After Dark Video Podcasts
This is After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds and the Paranormal. The podcast that takes you to the shadiest corners of the past, unpicking history’s spookiest, strangest, and most sinister stories.
Join historians Anthony Delaney and Maddy Pelling to take a look at the darker side of history. From haunted pubs and Houdini, to witch trials and weird UFO sightings.
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Eleanor Janega Roasts Medieval History's Most Evil Monarchs | After Dark
Who was the very worst of all the Medieval monarchs? No spoilers but we've got monarchs driven psychopathic by love, terrible sadists, and egos that straddled a continent. They were the worst of the worst, but who was the worst of all?
Our guest today is Dr Eleanor Janega, co-host of Gone Mediev...
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Surviving the Medieval Apocalypse | After Dark
Eleanor Janega explains everything you need to know about the Medieval Apocalypse. For Medieval Europe, the Apocalypse wasn’t just a metaphor - it was very real and very imminent. We are talking about the four horsemen, locusts the size of horses, the beast of the abyss, the Whore of Babylon, and...
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Did Nostradamus Predict Trump, Hitler, and Napoleon? | After Dark
Did Nostradamus really predict everything from the Great Fire of London to the rise of Hitler?
We predict that you'll find out in this episode...
Join Anthony and Maddy as they explore the life of 16th century astrologer and so-called seer, Nostradamus, to find out if he really had the abilit...
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Was Henry VIII A Serial Killer? | After Dark
Henry VIII was a monarch everyone was excited for, and turned into someone who weaponised his powers for murder.
What happened in his life that caused the death toll to suddenly rise?
In this episode, Anthony and Maddy are joined by historian and author, Gareth Russell, to unpack the warning ...
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The Hidden History of Irish Wakes | After Dark
Watch this full episode of After Dark with Anthony Delaney and Maddy Pelling where they chat about ancient Irish burial traditions, keening, Irish wakes, and funerary rites. Joined by special guest historian Dan Snow, they explore the lost Gaelic ritual of "keening" — a powerful, thousand-year-ol...
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Who Was The Faerie Witch Of Cornwall? | After Dark
Ann Jeffries's story of faeries and witchcraft in Cornwall is explored in this After Dark episode. Watch the full chat with Anthony Delaney and Maddy Pelling where they talk to Bodmin Jail manager Jess Marlton about this unbelievable 17th-century case of prophecy, imprisonment, and the English Ci...
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Did Rats Really Cause The Black Death? | After Dark
What did Medieval people think about rats? Did they have any idea that they were the cause of the Black Death? How did they use charms and poisons to try to get rid of them? Today we explore the world of the Black Death Rat with Kathleen Walker-Meikle, historian of Medieval pets and animals whose...
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Why Did Jane Boleyn Betray Anne Boleyn? | After Dark
Joining Anthony and Maddy today is the fantastic Philippa Gregory, historian and author of Boleyn Traitor. The Tudor court was dangerous and high-stakes at the best of times, where survival could often mean betraying others. Enter: Jane Boleyn, thrust into the Tudor limelight when her sister-in-...
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The Gruesome Reality Of Life At Sea | After Dark
Dan Snow joins After Dark to reveal the brutal reality of life of sailors during the golden age of sail. From the cat o' nine tails, to the pressgang, from scurvy to mutineers. How did people survive the most extreme conditions imaginable?
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The Dark Truth About Ancient Egypt's Mummification | After Dark
The Ancient Egyptians had a very different idea about death than most people do today.
And the idea of mummification is (excuse the pun) wrapped up in so many modern ideas, that we can lose its real purpose.
Joining Anthony and Maddy today to take us through the gory details of mummifying a b...
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The Dark Side of Rome's Colosseum | After Dark
Watch this full episode of After Dark with Anthony Delaney and Maddy Pelling where they chat with historian Alex Medings about the dark side of Rome's famous gladiators.
Discover the truth about the gladiators – from their low social status as slaves and criminals to their surprising sex appeal...
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The Sexy Murder Scandal That Victorians Were Obsessed With | After Dark
Watch this full episode about the Bermondsey Horror, the shocking Victorian murder by Marie Manning. Anthony Delaney and Maddy Pelling delve into the grisly 1849 killing of Patrick O'Conor, a wealthy moneylender lured to a house in a notorious London slum. The married couple, Frederick and Marie ...
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The 1629 Batavia Shipwreck | After Dark
Watch this full episode of After Dark with Anthony Delaney and Maddy Pelling where they chat about the horrendous Batavia shipwreck, the violent mutiny led by Jeronimus Cornelisz, and Anthony's new favourite fact.
The Batavia shipwreck of 1629, a tale of Dutch East India Company mutiny and terr...
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Why You Wouldn't Survive A Victorian Workhouse | After Dark
Today we’re going behind the foreboding doors of the Victorian workhouse to ask - ‘Could we survive it?’. From Oliver Twist's gruel to songs about flogging, from lice-ridden clothing to soul destroying isolation. Our guest is Oskar Jensen, author of "Vagabonds: Life on the Streets of Nineteenth C...
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Napoleon's Bizarre Death | After Dark
Watch this full episode of After Dark with Anthony Delaney and Maddy Pelling where they chat about Napoleon's final days and the wild myths that surround his death.
Conspiracy theories swirl about the final days of Napoleon. Was he poisoned by a friend? By the British? By his wallpaper? Did he c...
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Luddites' Violent Crusades Against Technology | After Dark
Watch this full episode of After Dark with Anthony Delaney and Maddy Pelling, where they chat about Ned Ludd, the fires, and the violence exerted during the Industrial Revolution in England.
Would you have joined the OG Luddites? In 1811 and 1812 across the midlands and north of England which w...
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The Surprising History Behind Mary Shelley's Frankenstein | After Dark
In this episode of Ater Dark with Anthony Delaney and Maddy Pelling, they chat about 19-year-old Mary Shelley who wrote Frankenstein in a Swiss villa surrounded by other brilliant young minds.
During a time of radical change, a gothic masterpiece was written by the teenage Mary Shelley. Publishe...
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Anna Anderson: The Anastasia Romanov Impostor | After Dark
Watch this full episode of After Dark with Anthony Delaney and Maddy Pelling where they chat about Anna Anderson, the impostor who claimed to be Grand Duchess Anastasia of Russia.
In the aftermath of the bloody Russian revolution, the Romanovs went from being a glittering royal family to vulnera...
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Tower Of London’s Lion Keeper Poisoned By Man He Enslaved | After Dark
Watch this full episode of After Dark with Anthony Delaney and Maddy Pelling, where they chat about Edward Francis, the young enslaved man who poisoned his slave owner with rat poison in an attempt at freedom.
Today’s story is one that takes us to a very familiar setting - the Tower of London - ...
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The Deadliest Victorian Surgeon | After Dark
This full episode is not for the squeamish as Maddy Pelling and Anthony Delaney delve into the dark medical history of surgeries in Victorian England, where people would pay to watch the bloody operating table.
Historian Sara Yorath from the Old Operating Theatre museum in London speaks about th...
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1800 BCE: True Crime Stories From Ancient Mesopotamia | After Dark
Watch this full episode of After Dark with Anthony Delaney and Maddy Pelling, where they chat about the dark side of Ancient Mesopotamia, including true crime from 1800 BCE.
A four thousand(ish) year old murder trial. A procession of the dead. Kings who believed they could escape the gods by dre...
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The Shocking History Of The Paris Catacombs | After Dark
Beneath the streets of the French capitol lurks a city of the dead: the Paris Catacombs.
Why they were piled up there is a dark and fascinating story, that includes everything from the bloody days of the French Revolution, to the making of 'corpse candles' and a mystery man found amongst its pa...
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Did Mary Queen of Scots Become A Ghost? | After Dark
Watch this full episode of After Dark with Anthony Delaney and Maddy Pelling, where they chat about the history of Mary Queen of Scots and her alleged ghost, possibly in cahoots with the Scottish tourist board.
Mary Queen of Scots' life was filled with dead husbands, violence, betrayal and a fi...
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The Final Days of Abraham Lincoln | After Dark
John Wilkes Booth shot President Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theatre on the night of 14th April 1865.
What were the final days leading up to this huge moment like? How did the nation, and the future of enslaved African Americans, hang in the balance? And how did that long night after the gun was ...