If you’re enjoying the new #Uncanny TV series, you might be interested to know that my 2021 investigation into an intriguing 1950s paranormal cold case, The Battersea Poltergeist, is being re-released weekly on @BBCRadio4 and you can listen to all the episodes on @BBCSounds. It’s an incredible story and the series that lead to Uncanny as so many people sent me their own stories after I made it! #UncannyCommunity

Whether you're Team Believer or Team Sceptic, you'll love this week's podcast episode featuring Uncanny's resident parasychologist, @_EvelynHollow!

#Uncanny case 2… I bloody love this show! Can’t help thinking that once they named the ghost, that it became more of an egregore type phenomenon. The more they feed into it, the stronger the activity became and poltergeist activity was a natural progression. @hauntedmagazine u?

@danny_robins Me and my wife have only recently discovered Uncanny and have soaked it up. And this moment gave me so much joy I had to capture it in slow motion

Uncanny, Series 2 #UNCANNY #uncannycommuntiy Case 2: The Charity Shop Poltergeist REVIEW [**THERE MAY BE SPOILERS**] *and possibly inane ramblings* @danny_robins and Uncanny continues its spine-chilling paranormal investigations with Case 2: The Charity Shop Poltergeist. Uncanny has quickly cemented itself as the gold standard for modern paranormal storytelling, blending real-life experiences with expert analysis to create gripping, spine-tingling TV. This particular case is why the show works so well and is the perfect textbook example of why the series captures believers and sceptics alike. It presents an eerie yet compelling account of supernatural activity within a seemingly ordinary vintage charity shop, leaving listeners questioning where the line between reality and the unexplained truly lies. Yes, pack away your gothic mansions, creepy old asylums, and 18th-century coaching inns; this episode is about one of those charity shops we all see on the high street in the centre of town. I love charity shops, and my kids volunteer in a local one on Saturdays. There’s something inherently eerie about charity shops. They’re filled with second-hand objects, each carrying unknown histories, often donated after someone has passed away. The idea that one of these items could be haunted feels oddly plausible, and there are probably old, spooky-looking dolls; in fact, there are always old,spooky-looking dolls. The story centres on the experiences of Sybil, the charity shop owner, recalling a series of disturbing experiences in the shop, from noises to whispers to shadows gradually escalating into something far more sinister. The witnesses Danny brings in corroborate what has been seen and add more to the case. Danny masterfully builds tension, drawing out details hinting at rational explanations and the possibility of a genuine haunting. As usual, the expert panel of @_EvelynHollow & @ciaranokeeffe adds depth and offers psychological, environmental, historical and supernatural interpretations of the events. We even meet Danny's neighbours as Ciaran goes from getting Danny and his family to see a ghost [see case 1] to getting the neighbours to play a game of Green Needles or Brainstorm. Whether you side with the sceptics or lean toward the paranormal, the ambiguity is what makes Uncanny so gripping. We even get a chap called Jack [or was it Joe] steal a laptop from Danny in a lecture hall, all for a good cause. As the show gains momentum, there's a trapdoor no one knew about, a man called George who has connections to the building and a look back at The Stone Tape Theory [another one of those paranormal things that divides the #UncannyCommunity] Danny, as always, delivers the perfect mix of wide-eyed intrigue and barely concealed terror, while the sound design makes sure that if you weren’t already nervous about going into a charity shop alone, you definitely would be now. One word that popped up more than normal in this episode was pareidolia and the brain’s tendency to find patterns in randomness. It's a particular fave of Ciarans [that and sleep deprivation 😉]. Was it subconscious shop gossip between the staff? By talking about it, did they create George [look up the Philip Experiment if you have time]? Like the best Uncanny episodes, this one doesn’t offer easy answers. Was it genuinely paranormal? Was it all in Sybil & the staff member's heads? Was it an elaborate prank played by a co-worker with too much time on their hands? Was it George? Was it audio pareidolia? The uncertainty is what makes it so compelling—just when you think you’ve made up your mind, another detail emerges to make you question your interpretation. The stand-out moment has to be Danny saying 'fear spreads' in a cafe as he is buttering his toasted teacake. Little things like that just put the icing on the cake, the butter on the teacake, if you will. Overall, Uncanny, Case 2: The Charity Shop Poltergeist, is a standout episode that encapsulates what makes Uncanny such a brilliant TV show. It’s unsettling, thought-provoking, and leaves just enough unanswered questions to keep you thinking long after the credits roll. BUT EVEN AFTER THE CREDITS ROLL, we are blessed by another 30 minutes with Uncanny: Post Mortem and more reasons to change your mind about what is happening. I've always used a sliding scale of 0-100 from sceptic [0] to believer [100], and this one, I am stuck in the middle, bang slap in the middle, and I am going to say I am 50/50. Don't get me wrong, I love a spooky charity shop, but I can't seem to shake the idea of it being 2021, coming out of lockdown, talking and meeting people again, discussing things and creating a story subconsciously and then finding jigsaw pieces to fit a puzzle which probably doesn't make sense but hey, ho. One thing is for sure—this episode will have me exploring charity shops more and more now. You can watch Uncanny and Uncanny: Post Mortem on @bbciplayer or listen to the non-visualised podcast on @BBCSounds. Please feel free to offer your views, thoughts, and comments. Oh, and by the way, is it Green Needles or Brainstorm? #TeamBeliever #TeamSceptic

'Haunted Houses, Ghosts & Spectres' Usborne's Supernatural Guide Revisited...

TONIGHT. #UNCANNY TV CASE 2: THE CHARITY SHOP POLTERGEIST. 9pm @BBCTwo and @BBCiPlayer. WHO IS EXCITED?