The This is BBC 1 in colour. I am the spirit of dark and lonely water.

By the beginning of the 1970s, a new kind of dark cynical nihilism had began to creep into mainstream popular culture.

The age of peace and free love had ended and the 1960s countercultures had began to show their

dark side. This became reflected in horror cinema of the time with movies like

Witchfinder General, The Wickerman, The Last house on the left, night of the living dead and

Rosemary's baby, portraying godless, hopeless worlds in which the characters don't necessarily

live happily ever after.

But this nightmarish view of the world wasn't just restricted to adult horror cinema.

Perhaps most surprisingly, it began seeping its way into mainstream television, not just late night TV plays for adults,

but prime time family viewing. Programs that were hugely popular at the time, like the

Tomorrow People and Doctor Who were also giving its

young audiences nightmares and soon enough there was a growing trend of

strange uncanny rural horror that began to dominate kids TV.

Programs that in the great tradition of folk horror

may appear light and harmless on the surface,

yet they had something else, something very dark, sinister and unnerving, bubbling just underneath.

No! No!

Join me as we continue exploring the evolution of folk horror

and we take a closer look at the bleak world of folk on the small screen. of horror, my name is Mike and as ever I am your host.

If you're tuning in for the first time then welcome.

In this podcast we explore and dissect the evolution of the horror genre by looking at particular

sub-genres across a number of weeks.

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