It's the 1640s in England.

Church bells toll ringing out under the restless skies of a nation at war with itself.

Amid this climate of fear and chaos, people become gripped with anticipation of another threat,

one from the supernatural realm.

Witchcraft is on the rise.

In this fevered world, certainty is scarce.

And it is during these times of violence and panic that self-appointed saviors emerge.

Through the mud and mist he arrives. The witch finder general.

His horses hooves drum upon the mud and echo through the street as villagers watch and fear.

They have heard his name whispered between prayers and sobs. The man who sees the devil's mark upon human skin.

In a world turned upside down, his arrival feels like judgment itself.

But who, they wonder, will suffer at the hands of his dreadful trials?

The The

The Hello and welcome to After Dark, I'm Maddie.

And I'm Anthony. And today we're talking about Matthew Hopkins, or as you might know him better, the Witchfinder General who was responsible for a

campaign of terror across 17th century England. Oh, I'm excited for this one. I feel like he's one

of those people where you know who he is, but actually when it comes down to it, you don't know

a lot about it. Or certainly I don't know a lot about him. Yeah. And that's the kind of historical, factual position that we find ourselves in.

We may not be discovering an awful lot more about him in this episode.

So just give up on this episode now.

So whatever you think, you know, off you go, you know enough.

No, but I think there are some really interesting things to come up here. I will be talking about,

...