The Battersea Poltergeist – Ep1: 63 Wycliffe Road
Seriously...
BBC
4.1 • 885 Ratings
🗓️ 23 February 2021
⏱️ 32 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
63 Wycliffe Road is an ordinary house on a quiet South London street, but in 1956, it becomes famous as the site of an alleged poltergeist. The strange events focus around teenager Shirley Hitchings – but is it a haunting or hoax? Ghost hunter Harold Chibbett arrives to investigate.
This series blends drama and documentary to explore an intriguing paranormal cold case. As we hear the original haunting brought to life, host Danny Robins begins his own present-day investigation – what really happened to terrify the Hitchings family 65 years ago?
Written and Presented by Danny Robins, starring Dafne Keen (His Dark Materials), Toby Jones (Detectorists, Capote), Burn Gorman and Alice Lowe, with original theme music by Mercury-nominated Nadine Shah and Ben Hillier, this gripping 8-part series interweaves a chilling supernatural thriller set in 50s London with a fascinating modern-day investigation into Britain’s strangest ever haunting – a mystery unsolved... until now.
Cast: Shirley Hitchings........Dafne Keen Harold Chibbett.........Toby Jones Wally Hitchings........Burn Gorman Kitty Hitchings..........Alice Lowe Ethel Hitchings..........Sorcha Cusack John Hitchings........Calvin Demba Mrs Cameroo..........Amina Zia
Written and presented by Danny Robins With thanks to James Clark, co-author of 'The Poltergeist Prince of London' Consultant: Alan Murdie Experts: Ciaran O’Keeffe and Evelyn Hollow Sound Designer: Richard Fox Music: Evelyn Sykes Theme Music by Nadine Shah and Ben Hillier Produced by Danny Robins and Simon Barnard Directed by Simon Barnard
A Bafflegab Production for BBC Radio 4
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This was an impregnable fortress. The only way you get out was in a wooden box. |
| 0:05.0 | The controversial maximum security prison impossible to escape from. |
| 0:09.0 | And one of the duties of a political prisoner is the escape. |
| 0:12.0 | The IRA inmates who found a way. of a political prisoner is the escape. |
| 0:12.5 | The IRA inmates who found a way. |
| 0:14.5 | I'm Carlo Gableer and I'll be navigating a path |
| 0:19.5 | through the disturbing inside story of the biggest jailbreak in British and Irish history. |
| 0:25.0 | The narrative that they want is that this is a big achievement by them. |
| 0:28.5 | Escape from the maze, listen first on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:35.0 | BBC Sounds. BBC Sounds, music radio podcasts. |
| 0:39.0 | Hello and welcome to Seriously from BBC Radio 4. I'm Danny Robbins, presenter of the Battersea |
| 0:45.4 | poltergeist. In my new podcast series I'm reinvestigating a paranormal cold |
| 0:50.8 | case over eight episodes telling the story of Britain's strangest |
| 0:55.8 | haunting. It's a thrilling blend of documentary and drama starring Daphne Keene and |
| 1:00.9 | Toby Jones. |
| 1:02.9 | Coming up now is the first episode. |
| 1:05.6 | If you've got any theories or questions about the case |
| 1:08.0 | after listening, I'd love to hear from you. |
| 1:10.2 | This is an ongoing investigation. You can email me at Battersie poltergeist at BBC.co. |
| 1:18.0 | And to hear how the story unfolds afterwards, just search for the Battersie Poltergeist on BBC Sounds. |
| 1:26.0 | I'm just going down to the shed for a bit. |
| 1:30.0 | Okay. |
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