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Uncanny (BBC Programme / Podcast)

catseye said:
I know, but the invoking of demons somewhere along the line was almost a certainty, so I'm claiming this one!
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Bloody hell Catseye! ;)
DrPaulLee said:
Until I listen to Uncanny myself, are there any differences between Marcus's X posts and his interview, given that there are gaps between them so the mind and recollections might have been a bit more malleable?
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I don't think Marcus says anything that is inconsistent with his posts. He doesn't call Aunt Jean's shop a "witch shop", he just says she has a shop where she sells trinkets and skulls. I think the additions are made by Danny himself but I may have missed something.

Now, drop everything and listen to it! :)
 
Aydee_Aitchdee said:
Searching "New Orleans Witch Shops" didn't disappoint. I need to go do a NOLA Witch Shop crawl


View attachment 76184

I love the architecture there.
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I loved visiting New Orleans because of the amazing architecture - wrought iron from the Spanish, the beautifully coloured homes of the Creole.

I stayed in the French Quarter and was thrilled that wherever I walked, there would small courtyards that you could sit in. I had to visit every store just to go in and see the outdoor courtyards that were in the centre of what originally were homes.

I better stop as this is going off topic:)
 
Min Bannister said:
Bloody hell Catseye! ;)


I don't think Marcus says anything that is inconsistent with his posts. He doesn't call Aunt Jean's shop a "witch shop", he just says she has a shop where she sells trinkets and skulls. I think the additions are made by Danny himself but I may have missed something.

Now, drop everything and listen to it! :)
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No Marcus does not refer to his aunt as having a "witch" shop. He does state that he didn't really know what his aunt practiced (if she did at all) and only mentions voodoo in an offhand manner as if trying to think of what might be practiced in Africa.

We also need to remember that he is narrating a story experienced by a 13(?) year old from the Bible Belt. These descriptions of his "black sheep" aunt will all be influenced by his family and his upbringing. Not sure if people in the UK really understand just how much fundamental Christian religion influences this area of the US.
 
I've seen The Witch, so I know exactly what's going on in the States! More or less...
 
catseye said:
Well, we know that it causes people to shout 'demon!' over everything they don't understand.
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Except, don't think that all of the US is like this.

I did not hear anything like "demon" in the podcast. The only reference they had for the board was a Oiuja board, but we don't really know what it was.

The only person who sounded like she might have an inkling of anything related to what the board was and the practice of voodoo was the woman (can't remember who she was, but I think she was in the "believer" court) who mentioned the loa or lwa. But Marcus didn't even describe the board, only saying that it looked like African(?) markings on it.

Voodoo is a religion and there are people in New Orleans who practice this.

I don't like this idea of believer or skeptic take on the podcast. I would rather they just ask more questions to get the story. The two people for this episode added few if any ideas and didn't seem to be interested in setting up the two "sides" of skeptic vs believer. Which I was ok with.
 
brownmane said:
I don't like this idea of believer or skeptic take on the podcast. I would rather they just ask more questions to get the story. The two people for this episode added few if any ideas and didn't seem to be interested in setting up the two "sides" of skeptic vs believer. Which I was ok with.
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I like it and do think it added to the discussion. I didn't know about the spirits Evelyn spoke about so that was interesting. And it is important to realise that sometimes banging and water on the floor are caused by dodgy plumbing. The audience isn't necessarily as clued up as we are on these things. I do think they don't get enough info and so sometimes come up with things that are weirder than just saying it was a ghost (I am thinking a previously and subsequently unnoticed colony of fluorescent blue mushrooms growing in someone's bedroom as the worst example)

I think the key to developing a good Uncanny filter is to listen carefully to what the witness says and not so much to what Danny adds. After all, if the witness had said those things themselves then why would he need to add them in? Eh? Hmmm.:thought:
 
I for one think it's about time we had reverse-sceptics on tv programmes like Dodgy Plumbing - Live! And so while one consulted expert states that the continually freezing water in Joe Bloggs' Victorian bedsit is caused by a knackered boiler, the reverse-sceptic could say "There's no such things as boilers; clearly, the fault is caused by the restless spirit of Lady Diarrhoea Fruitbat, dowager aunt of Sir Montmorency Y-fronts."
 
DrPaulLee said:
Until I listen to Uncanny myself, are there any differences between Marcus's X posts and his interview, given that there are gaps between them so the mind and recollections might have been a bit more malleable?
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You make a good point. It has been mentioned that Marcus sounds "scripted" but perhaps this is because he is sticking to his original account as posted on Twitter (X). Now I think of it, the extra "whooo...!" factor is being added by the podcast and by leading questions from Danny.

To be honest I am moving on from this episode, for Danny to stand in front of a tall window and not contemplate someone may have stood on that tap, dragged something over to stand on or heaven forbid used a ladder but instead must have been "extremely tall or floating" is enough for me. I'm going to lie down in a dark place a listen to Room 611 on repeat...
 
Paul_Exeter said:
You make a good point. It has been mentioned that Marcus sounds "scripted" but perhaps this is because he is sticking to his original account as posted on Twitter (X). Now I think of it, the extra "whooo...!" factor is being added by the podcast and by leading questions from Danny.

To be honest I am moving on from this episode, for Danny to stand in front of a tall window and not contemplate someone may have stood on that tap, dragged something over to stand on or heaven forbid used a ladder but instead must have been "extremely tall or floating" is enough for me. I'm going to lie down in a dark place a listen to Room 611 on repeat...
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Interviews can sound 'scripted'. I've done enough to know that when you know you are going to be interviewed you tend to make notes and practice what you want to say, so that you don't descend into a massive stream of 'ummm...errrrr... well, you see, what it was was....' and the like. A degree of preparation might lead someone to sound as though they were reading a statement. A good interviewer who asks random questions will stop this from happening.
 
If his story doesn't deviate from his previous account on X, it may be because he used it to refresh his memory beforehand. This leads to a better, unhesitant account but would stifle spontaneity.
But of course we don't know how much of the "er...ah...um"s end up on the cutting room floor.
 
New episode.

Basically a phone call from the dead story, with disconnected , unattached phone of deceased father repeatedly ringing after his death and static being heard when picked up.

Nothing to dissect or investigate in terms of undermining or confirming the sequence of events. But I've got to say it was rather disappointing as I kept expecting a claim that the dead man's voice was heard ...but it never comes. All we're left with is a paranormal. supposition around a technical anomaly.

On the plus side they have third party witnesses to both the ringing and the static , which is unusual...and the static itself is consistent with all such calls from the dead stories, including the ones with actual messages, so you ought to argue this witnessed example undermines the psychological/hallucinatory/faulty recall explanation often used to dismiss those other accounts.
 
Felt the second episode was much stronger although as @gattino states they didn't hear a voice. But multiple witnesses and an interesting back story made for good listening and this case wouldn't have been out of place in Series One. Think Team Skeptic will have fun explaining the ringing phone and static as Team Believer already have their story without much further work required.
 
By chance saw this much more dramatic account in the comments under a video just the other day.

Screenshot_20240507-180303.png
 
catseye said:
Interviews can sound 'scripted'. I've done enough to know that when you know you are going to be interviewed you tend to make notes and practice what you want to say, so that you don't descend into a massive stream of 'ummm...errrrr... well, you see, what it was was....' and the like. A degree of preparation might lead someone to sound as though they were reading a statement. A good interviewer who asks random questions will stop this from happening.
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I brought up 'scripted' interviews earlier, but I think a better term would be 'coached' you know what I mean? "My aunt had a shop where she sold curios.." "What sort of curios? Skulls?" "Yeah, there were some skulls I think.." "Ooo, make sure to mention that, the viewers need to know what sort of things were sold" and so on. It's not being told what to say, it's being told what details to include, often to fit a narrative or story. I can't say that's what happened here, but it sure felt like it, particularly with how Danny ran with it.
 
Aydee_Aitchdee said:
I brought up 'scripted' interviews earlier, but I think a better term would be 'coached' you know what I mean? "My aunt had a shop where she sold curios.." "What sort of curios? Skulls?" "Yeah, there were some skulls I think.." "Ooo, make sure to mention that, the viewers need to know what sort of things were sold" and so on. It's not being told what to say, it's being told what details to include, often to fit a narrative or story. I can't say that's what happened here, but it sure felt like it, particularly with how Danny ran with it.
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This is how interviews generally go though. Beforehand the interviewer will run through some questions to see if there's anything that you have to say that they ought to pick up on, and by the time you get around to the interview and they say 'I'm told that you once did such and such' (yes, they were, you told them just before the interview), then you retell the story that you told them earlier on and it all sounds a bit wooden.
 
catseye said:
This is how interviews generally go though. Beforehand the interviewer will run through some questions to see if there's anything that you have to say that they ought to pick up on, and by the time you get around to the interview and they say 'I'm told that you once did such and such' (yes, they were, you told them just before the interview), then you retell the story that you told them earlier on and it all sounds a bit wooden.
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Definitely but the issue with this story on Uncanny is that Danny made more woo woo out of it than Marcus did, and that's why I suspect coaching
 
Paul_Exeter said:
I don't want to get all Daily Mail but I do pay the BBC licence fee and there is no reason why Danny and his team had to travel to Texas for that second episode when it could all have been done online from the UK, but nice work if you can get it...
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Use up that travel budget before it's gone, Nigel.
 
Paul_Exeter said:
I don't want to get all Daily Mail but I do pay the BBC licence fee and there is no reason why Danny and his team had to travel to Texas for that second episode when it could all have been done online from the UK, but nice work if you can get it...
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It wouldn't just be an interview though. There'd be investigation/meeting witnesses first.
Otherwise Danny would be acting on faith and could have any rubbish foisted on him.
 
Min Bannister said:
This episode was very quietly spooky. The multiple witnesses make it very compelling. And we actually got to hear from the final witness which was great. And there didn't appear to be any dodgy add-ons from the script writers.

How else could a disconnected phone ring and produce static sounds?
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When I was a emergency dispatcher 20 years ago, there was a payphone in a shopping center that was disconnected but left in place (I don't know why). We'd get 911 calls 3 or 4 times a week between 2 am and 3 am from that phone and it would always be static.

Which isn't necessarily paranormal, it could be that it was wires crossed or moisture in the lines or some passer by mucking about or static electricity and so on but I really don't know how it happens. We'd always send an officer to check and we notified the phone company every time it happened (wasting police time and all that) but it never stopped. I always thought the phone got lonely and wanted to hear a pleasant voice...
 
Aydee_Aitchdee said:
When I was a emergency dispatcher 20 years ago, there was a payphone in a shopping center that was disconnected but left in place (I don't know why). We'd get 911 calls 3 or 4 times a week between 2 am and 3 am from that phone and it would always be static.

Which isn't necessarily paranormal, it could be that it was wires crossed or moisture in the lines or some passer by mucking about or static electricity and so on but I really don't know how it happens. We'd always send an officer to check and we notified the phone company every time it happened (wasting police time and all that) but it never stopped. I always thought the phone got lonely and wanted to hear a pleasant voice...
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The second witness, did he not say that he took the phone off of the wall to show that it was not connected at all? I wanted this question answered while I was listening to the woman’s story and so I may have misunderstood what he said about the phone on the wall. He said something about there being no cable.
 
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