“I couldn’t quite relax into it,” she admits. In the first episode she plays folk tunes with her dad, talks to musician Cohen Braithwaite-Kilcoyne and, bravely, has a crack at morris dancing. This gorgeously produced four-part series takes her from her love of The Cuckoo into an exploration of Albion, the mythical land of old. But being of mixed heritage (her dad is British, her mum Caribbean), Sewell wondered whether such a song could ever really belong to her. As a teenager, she was obsessed with Pentangle’s version of the traditional song The Cuckoo. Zakia Sewell is interested in British folk culture, especially English folk music. As he says, we know the “where” – Ghislaine Maxwell is currently in a New York remand prison – but what he’s trying to find out is the “why”. I can’t say I’m looking forward to the rest of the series, as grooming and rape of underage girls is not really my bag, but Sweeney will no doubt make this a fascinating listen. “Because he has formed and deformed her.” “I feel sorry for her up to the moment her father dies,” said Sweeney. Last week’s brilliant opening episode (of six), which looked at Robert Maxwell’s relationship with his youngest daughter, painted a swift and devastating portrait of the revolting media tycoon, and expressed some sympathy for Ghislaine. I don’t always agree with Sweeney, but he really is an immense storyteller: his script is fantastic, his interviewing to the point, his presentation fiery and compelling. Presented and researched by veteran investigative reporter John Sweeney, this is as gripping as all his work. But I wouldn’t listen while holding a full paint pot, for instance.Īnother mystery, this one real-life and rather more sordid: Hunting Ghislaine, Global’s podcast about Jeffrey Epstein’s supposed enabler, Ghislaine Maxwell. It’s the combination of realistic dialogue, genuine spookiness and swift pace, as well as the acknowledg I loved both Charles Dexter Ward and The Whisperer, so it’s no surprise that I’m taken with Innsmouth: so much so that I begged the publicist for more episodes (and no, this does not happen often). And, lordy, we all know how clumsily that exposition could have been done. In episode two, there’s a lot of exposition about the past: Simpson deals with this neatly by having a researcher chat through findings with a sceptical Fisher. This is a new element, and means that our two heroes are not working together as closely as before Fisher is in a small coastal town in the US, Heawood in Mosul, though there might be a sinister connection between both places…Īs ever, the production is exemplary, sounds and atmosphere changing as characters move around and the storytelling is excellent too. I find myself rooting for the cynical, intrepid Fisher in particular, despite this series’ dark questions around who she is and what she’s really been up to. Just so you know, this is fiction: but Heawood and his compadre Kennedy Fisher are played so brilliantly by Barnaby Kay and Jana Carpenter that they’ve started to feel like real people. You need to listen to both of these before you start on this one or you’ll be very confused: as host Matthew Heawood says at the beginning of last week’s episode, what began as “a simple investigation into the disappearance of a young man from a mental health facility in Rhode Island” has now expanded into something both personal, conspiratorial and deliciously occult. The Shadow Over Innsmouth, which started last week, follows on from two previous Radio 4 podcast series, The Case of Charles Dexter Ward and The Whisperer in Darkness. I had to go for a brisk stomp round the park or there’d have been a fire brigade situation. Oh, the comfort of stories with a beginning, a middle and an actual, definite end! Plus, when there’s a scary element, even ironing becomes exciting.Īctually, domestic chores became too dangerous for me as I binged on episodes in the BBC’s third and final series of Julian Simpson’s modern take on HP Lovecraft, The Lovecraft Investigations. Absorbing, well-told, what’s-really-going-on? tales unfurling in your ears is a wonderful way to distract yourself from 2020’s killer combo of fear and boredom. I have had a week of listening to different mysteries, and it has been most enjoyable, thanks very much. Sunday Feature: The Myth and Mystery of Anja Thauer | BBC Radio 3/ BBC Sounds
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