Mystery on the Rocks

Stuart Laws isn't just a fantastic comedian in his own right, he is also behind some of the best online comedy content of the past few years. His company Turtle Canyon are responsible for some absolutely stellar productions, including James Acaster's four 'Repertoire' Netflix specials and many more besides. We were very lucky that he visited the Mystery on the Rocks bar to help with another myster...

This week the fabulous Vix Leyton, stand-up comedian and host of the awesome Comedy Arcade podcast, swung by and was even generous enough to get the round in herself! We drank lovely pre-mixed cocktails from Nio , because when the three of us did the exclusive livestreamed Comedy Arcade show Vix had kindly bought us all cocktails. Alas, we were prohibited from drinking them on stage so we had them...

Joining us for this week's episode is absolutely fantastic comedian, actor and writer Helen Duff. You may have seen Helen on The Mash Report, heard her beautifully narrate one of many, many audiobooks, seen her at a litany of brilliant live shows or even heard her hosting her own amazing podcast Come As You Are... Helen swung by the bar for a top-drawer chinwag as well to help us piece together th...

After a couple of weeks of unexpected hiatus the bar is back in business! And we've made a few changes. We have a couple bits of news so, before we get back to cracking mysteries, join us in our new pad as we do a little bit of housekeeping and in the process somehow uncover a mystery surrounding Masud himself! Thanks for bearing with us, everyone - normal service will resume going forward. What's...

This week's guest is fantastic comedian, writer and political commentator Gráinne Maguire, who has appeared on Question Time, written on shows such as The Last Leg and who joins us on, among other things, a lengthy tangent about Easter as we try to pick apart a political scandal from 1950s Italy... In April 1953, socialite and aspiring actress Wilma Montesi is found dead on a beach,...

Sauntering into the bar this week is the effortlessly funny and absolutely top drawer Jarred Christmas who brightens up the bar with tales of his time on (and borderline sabotaging of) TV shows such as Celebrity Total Wipeout and Big Brother's Big Mouth and gets stuck into a particularly strange case... On the Isle of Man in the 1930s one family were visited by - and very soon befriended - a disem...

A bit of a dream for us this week as we are joined by actor, comedian and podcast legend Henry Zebrowski! Henry has cropped up in all manner of film and TV, including The Wolf of Wall Street, Your Pretty Face is Going to Hell, Heroes Reborn, Inside Amy Schumer, but is probably best known for hosting smash hit The Last Podcast on the Left. When we're not getting sidetracked by having so much fun, w...

It's the Hollywood season finale and there's an end of term vibe as Sooz and Masud bring in their boardgame and lead with their own mystery. Both sharing an obsession with the mercurial Hollywood A-lister Jeremy Renner, compounded by a shared love of the recent Renner Files podcast, Sooz and Masud walk us through the careers (plural) of the label-defying phenomenon that is Jeremy Lee Renner...&nbs...

Ahead of next week's Hollywood Case Files finale, we take a brisk walk down memory lane as we recount all the cases we've covered so far in our Hollywood series. Initially meant to be a miniseries, our Hollywood series kinda got out of hand, expanding to thirty episodes so far. As a result, our memories proved super hazy on some of the cases so join us as we try to remember the early ones and each...

When 'The Room' was released in 2003 it very quickly became widely recognised as the worst film ever made but a mystery which endures to this day surrounds its bizarre writer/director/star, the enigmatic Tommy Wiseau. His origins remain shrouded in mystery, thanks mainly to the man himself who refuses to say where he is from, his age or how he managed to raise the $6million dollars he spent m...

On September 11 2001, in the wake of the devastating attacks on America, firm celebrity friends Michael Jackson, Marlon Brando and Elizabeth Taylor find themselves in New York City and, with all flights grounded, set off cross country in an inconspicuous hire car to make it to safety. Or so the story goes... Join us as we try to uncover the truth and make some of our own ridiculous additions to th...

Our Hollywood series hits the 21st century as we take a look at the fatal shooting of Hollywood wannabe Bonnie Lee Bakley as she sat alone in her husband's car in May 2001, a deceptively simple case which manages to include (among other things) the most married man in the world, the most married woman in the world and Jerry Lee Lewis... At the Mystery on the Rocks bar you’ll find a retired sleuth,...

In June 1997, screenwriter Gary DeVore vanishes without trace after finishing a script said to expose corruption in the CIA. A year later, his car is found submerged in an area of water already searched when he first went missing - an aqueduct below a busy highway. Not only that, investigators believe that in order to have crashed his car there he would have had to drive 3 miles into oncoming...

As it's Christmas, we take a week off Hollywood sleuthing so join us in a cocktail as we chat about our differing opinions on Christmas films, share memories of toys of Christmas past and stick two fingers up to tradition. We hope you all have an excellent Christmas in this strangest of years and thank all our amazing listeners for coming with us on some real bizarre cases!  At the Mystery on...

In June 1994, Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman were brutally murdered - stabbed multiple times in a frenzied attack. The resulting trial of Nicole's ex-husband, the formerly beloved national football star turned actor OJ Simpson, became the trial of the century and a worldwide sensation. A pair of gloves, a cut on a finger, historic domestic abuse allegations and OJ's own behav...

In 1990 two dog walkers saw an ethereal woman in 1930s dress looking dazed and confused near the Hollywood sign. This was far from the first and certainly not the last sighting of the woman, who has supposedly roamed the area for quite some time and always brings with her a peculiar scent of gardenias... We rewind all the way back to the early days of our Hollywood series to take a look at th...

A stubborn rumour which won't go away... Join us as we discuss the possible origins and sources for the urban myth/true story (delete according to personal preference) of one of Hollywood's A-Listers rectally inserting a rodent and, in doing so, uncover an incredible Tinseltown rivalry which comes to a head at a star-studded party thrown by Elton John... At the Mystery on the Rocks bar you’ll find...

In March 1983, avant garde musician and anarchic late-night TV show host Peter Ivers is found in his Los Angeles loft apartment bludgeoned to death with a hammer. The trail went cold immediately and, despite the case being reopened in 2008 following a biography of Ivers, it seems likely that the killer will never be identified. So who could have even wanted Ivers dead, never mind actually murderin...

One of the biggest Hollywood mysteries... After finding fame as a child star in films such as 'Miracle on 34th Street' and becoming one of movies' most recognisable names, Natalie Wood is better remembered these days for her mysterious death. In November 1981 on a 55 foot yacht with her husband Robert Wagner, the actor Christopher Walken and the yacht's captain, Natalie somehow ended up in the oce...

When we recorded the most recent episode about The Wonderland Murders, we ended up getting sidetracked quite a lot by the recent US election, its surrounding news stories and our own personal delight at how it's all currently playing out. Quite obviously, this had nothing to do with the Wonderland murders so we snipped it all out but regular viewers of our livestreams let us know they wanted to he...

In July 1981, four people were brutally murdered in a Laurel Canyon townhouse in a crime scene detectives described as 'more gruesome' than the Manson Family murders... Investigations led detectives into a web of drugs, robbery, money laundering and one of the world's most famous porn stars... At the Mystery on the Rocks bar you’ll find a retired sleuth, the bartender trying to settle his tab, and...

Wholesome 1960s sitcom star Bob Crane was murdered in 1978 in Arizona, beaten by an unknown object and found in his apartment with a cord wrapped around his neck. Who could have wanted one of the affable stars of Hogan's Heroes dead? The subsequent investigation yielded no results but a wealth of suspects and blew Crane's loveable family guy image completely apart. At the Mystery on the Rocks bar...

Christa Helm just wanted to be a famous movie star and would do anything to make it happen. Making unbelievable connections and an unlikely fortune along the way, success came her way but she nevertheless failed to achieve her actual goal of being famous in her own right. And did making these connections ultimately lead to her brutal, unsolved murder in 1977 at the age of 27? An amazing story invo...

In 1976, seminal horror movie 'The Omen' was released, depicting the birth and early childhood of the Antichrist. But some say the movie itself was cursed, with a string of bizarre and terrifying events happening to many of those involved with making the film. From lightning strikes to vicious animal attacks, were these incidents due to some demonic force? Or is there a more rational explanation*....

July 1973, fast-rising superstar Bruce Lee dies suddenly while in Hong Kong. His brain is swollen by 13% and the world asks how someone at the peak of physical fitness could have died so suddenly. A white lie told in the heat of the moment is soon exposed and provides a springboard for all manner of crazy conspiracy theories from those who cannot believe he would simply 'just die'. So what killed...