After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds & the Paranormal
This is After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds and the Paranormal. The podcast that takes you to the shadiest corners of the past, unpicking history’s spookiest, strangest, and most sinister stories.
Join historians Anthony Delaney and Maddy Pelling, every Monday and Thursday to take a look at the darker side of history. From haunted pubs and Houdini, to witch trials and weird UFO sightings.
After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds and the Paranormal - a podcast by History Hit, the world's best history channel and creators of award-winning podcasts Dan Snow's History Hit, Gone Medieval, and Betwixt the Sheets.
Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.
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- Update frequency
- every 3 days
- Average duration
- 41 minutes
- Episodes
- 204
- Years Active
- 2023 - 2025
BONUS: Hear a chapter of Anthony's new book, Queer Georgians
Hear a chapter of Anthony's new book, Queer Georgians: A hidden history of lovers, lawbreakers and homemakers. It's out now!
For more information, click here.
Anthony tells listeners why he wanted to w…
Dark Side of Ancient Rome's Colosseum
In today's episode, we're taking you inside the towering walls of Ancient Rome's Colosseum to find out the dark reality of what happened there.
From the sex appeal of gladiators, to the choreographed …
Gay Sex Scandal that Outraged the Georgians
What price might a man pay for sex in the 18th century? Well, if it was with another man, he might pay with his life.
In this episode, Anthony introduces us to 43-year-old milkman Gabriel Lawrence. To…
Jack the Ripper: Invention of a Monster
Jack the Ripper as we think of him, is an invention of the Victorian media. They took the complete absence of hard facts about the killer, and populated it with the period's anxieties, fantasies and …
The Dark Side of Medieval England
This episode contains descriptions of execution and torture.
To be Hanged, Drawn & Quartered. Put on the Rack. Impaled on a spike. This list paints a very dark picture. What was the reality of executi…
The Darkest Scandal in Victorian Britain
Today we step into the shadowy world of W.T. Stead—a Victorian journalist whose life was as controversial as it was groundbreaking.
Hear how he uncovered a sex scandal which shocked the nation, dabbl…
New York's Wildest Murder Case
This 1897 New York murder case that has it all - a villain, an incredibly useless police force, and a duck who saves the day. The incredible Dr Cat Byers (@heymorguegirl) joins Maddy and Anthony to t…
Victorian Love Triangle Murder
Through the industrial fog of Victorian London, in one of the city's most notorious slums, a murder took place that shocked a nation.
The Bermondsey Horror, as it was called at the time, centred aroun…
The Body In The Trunk: France's Shocking 19th Century Murder Case
It was a murder mystery that gripped 19th century France and changed crime investigation forever.
Who was the body in the trunk? What were the groundbreaking techniques used in the forensics investiga…
Bloodiest Mutiny & Shipwreck in History: Batavia
What happens when you're left on a desert island with a psychopath? This is a story so horrendous it would be hard to believe were it not for the skeletons left behind. Maddy Pelling takes Anthony De…
Britain’s Most Prolific Executioner
For Albert Pierrepoint, execution was a family affair. His father and uncle were hangmen and from the 1940s until the late 1950s Albert was Britain's "Number One" executioner. Which meant he was the …
Could You Survive The Victorian Workhouse?
Today we’re going behind the foreboding doors of the Victorian workhouse to ask - ‘Could we survive it?’. From Oliver Twist's gruel to songs about flogging, from lice-ridden clothing to soul destroyi…
Day In The Life Of A Plague Doctor
If you think your job is bad, have you tried being a plague doctor in 17th century Venice?
Join Anthony and Maddy as they wake up on a quarantine island and take you through a day in the life of a pla…
Final Days of Napoleon
Conspiracy theories swirl about the final days of Napoleon. Was he poisoned by a friend? By the British? By his wallpaper? Did he cologne himself to death? Was his penis taken away by a vengeful prie…
The Great Plague of London
What was it like living in London, 1665, when the plague first crept in?
Within weeks, the gruesome symptoms were being spotted around London, crosses were marked on the doors of the damned, and King …
Dark History of the Luddites
Would you have joined the OG Luddites? In 1811 and 1812 across the midlands and north of England which were the Silicon Valley of the day, Luddites smashed machines. They would not stop, not even at …
The Plague That Shook The Roman Empire
In the 6th century, the Roman Empire was split and its future hung in the balance.
Emperor Justinian dreamed of restoring it to its former glory. That was until the first great plague devastated Const…
The Truth About Frankenstein
Against a time of radical change, a gothic masterpiece was written by the teenage Mary Shelley.
Published in 1818, Frankenstein takes us into a dark world where man and monster meet in mutual torment.…
How Bloody Was 'Bloody Mary'?
Last week we heard about Mary's formative years. Today we get to her reign, the infamous burnings and ask ourselves if Bloody Mary was as bad as people think.
Edited by Tomos Delargy. Produced by Stua…
The Final Days of Anastasia Romanov
In the aftermath of the bloody Russian revolution, the Romanovs went from being a glittering royal family, to vulnerable everyday citizens who were soon murdered.
In the wake of their deaths, the that…