely left me a bit spooked when listening to it on a twilight stroll. I like his enthusiasm too, even if it maybe stops him asking the guests direct questions about other factors which might be involved.

I do find it slightly amusing how he often has the guests firmly state at the beginning how much they don't believe in ghosts, and mention that they're scientists/have responsible careers so we don't think they're just kooks or paranormal enthusiasts. The woman who'd grown up in the very old house that her dad/stepdad owned was a prime example of this but from the outside it just looked like she and her mother didn't want to live in this house that he clearly loved and had a great attachment to, and that that might have had something to do with why they were seeing ghosts and feeling evil presences and he wasn't.
I know what I saaaawwwww...

Keebleman

Quote from: icehaven on December 31, 2021, 05:40:49 PMI do find it slightly amusing how he often has the guests firmly state at the beginning how much they don't believe in ghosts, and mention that they're scientists/have responsible careers so we don't think they're just kooks or paranormal enthusiasts.

Oh yeah, that's amazingly irritating, but it's useful as a cultural signifier of what's deemed acceptable these days.  It's similar to frequently heard statements like, "I'm spiritual but not religious."

DenzilHolles

Listened to quite a few episodes last night and it's really well done. I'm a hardcore skeptic but love a good ghost story, and very interested in the psychology of it all - the very human need to remember and be remembered. I got very spooked at the haunted house one,
Spoiler alert
and the bit about the mum experiencing something but refusing to tell the kids what it was other than it was 'something to do with time' was terrifying.
[close]
. But as he said it was just too perfect and all sounded like something straight out of a hollywood horror film. And yes I think most of them can be explained by the much more likely explanation that someone's telling whoppers or hugely embellishing things. Highly recommended though and looking forward to the last few.

Keebleman

Quote from: DenzilHolles on December 31, 2021, 08:04:43 PMBut as he said it was just too perfect and all sounded like something straight out of a hollywood horror film.

Some elements of that episode were very creepy, but the messages scrawled on the frame of the broken mirror were so ludicrous that every aspect of the story immediately lost credibility.

DenzilHolles

Quote from: Keebleman on December 31, 2021, 08:53:40 PMSome elements of that episode were very creepy, but the messages scrawled on the frame of the broken mirror were so ludicrous that every aspect of the story immediately lost credibility.

Quite
Spoiler alert
Hovering DEAD victorian child.
[close]

paruses

Are you lot talking about episode 2 - the hanging House one? Just finished that and the sound design made me very uneasy and anxious alongside the narration. All very good and I did like the sceptics ideas of
Spoiler alert
disassociated actions
[close]
. The non-sceptic one got on my nerves a bit talking about the big plot point not being
Spoiler alert
suicide
[close]
but
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attempted murder
[close]
. You can't even libel the dead so good luck getting the CPS to accept charges on that.

I liked the step-dad. Him and the sceptic nailed the explanation for me. Loved his accent and delivery. I don't think he found it difficult to discuss as much as difficult not to say
Spoiler alert
well, you have to understand that women are naturally hysterical
[close]
. Felt quite sorry for him in line with what @icehaven said.

UFO one next. Might skip unless anyone really recommends it as I find ufo stuff quite boring and repeptitive: "it was like something I had never seen before and was hovering....". Bet at least one person says that.

DenzilHolles

Nope, was referring to episode 9 - 'I Will Kill You All'

Alberon

I've listened to the first two at last, and while they are well done the limitations are frustrating. It seems like it's just one or two people delivering their story and a couple of experts offering explanations.

There's no attempt to gather more information. I've not listened to the return to the university dorm one yet, but in episode 1 there's no attempt to contact other people who stayed in that room or to visit the room (if it's still there).

Keebleman

#16
Quote from: Alberon on January 01, 2022, 03:04:19 PMThere's no attempt to gather more information. I've not listened to the return to the university dorm one yet, but in episode 1 there's no attempt to contact other people who stayed in that room or to visit the room (if it's still there).

The follow-up has more first-person accounts, plus an interesting theory for at least some of the phenomena (clue: brutalist architecture is even more worthy of our disdain than we thought).  But, no, the room isn't there anymore, the building was demolished in the 90s.

Keebleman

Quote from: paruses on January 01, 2022, 10:31:24 AMUFO one next. Might skip unless anyone really recommends it as I find ufo stuff quite boring and repeptitive: "it was like something I had never seen before and was hovering....". Bet at least one person says that.

Oh yes, and said in a Yorkshire accent so thick it lifts the episode into the realm of comedy.

Incidentally, once you have heard the second UFO episode, which deals in part with a sighting in Zimbabwe, have a look at this episode of the Skeptoid podcast.  (It's only available for listening if you're a subscriber, but the transcript can be read for free.)

https://skeptoid.com/episodes/4760

Keebleman

Latest episode is now available. Some interesting updates of past episodes but the new story is very underwhelming.

gib

I enjoyed all these but it carries one of the R4 curses in that so many on the interviewees have to begin every response with the word 'so'

GoblinAhFuckScary

Gosh I listened to the first episode and was sorely embarrassed by the very Most Haunted hokiness of it all

Psybro

The first worked really well listening whilst cooking next to the patio doors on a pitch black night, so every time I saw my own reflection move out the corner of my eye I shit myself.

Alberon

I've reached the episode where they return to the UFO story.

It is a well put together podcast, but there are problems with it. The biggest is that each one (at least with the early episodes) is just airing someone's story leaving many obvious questions hanging. Often the person telling the story will tell of other people who witnessed the same event. Robins will then say "Oh, multiple witnesses!" but no attempt is made to reach them or even establish if they even exist.

It's a real shame that the university accomodation block was demolished as that would have been a real chance to do a full investigation, checking the building for sonic vibrations below the detectable hearing threshold and the like.

I've always been fascinated by the paranormal. Not a believer and very sceptical, but it and the people who think they've experience it are so interesting.

paruses

#23
I've dipped into the UFO one but it doesn't keep me interested. Main thing is that most of these sightings suffer from the problems you mention @Alberon . Was particularly annoyed at the representation of the kids doing identical drawings and having the same story with the (obvious) reveal a bit later it was after a weekend and there was It Came From Outer Space (or similar) trailed on the TV at the time. Domed spaceship with a ladder to disembark, indeed. A ladder. Maybe in the end it's just not my kind of thing.

Also have a fascination with the paranormal. When I was a lot younger it was a lot less questioning and just wanting to find stuff weird and scary. Nowadays I really like the sceptic's angle on these things that explain just what might have been happening.

Quote from: DenzilHolles on January 01, 2022, 12:09:16 PMNope, was referring to episode 9 - 'I Will Kill You All'

Oh yea - just got to this one. I think the sceptic showed remarkable patience with it. Especially Stone Tape Theory:
Spoiler alert
"Yea, that's off a film".
[close]
The
Spoiler alert
demonic writing on the back of the mirror
[close]
annoyed me too much. It's just too convoluted even for the notoriously vague spirit world - just
Spoiler alert
write where everyone can see it.
[close]
Once
Spoiler alert
666 and stuff with religious significance
[close]
comes into these things I mostly lose interest and assign it to the living world and pranksters.

The Angel in the Bathroom one has been my favourite so far for difficulty in explaining. But as the sceptic noted
Spoiler alert
the bolts you're imagining is not the exact bolt and manner of fixing that's in this story
[close]
. Also despite the event having a corroborating witness only the MH support worker actually saw the precise nature of the spooky event.

New York apartment had too many real world explanations and outs to be believable but was well told.

Cuellar

Feels like a blatant rip off of Unexplained. Although rooting around for other podcasts like Unexplained it quickly dawned on me that they all cover pretty much the same stories so who knows.

mr. logic

Surely the problem is that obviously the guest didn't see a ghost. That's not a flippant point, it's honestly what puts me off these things.

paruses

I think that's what the problem is with the I will Kill You All episode - it has too many weak and traditional narrative points (despite the non-sceptic saying that's actually it's strength). For me the other episodes I've listened to nicely vague incidents to be nicely sinister yet solvable / explainable. I take your point that if you just want to dismiss them then this isn't the podcast for you but for me it's satisfying like solving a puzzle.

That paragraph above isn't anywhere near as pass-agg as it reads.

BlodwynPig


iamcoop

All these stories are absolute rubbish clearly, but it's creeped me out more than almost any horror stuff I've seen/heard recently.

It's very entertaining and the sound design is superb.

"I know what I sawwwwwwwwww"

I was thinking the format of this was incredibly similar to another podcast called Haunted that ran for one series in 2017...one might say, eerily similar.

Of course, I went back and checked and it turns out it's the same fella presenting both. Funny that the introduction didn't mention he'd already made the same series for a different podcast network.

I enjoyed Haunted at the time, but I could see this series having the same issues as that, namely not really getting deep enough into each situation to really figure out what was actually going on, leaving each story feeling frustratingly unresolved.

I guess that's always going to be a problem dealing with stories of experiences that happened years in the past, not only can people's memories not be relied on necessarily, but you can't go back and collect evidence or do any serious investigation work. So it ends up not really satisfying either the "this wasn't ghosts and and here's why" or the "something unexplainable happened and here's some solid proof to back it up" angle.