General Witchfinders: The British Horror Podcast

Selected for our 10th episode anniversary by our listeners, The Abominable Dr. Phibes is a 1971 British comedy horror film, produced by Ronald S. Dunas and Louis M. Heyward, directed by Robert Fuest. It stars, in his first appearance on the podcast, mister Vincent Price.  Its art deco sets, dark humour, and performance by Price have made the film and its sequel Dr. Phibes Rises Again cult cla...

Late one night at the Russell Square station in the London Underground, university students Patricia and her American exchange student boyfriend Alex find an unconscious man on the stairwell. Fearing that he may be diabetic, Patricia checks his wallet and finds a card that reads James Manfred, OBE. They inform a police officer, but find that Manfred has vanished. Inspector Calhoun is assigned to l...

Jeremy Dyson is the co-creator of the West End play Ghost Stories, and a member of the sketch comedy team The League of Gentlemen. The League initially began as a stage act in 1995, which was then transferred to BBC Radio 4 in 1997 as On the Town with the League of Gentlemen, and then became a television series on BBC Two in 1999. Dyson has written several books including a novel ‘What Happen...

Horror Express - or Pánico en el Transiberiano translated as Panic on the Trans-Siberian, is an English language Spanish science fiction horror film loosely based on the novella Who Goes There? (also a basis for the Thing From Another World, which was in turn was remade as the classic The Thing by John Carpenter.)  The film stars Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing, with Alberto de Mendoza, Sil...

Two years after the events of Dracula AD 1972, a Secret Service agent barely escapes from an English country house, in which satanic rituals are being celebrated. Before he dies, he reveals to his superiors that four prominent members of society – a government minister, a peer, a general and a famous scientist – are involved in a cult led by the satanic priestess Chin Yang. Scotland Yard's Inspect...

The Stone Tape was broadcast on BBC Two as a Christmas ghost story in 1972. It was written by Nigel Kneale, best known as the writer of Quatermass, for whose juxtaposition of science and superstition is a frequent theme. Peter Brock played by Michael Bryant is the petulant head of a research team for Ryan Electrics. His team is developing a new recording medium that will give the company an e...

Warning this book has outdated attitudes, language and cultural depiction, which may cause offence today. Harris, a young East London art teacher, notices that one of his students has a bloodied bandage around his hand. Meanwhile, a baby girl and her dog are killed by a mischief of giant rats. Harris takes the student to the hospital and sees the grieving mother with her dead child. According to t...

Sapphire and Steel are two interdimensional operatives. Time is a corridor that surrounds everything, but there are weak spots where Time – implied to be a malignant force – can break into the present and take things. There are also creatures from the beginnings and ends of time that roam the corridor looking for the weaknesses to break through. Sapphire and Steel are two of a group of beings desc...

19th century Switzerland!  On the eve of his execution for the murder of his maid, Baron Victor Frankenstein confesses his story to a visiting priest. As an orphaned teenager the Baron engages scientist Paul Krempe to tutor him and they begin collaborating on scientific experiments. After successfully bringing a dead puppy back to life, Victor suggests that they create a perfect human being f...

Ross, Jon and James discuss: Dracula AD 1972 from Hammer Available to buy or rent on Amazon and Apple in the UK. The seventh Hammer film featuring the count, and the sixth to star Christopher Lee as the count. Featuring the return of Peter Cushing as Van Helsing for the first time since The Brides of Dracula in 1960, and was the first to feature both Lee and Cushing in their respective roles since...