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Uncanny (BBC Programme / Podcast)

escargot said:
This was the series with interviews featuring men wearing footy shorts, sprawled on sofas; POV coffee table. :omg:
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Like the MAMIL who come into my shop. The counter is exactly the right height for lycra-clad crotches to almost rest on the tabletop. Sometimes I don't know where to look!
 
SimonBurchell said:
Right, 'cause a ghost will never get through  that...
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It's interesting to note that 'Uncle Jack' couldn't get through the door. Maybe whatever it was could have passed through if it had wanted too but maybe it thought it would be more frightening for the gathered audience/victims if it just rattled the door handle instead and then started banging on it?

Of course, it also couldn't do its 'jumping out the window' partypiece either because the window had been secured. If it was a ghost, it seems to be a member of the species that can't pass through walls etc. No wonder it was getting frustrated.
 
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CharmerKamelion said:
It's interesting to note that 'Uncle Jack' couldn't get through the door. Maybe whatever it was could have passed through if it hadvwanted too but maybe it thought it would be more frightening for the gathered audience/victims if it just rattled the door handle instead and then started banging on it?

Of course, it also couldn't do its 'jumping out the window' partypiece either because the window had been secured. If it was a ghost, it seems to be a member of the species that can't pass through walls etc. No wonder it was getting frustrated.
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To me it makes we suspicious that it was put on for friends, with an actual person banging the door so they sh*t themselves.

Ghosts changing their routine seems odd.
 
CharmerKamelion said:
It's interesting to note that 'Uncle Jack' couldn't get through the door. Maybe whatever it was could have passed through if it hadvwanted too but maybe it thought it would be more frightening for the gathered audience/victims if it just rattled the door handle instead and then started banging on it?

Of course, it also couldn't do its 'jumping out the window' partypiece either because the window had been secured. If it was a ghost, it seems to be a member of the species that can't pass through walls etc. No wonder it was getting frustrated.
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Perhaps the symbolism of the window being nailed shut was more important than the physicality of the nail, in a similar way to the medieval symbolism of staking a corpse to stop the ghost walking. It's almost like a ritual "you shall not pass" gesture.
 
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DrPaulLee said:
How long will it be before the crazies descend on the hamlet and make themselves nuisances?
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Tempest63 said:
Just as they do still at Borley, to the consternation of the residents.
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Tempest63 said:
DrPaulLee said:
...and Pluckley. There's a big police presence there on Halloween.
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There's a section of the population with a firm appreciation for ghosts. Shrewder residents might channel this lucrative audience towards their local hostelries. :nods:
 
catseye said:
Aren't banana skins supposed to be good for saddle-burn?

Some of the lycra-clad men I get in seem to have neglected to remember to peel the banana first...
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You're paying close attention then! :chuckle:

The bananas are, or used to be, placed in the area of a gentleman rider's anatomy that rested upon the saddle. For obvious reasons the peel was left on.
The invention of padded shorts may have ended this sporting dalliance with greengrocery.

Anyway, what's this obsession with men's cycling shorts? They're padded all the way under.
Modesty is guaranteed. We're not talking Linford Christie.
 
escargot said:
Anyway, what's this obsession with men's cycling shorts? They're padded all the way under.
Modesty is guaranteed. We're not talking Linford Christie.
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Ahem. I beg to differ. There is..ummm...definite...well... definition.

And it's right at counter height. Right there. Where I'm looking at their shopping. Maybe it's just that I'm so devastatingly gorgeous that they are...ahem... happy to see me? (Pretty sure that's not the case).
 
catseye said:
Ahem. I beg to differ. There is..ummm...definite...well... definition.

And it's right at counter height. Right there. Where I'm looking at their shopping. Maybe it's just that I'm so devastatingly gorgeous that they are...ahem... happy to see me? (Pretty sure that's not the case).
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:dunno:

I'm off to Specsavers.
 
Listened to the episode again. Tim mentioned the grandmother's belongings were in the house, so perhaps Jay's grandmother may have died or perhaps be in care, hence the state of the property. It may be that Jays family no longer owned the property in 1992 and they rented off the new owner, hence Jay being unfamiliar with the Uncle Jack story.

One thought: If Jack was getting out the window because the door was locked, how once the window was nailed shut did he get out onto the landing...?

At present I feel there was poltergeist activity but they may have played on this to provide an excuse to end the cheap rent + renovations agreement and move out
 
Paul_Exeter said:
Listened to the episode again. Tim mentioned the grandmother's belongings were in the house, so perhaps Jay's grandmother may have died or perhaps be in care, hence the state of the property. It may be that Jays family no longer owned the property in 1992 and they rented off the new owner, hence Jay being unfamiliar with the Uncle Jack story.

One thought: If Jack was getting out the window because the door was locked, how once the window was nailed shut did he get out onto the landing...?

At present I feel there was poltergeist activity but they may have played on this to provide an excuse to end the cheap rent + renovations agreement and move out
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I have mentioned before that I don't like the divisions commonly made between hauntings and poltergeists... there is a lot of overlap, and at this point I see no reason why a particularly strong haunting wouldn't generate poltergeist phenomena.
 
MorningAngel said:
I’m not sure what to make of Uncle Jack. Why would a ghost be so upset with a closed window? One minute it’s replaying things the next minute it’s upset because the window is nailed shut. Go through it anyway? It’s a bit odd.

So there’s a break in the new podcasts while the tv show is on? I’ll be glad he doesn’t have to describe people to us all the time on tv (I don’t know why he does it anyway, it annoys me. I don’t care if he’s bald or not).
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Maybe Uncle Jack was a revenant rather than a ghost ? French scholar Claude Lecouteux, studying medieval ghost stories, underscores the fact that contrary to our contemporary view of evanescent ghosts, lots of early medieval ghosts were supposed to be quite "physical". I mean material. He favours the term "revenant" to describe this kind of undead.

The ghosts of the Icelandic folklore (or "draugr") were for instance thought to be just like living persons, and endowed with a super human strength and a terrifying gaze.

So if Uncle Jack was a "revenant", or rather came back under the shape of a revenant, he would be impeded by closed doors and windows once having materialised. And his superhuman strength would be enough to shake the very structure of the house.
 
Whenever I hear of ghosts passing through walls I always think of the Usborne ghost book which had diagrams showing the routes that the phantoms took when alive even if the layout of the building has changed.
Probably bobbins as I know of two ghosts in my neck of the woods that break that rule.
 
DrPaulLee said:
Whenever I hear of ghosts passing through walls I always think of the Usborne ghost book which had diagrams showing the routes that the phantoms took when alive even if the layout of the building has changed.
Probably bobbins as I know of two ghosts in my neck of the woods that break that rule.
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That makes me ponder : do ghosts ever know that they are ghosts?

It seems that plenty of ghosts are reported to behave in a ghostly manner, doing the kind of things that we have come to expect them to do.

Imagine realising you've died and are now a ghost (like the characters in the BBC Sitcom "Ghosts") and then trying to walk through a wall only to find - BUMPH!! - you can't.

Maybe you can make objects move if you... try... reeeeally..... hard...... hmm. No, can't do that either.

What else can I try? Stomping up and down the stairs? Banging on the walls? Ghostly whispers? Anything to try and get yourself noticed.
 
DrPaulLee said:
Whenever I hear of ghosts passing through walls I always think of the Usborne ghost book which had diagrams showing the routes that the phantoms took when alive even if the layout of the building has changed.
Probably bobbins as I know of two ghosts in my neck of the woods that break that rule.
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Yup, that idea that ghosts take the paths they knew in life, notwithstanding changes in building structure or ground level. They even walk up long-removed staircases and across demolished floors.

This aspect of hauntings fascinates me, especially as I have been given first-hand accounts of it by people I trust. My very favourite Fortean phenomenon, in fact. :nods:
 
DrPaulLee said:
The ghost at Holkham Hall in Norfolk follows a corridor that wasn't built until after her death. There's a staircase in the now closed Debenhams in Lynn that has the same "problem" too.
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If we're accepting that a ghost would walk along a route they knew in life, it's certainly possible for them to have enjoyed strolling in a now built-over garden. According to the logic we're applying here they'd appear to be wading nearly knee-deep through the floor.

Besides which, as we don't really know what ghosts are, who can say who that spectre they see really was in life? Nobody can say that for sure.
A newly-built staircase might be haunted by the spirit of someone who was run over by a vehicle that was melted down to produce the metal for the handrail... and so on. ;)
 
DrPaulLee said:
The ghost at Holkham Hall in Norfolk follows a corridor that wasn't built until after her death. There's a staircase in the now closed Debenhams in Lynn that has the same "problem" too.
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My question would be, what was there before she died? She could, for example, be walking around a room that follows the line of that corridor (so it appears she's walking the corridor but only to us), or taking a direct route between two rooms. Presuming the ghost is of someone who lived or died on that site, there must have been something there before.
 
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