Paranormal- Britain's Last Witch

 

A couple of weeks ago, my friend Margaret Hahn told me that the BBC were about to broadcast a TV documentary about her grandmother, Helen Duncan. I was interested to watch it and see what it was like seeing as I've researched this case in such detail myself; see the background link below. All four episodes dropped on the same day. BBC productions on paranormal subjects vary in quality and so I started watching with an open mind, waiting to see which way this one would go. The format and style is very typical of the BBC. It has a very dramatic feel to it, almost fictional, with a lot of visual and sound effects. It has some quaint features as well, such as archaic technology to give a sense of the past; VHS video, cassette tapes and CRT televisions. The presenter is the central protagonist in the drama and the subject matter is described primarily through her own personal journey of discovery. She is the token "solo intrepid young female", another BBC cliché, called Sian Eleri, who is best known as a radio host. Although she is white she is a Welsh-speaking Welshwoman, so probably that gives her just enough oppression cred to push her over the threshold of acceptability. Another standard BBC trope was the very predictable white-male-bashing of Harry Price. The programme states that he subjected Helen to a full body search while omitting the fact that his nurse Mary McGinley actually did that. This was something Helen not only volunteered to undergo; she insisted on it, desperately wanting to prove herself genuine. Despite this, and although I don't countenance smearing his character, I'm not a fan of Harry Price. As I've detailed before, he himself misrepresented Helen Duncan and published a fraudulent case study about her. The programme regurgitates the ridiculous regurgitation of cheesecloth theory. They don't mention the review by Will Goldsten of the Magic Circle. For the sake of balance, of course I don't object to them including the skeppers. Sian does some interviews with skeptics in Callander and also Prof. Richard Wiseman. I honestly wished our debate opponents would say something original and interesting, but they didn't. Wiseman said what he always has done. Some of the people in Helen's old hometown were openly hostile to her. "Good riddance!" said a lady who runs the local bookshop. The claims made about HMS Barham etc are nothing new. Dr Kate Cherrell makes an appearance, somebody I also have interviewed, see: https://hpanwo-radio.blogspot.com/2025/02/hpanwo-show-577-podcast-kate-cherrell.html. The Christian church has made comments about spiritualist communication. The real dead cannot communicate and nobody should attempt to; and they also reject it as something dangerous, possibly leaving you exposed to demons. Another of Helen's relatives warns of this; saying that you have to close to the door to the Spiritworld and never leave it open. That's actually a real hazard, but in no way does it justify alarmism. Responsible and sincere people who get involved with spiritualism are perfectly safe, in my view, and have a lot to gain. Against a priest's advice Sian decides to go to a séance herself. I've also done that, see: https://hpanwo-tv.blogspot.com/2020/03/jayson-harrington-live-event.html.

There was some new information in this documentary. As a child Helen predicted the death of a local doctor in a car crash, something that actually came true and Sian Eleri finds a newspaper report about it from when it happened in 1907. She then goes on to interview Margaret. Helen's granddaughter has always been the medium's most vocal and passionate defender, having run the pardon campaign for over forty years. In the background link below you'll find details of that. The part of the programme I was waiting for was the séance. Sian goes to the same spiritualist centre in the Netherlands that was included in Leslie Kean's documentary Surviving Death, see: https://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.com/2021/02/the-mind-set-podcast-programme-436.html. I was quite excited to see what would happen, as Sian was too very clearly. She was also apprehensive. I can sympathize with her, having felt a similar concern when I went to Jayson Harrington's event, see above. She is open to the idea that she might see something genuinely supernatural. The service is different from Jayson's, and indeed Helen's, in that it is held in total darkness without even a dim red light. Margaret Hahn revealed something in the programme she only previously told me privately, that she had been in contact with somebody claiming to be connected to the intelligence services who gave her vital information about her grandmother. There's also a recorded interview with Chief Constable Arthur West from a radio programme in 1979; this is another new piece of information for me. It's an astonishing discussion because in it West essentially confesses. A pair of solicitors who are campaigning to get Helen a pardon, along with others like her who have long passed away, believe that there was a conspiracy to crowbar Helen into prison, but they don't accept the element that I and others have noted, that there were those in authority who didn't think she was being used by enemy spies; they thought she was a real medium. The programme concludes appropriately with the description of Helen's demise soon after the police raid. Sian asks "how could she get two burns from that?" Well, the medium at the Dutch centre explained it to her earlier, so does Kate Cherrell. The series ends dramatically with Sian attending a second séance attempting to channel Helen Duncan herself. Paranormal- Britain's Last Witch was not perfect, but it definitely was not as bad as it could have been; as bad as some documentaries about the paranormal indeed are. It was reasonable factual. I don't know how all the participants were treated, but I think Margaret was represented fairly. Despite this, I'll ask her about what was edited out. I sense that mainstream media publications about the esoteric and occult are slowly improving. Maybe that's a sign of good times to come; I hope so. The two-hour four-part series can be watched here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m00298xz/paranormal-britains-last-witch-1-dark-premonitions.
See here for background: https://hpanwo.blogspot.com/2020/02/helen-duncan-portal.html.