Listen to the Battersea Poltergeist Investigation – BBC Sounds

Last Updated on August 28, 2024

If you fancy yourself as an amateur paranormal investigator or just love creepy stuff like me, then I have a great programme recommendation for you – The Battersea Poltergeist. It’s a BBC Radio 4/Podcast presentation and tells the story of the Hitchings family who were haunted by a poltergeist for nearly 12 years.

The actual events happened in 1956 and the story is told partly by a current day journalist called Danny Robins. He revisits the evidence with a team of experts, some sceptics and others who believe in such phenomenon. The story also includes dramatizations of the important events, which really make the story come alive.   This context works really well in bringing the story up to date and presenting the evidence both old and new.

The story has lots of twists and turns and if you listen like me you’ll probably swing from sceptic to believer several times.  It’s a gripping drama though and extremely well presented by Danny Robins who maintains the impartial role of the investigative journalist very well.   There’s even a series of interviews with the young girl at the center of the story, Shirley Hitchings who is now an 80 year old grandmother.

The events range from the mundane and easily explainable to incredible events witnessed by all sorts of people.   It includes a huge amount of evidence gathered by an amateur ghost hunter who became fascinated by the case – Harold Chibbett.  He is played by  Toby Jones in the dramatization parts, and the young Shirley is voiced by His Dark Materials star Dafne Keegan.

The story though doesn’t actually need these star names, although they are beautifully portrayed.  There’s so much happening in this tale that it puts most of the boring paranormal investigations we see on late time TV in the UK into context.  Forget about gusts of wind, strange feelings and slight changes of temperature – the Battersea Poltergeist does so much more – from levitation, trashing rooms to waking up the whole street.  All with loads of witnesses from all walks of life.

At one point the family resorted to an exorcism which didn’t end well, plus attracted the attention of the tabloid journalists and the police.  Indeed although the Daily Mail don’t seem to have changed much, making up a sensational story based on few facts attempting to discredit the family.

It’s a great series and one to listen to if you enjoy these sort of shows, it’s definitely creepier than many horror movies.  Some of the situations and events are almost impossible to explain even for the most hardened skeptic. List to it, I’m sure you’ll enjoy it.

For those outside the UK you should still be able to access it through the BBC Sounds website here – BBC Sounds – Music. Radio. Podcasts. You’ll need to go directly to the site as you’ll be redirected based on your location if you try and visit through the BBC site. The show itself is not currently geo blocked, so if you have a BBC account you should be able to enjoy it anywhere.

If you haven’t got a BBC account you may have to invest in a VPN programme like NordVPN or Identity Cloaker to setup your account initially. Just connect to a UK server first, see below for recommendations if you use Nord. Then simply enter a UK postal code when asked (anyone will do as long as it’s valid). You currently won’t need to extend it after though, as the majority of BBC sounds will work in any country. If you want to watch all the TV shows and live broadcasts you’ll need to keep using a UK based VPN though.

These are the best Nord VPN servers to use for BBC access.

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