Hello and welcome back to Paranormal Activity with me, Yvette Building.

Now as we know, there are roads in this country that feel older than history itself, roads

that were never meant to be safe, never meant to be kind. Long before streetlights, engines

and satnaves, these roots belonged to darkness,

to fear, and to the men who stepped out from the shadows with pistols drawn and faces hidden.

Well, this week, I want to take you back to those roads, back to the age of the high women

and thieves, when a journey after sunset could cost you everything.

Now these men lived fast, they died violently and were punished publicly. Their bodies displayed

as warnings to anyone who dared follow in their footsteps. But punishment does not always end a story.

So this week, we're following the haunted highways they

once rode and the cunning and sheer gall and guts of one particular thief. And of course their

spirits, some believe, still travel with them and the places they were imprisoned and executed.

Welcome to another episode of paranormal activity.

As ever, I like to start things off with a little tickle of fact or fiction.

Listen out for the answer at the end of the show.

Now, as this week's episode is all about haunted highwaymen and thieves, I wanted to know whether it's fact or fiction that Newgate prison was considered haunted even before the infamous thief and escape artist Jack Shepard was imprisoned there four times. Find out at the end of the show.

The highwayman occupies a strange and uncomfortable space in British history.

There were criminals, yes, but they were also performers.

Men who understood the power of fear, reputation and spectacle.

And of course, there was the odd woman highway person,

wasn't there? They did not hide in alleys or strike unseen. They chose the open road, the place where

travellers were most vulnerable and most aware of their own mortality. These roads were liminal

...