Uncanny (BBC Programme / Podcast)

Have been thinking a lot about how Uncanny might be refreshed. Perhaps some one-off specials in which Danny interviews experts and authors about topics that keep recurring in the podcast eg stone tape theory, ultrasound, famous homes, solved cases, unsolved cases etc. Just feel that now it has reached season 4 it has got a bit stuck in a loop of believer v skeptic rehashing the same arguments. Or a bit more of Danny conducted his investigations onsite by staying in the buildings concerned as he did with Daisy May Cooper. That or rest the podcast and do another series about a famous or previously little known case.
 
Paul_Exeter said:
Have been thinking a lot about how Uncanny might be refreshed. Perhaps some one-off specials in which Danny interviews experts and authors about topics that keep recurring in the podcast eg stone tape theory, ultrasound, famous homes, solved cases, unsolved cases etc. Just feel that now it has reached season 4 it has got a bit stuck in a loop of believer v skeptic rehashing the same arguments. Or a bit more of Danny conducted his investigations onsite by staying in the buildings concerned as he did with Daisy May Cooper. That or rest the podcast and do another series about a famous or previously little known case.
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I'm not even listening to the US ones. The whole point, to me, was that it was kind of parochial.

Will report back from the live show in July when we go.
 
Ghost In The Machine said:
I'm not even listening to the US ones. The whole point, to me, was that it was kind of parochial.

Will report back from the live show in July when we go.
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Agree with you there. I feel it should be always broadcast from Halloween onwards as the clocks go back and you can sit there and mentally picture the location and have perhaps visited the area (which should ideally have a touch of faded grandeur or wild moorland about it).
 
gattino said:
Having seen hundreds of quite convincing videos of alleged ghosts/activities gathered on youtube channels like Nuke's Top Five, I accept that there is a "thing" happening but the consistencies in its nature and behaviour raise so many questions. One that bugs me a lot is why are "ghosts/poltergeists/whatever" so obsessed with opening and closing doors?
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Maybe it's to do with noise and disruption? If you had to make a loud noise, in the room you are in right now, wouldn't opening and then slamming the door be the most immediate way to do it? If you had to 'disrupt' your environment, then leaving a door open or closing a door that was open is the fastest way to cause a change. Second fastest is to move objects. After that you get down to knocking down walls, stripping out carpets, smashing furniture, that sort of thing. So maybe it's something to do with 'changing the environment from one state to another'.
 
catseye said:
Maybe it's to do with noise and disruption? If you had to make a loud noise, in the room you are in right now, wouldn't opening and then slamming the door be the most immediate way to do it? If you had to 'disrupt' your environment, then leaving a door open or closing a door that was open is the fastest way to cause a change. Second fastest is to move objects. After that you get down to knocking down walls, stripping out carpets, smashing furniture, that sort of thing. So maybe it's something to do with 'changing the environment from one state to another'.
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Maybe it's the most convenient way to frighten someone, with all the psychological baggage that comes along with changing the state of the door. If you are alone in a room with an open door and it suddenly slams shut - suddenly you are trapped. If you are alone in a room with a closed door and it is suddenly flung open (or slowly opens with a drawn-out creak!) then there is a sense that something is intruding upon the room, either way it ramps up the fear. Not to mention that in order to flee, you (probably) have to go through that door and pass your invisible tormentor.
 
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Paul_Exeter said:
Crikey!

There was a case in the Andy Gilbert Police hauntings book where a house was unoccupied and locked up following a suicide. Neighbours reported sounds of a violent break in and the Police attended. Two officers could hear the banging and crashing from outside as they made their entry. As they entered the living room every object was a couple of inches above the floor/surface and then crashed down.

I will dig it out.

So we have 'video replays' of people and events from the past AND trapped souls
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Yeah I read that and it was in Jesmond next to Newcastle my area.
 
Aydee_Aitchdee said:
Balance the approach.

As you said, the 'experts' aren't 'experts' so much as 'people to give an opinion' if you're going to defer to experts, get actual experts and allow them to think critically about it.

I've a feeling that wouldn't go over too well with the networks.
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He does that in the book and an expert pretty much demolishes the literal stone tape theory, although to be fair I don't think Danny has the academic background to counter his argument (and neither do I).
 
Paul_Exeter said:
Agree with you there. I feel it should be always broadcast from Halloween onwards as the clocks go back and you can sit there and mentally picture the location and have perhaps visited the area (which should ideally have a touch of faded grandeur or wild moorland about it).
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Indeed. One episode was about Ampleforth where we go on our dogwalking exploits all the time. And I think that was part of the appeal as you say, that it might suddenly go down a street you know. But also, there's already tonnes of paranormal TV and podcasts out of the US - usually stories along the line of imaginary "Indian burial grounds" or "a door upstairs closed on its own a week after my grandma died". If I want US stories I'll go to those (and have listened to a couple of them for many years - precisely why I loved Uncanny because finally, here was a really good British one).

In a way I wish it was more of an "amateur" podcast: BBC might have good production values but were always going to ruin it by hijacking it to sell a show/star, or use it as an excuse to go to the US and it was at its best when it was just ordinary people being interviewed and telling their story. For me, another thing I loved in the formula was the idea of returning to a house to see if the people who are there now have had any experiences, too. It was just very UK and that was its charm.

They could have got back on track after the awful Daisy whatshername episode, just by acting like it never happened and sticking with the original formula.
 
Paul_Exeter said:
He does that in the book and an expert pretty much demolishes the literal stone tape theory, although to be fair I don't think Danny has the academic background to counter his argument (and neither do I).
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I'm beginning to think Danny has zero interest in thinking critically, debunking, or even fact checking. Why should he go through the bother when he has you lot doing his work for him. For free. For which he takes ALL the credit.
 
Robins isn’t a researcher, or a seeker of anything other than listeners. His schtick in the first series suggested it was a serious attempt at genuine investigation but by the time we got to the second series not so much.What he has created is first and foremost a paranormal entertainment show, no different to its televisual cousins. He saw a gap in the market and successfully filled it.
 
Ghost In The Machine said:
Indeed. One episode was about Ampleforth where we go on our dogwalking exploits all the time. And I think that was part of the appeal as you say, that it might suddenly go down a street you know. But also, there's already tonnes of paranormal TV and podcasts out of the US - usually stories along the line of imaginary "Indian burial grounds" or "a door upstairs closed on its own a week after my grandma died". If I want US stories I'll go to those (and have listened to a couple of them for many years - precisely why I loved Uncanny because finally, here was a really good British one).

In a way I wish it was more of an "amateur" podcast: BBC might have good production values but were always going to ruin it by hijacking it to sell a show/star, or use it as an excuse to go to the US and it was at its best when it was just ordinary people being interviewed and telling their story. For me, another thing I loved in the formula was the idea of returning to a house to see if the people who are there now have had any experiences, too. It was just very UK and that was its charm.

They could have got back on track after the awful Daisy whatshername episode, just by acting like it never happened and sticking with the original formula.
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I never heard of Daisy whatshername before Uncanny but the BBC must pay well for her to have a mansion.
 
I'm listening to episode 1 now. I'm a bit underwhelmed. The sceptic makes an interesting point that the figure in the window might be backlit by car headlights. It would be great to know the layout of the land to see if a car could be parked there. Also I suspect that for lights to cause a silhouette at some height, they would have to be very low to the ground.
I am very surprised that the sceptic didn't mention, "Hey, we do have ladders in the US you know!"
 
Episode 2: interesting but other than that, I have no opinion. I'm always intrigued by problems with electrical equipment. The ghosts can make electrons flow to make bells ring and produce static but not, in this case anyway, convey a message either recognisable or gibberish.
 
Episode 3, and the idea of cursed land is intriguing. I live on a housing estate that until 1968 was just fields. But there is at least one building here which was built on virgin land and in which no one died. And yet they, and the mini supermarket next door have had strange things including apparitions. Where do they come from?
I'm also fascinated by the idea of ghosts that appear from "old" times appearing in modern builds. And lumped in with that are spooks who give a lot of data that can be checked but when you do so, nothing can be verified.

...which makes me think that some ghosts are otherworldly pranksters that float around the ether looking for someone and somewhere to latch onto and then tell fibs when questioned. I now distrust anything that seems to come from the beyond.
 
DrPaulLee said:
Episode 2: interesting but other than that, I have no opinion. I'm always intrigued by problems with electrical equipment. The ghosts can make electrons flow to make bells ring and produce static but not, in this case anyway, convey a message either recognisable or gibberish.
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I remember an episode of Ghost Hunters where there was a room where people felt really uneasy. There was a ceiling fan that had an issue with its motor and it was giving off high emf they fixed it and the feelings stopped.
 
DrPaulLee said:
Episode 3, and the idea of cursed land is intriguing. I live on a housing estate that until 1968 was just fields. But there is at least one building here which was built on virgin land and in which no one died. And yet they, and the mini supermarket next door have had strange things including apparitions. Where do they come from?
I'm also fascinated by the idea of ghosts that appear from "old" times appearing in modern builds. And lumped in with that are spooks who give a lot of data that can be checked but when you do so, nothing can be verified.

...which makes me think that some ghosts are otherworldly pranksters that float around the ether looking for someone and somewhere to latch onto and then tell fibs when questioned. I now distrust anything that seems to come from the beyond.
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Or they are from a different timeline.
 
Mrs Melmoth said:
Robins isn’t a researcher, or a seeker of anything other than listeners. His schtick in the first series suggested it was a serious attempt at genuine investigation but by the time we got to the second series not so much.What he has created is first and foremost a paranormal entertainment show, no different to its televisual cousins. He saw a gap in the market and successfully filled it.
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Nail on head on what has been bugging me about Uncanny. You are right, back in Series One it was announced a the biggest ever investigation into the paranormal and that initial series followed that script. But then the celebrities, tie-ins with fictional shows and live shows all took over and it has become spooky entertainment instead. Have to say I enjoyed his book a great deal, but a weakness was that it didn't reference other investigators, authors or events. For example, the high-strangeness UFO case has parallels elsewhere but Danny didn't explore these.
 
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Sabresonic said:
I never heard of Daisy whatshername before Uncanny but the BBC must pay well for her to have a mansion.
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To be fair to her she has won BAFTAs and written her own work, both of which will have significantly increased her earnings. She also worked nights cleaning offices to support herself through stage school. I don't begrudge her the success she has had and we also don't know how wealthy her partner was when they bought that house.
 
DrPaulLee said:
I'm listening to episode 1 now. I'm a bit underwhelmed. The sceptic makes an interesting point that the figure in the window might be backlit by car headlights. It would be great to know the layout of the land to see if a car could be parked there. Also I suspect that for lights to cause a silhouette at some height, they would have to be very low to the ground.
I am very surprised that the sceptic didn't mention, "Hey, we do have ladders in the US you know!"
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I thought this was a poor choice by Danny. The case had already been played out on Twitter and so I knew what had happened before it was even broadcast. Just seems to have been two kids who got frightened during a power cut plus some unsubstantiated claims about water that seems to have all vanished the following morning. Danny stood in front of a tall window pretending ladders don't exist was not his finest hour.
 
Ghost In The Machine said:
Indeed. One episode was about Ampleforth where we go on our dogwalking exploits all the time. And I think that was part of the appeal as you say, that it might suddenly go down a street you know. But also, there's already tonnes of paranormal TV and podcasts out of the US - usually stories along the line of imaginary "Indian burial grounds" or "a door upstairs closed on its own a week after my grandma died". If I want US stories I'll go to those (and have listened to a couple of them for many years - precisely why I loved Uncanny because finally, here was a really good British one).

In a way I wish it was more of an "amateur" podcast: BBC might have good production values but were always going to ruin it by hijacking it to sell a show/star, or use it as an excuse to go to the US and it was at its best when it was just ordinary people being interviewed and telling their story. For me, another thing I loved in the formula was the idea of returning to a house to see if the people who are there now have had any experiences, too. It was just very UK and that was its charm.

They could have got back on track after the awful Daisy whatshername episode, just by acting like it never happened and sticking with the original formula.
Click to expand...
Another nail on head for me: it has lost that 'amateur' vibe of the first series. If anyone remembers the Great British Bake Off when it first aired on BBC 2 it had that same amateur charm and was invariably won by a chubby camp man. Then it got moved to BBC 1, the contestants seemed more 'coached' and it was evident the producers were 'sexing it up' by manipulating them to clash with each other or make Nigella Lawson-type suggestive comments.
 
Here's another local example of something spooky on completely virgin land. Nearby is a large hospital and the very first unit built was plagued by a clock that people could hear ticking and chiming. Staff could never find it.
It's been suggested that the unit was built on the site of an old house and that the ghostly clock is a spectral remnant of that long gone building.

But... Ive asked people on the local history forum and checked old maps and there was never anything there. Just fields, trees and allotments.
 
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