The Truth About Frankenstein

The Truth About Frankenstein

Author: History Hit July 10, 2025 Duration: 48:13

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. A world of raw, animalistic fear.


How was this story influenced by the tragedies in Mary Shelley's own life, and the early 19th century obsessions with playing God?


Edited by Tomos Delargy. Produced by Stuart Beckwith. Senior Producer is Charlotte Long.


Please vote for us for Listeners' Choice at the British Podcast Awards! Follow this link, and don’t forget to confirm the email. Thank you!


You can now watch After Dark on Youtube! www.youtube.com/@afterdarkhistoryhit


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.  


You can take part in our listener survey here.


All music from Epidemic Sounds.


After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds & the Paranormal is a History Hit podcast.


Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.


There’s a side to history that doesn’t make it into the standard textbooks, one filled with unexplained events, chilling folklore, and criminal acts that defy easy explanation. That’s precisely the territory explored in After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds & the Paranormal. Hosted by historians Anthony Delaney and Maddy Pelling, this series from History Hit ventures into the shadowy archives of our past every Monday and Thursday. Each episode feels like a deep dive into a long-forgotten case file or a whispered campfire tale, treating these subjects with a historian’s rigor and a storyteller’s flair. You’ll hear them dissect everything from infamous witch trials and the enigmatic legacy of Harry Houdini to accounts of haunted locations and perplexing aerial phenomena. The conversation is engaging and thoughtful, never sensational, even when the topics are inherently sensational. It’s a podcast for anyone curious about the intersections of fact, fear, and folklore, offering a compelling listen that proves the past is rarely as simple or as settled as it seems. By focusing on these overlooked narratives, Delaney and Pelling provide a unique and fascinating lens on human culture and our enduring fascination with the mysterious.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 100

After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds & the Paranormal
Podcast Episodes
The Truth About the Conjuring's Ghost Hunters [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 33:49
Ghost hunting couple Ed and Lorraine Warren transformed twentieth century America into an enchanted land dotted with haunted houses, cursed objects, and portals to hell. Their exploits are the basis for the Conjuring mov…
Banshees: Herald of Death [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 41:58
Today we're delving back into the After Dark vaults to revisit our episode on Banshees...Siobhan McSweeney (Derry Girls) joins Anthony Delaney and Maddy Pelling for the story of the Banshee.The Banshee is a female spirit…
Ghosts of Henry VIII's Palace [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 42:45
We’re re-running this episode because it’s one of our favourites — and it’s worth another listen!The ghost of Catherine Howard, fifth wife of Henry VIII, screaming down a corridor. A nursemaid's spinning wheel clicking i…
Dark Truth About Sweeney Todd [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 37:47
Sweeney Todd - the demon barber of Fleet Street who beheads people and then sends their bodies through a trapdoor to be made into pies. It's just a story right? Right? There's not any real history to it....or is there? L…
The Most Notorious Viking Raid [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 43:01
The Viking attack on the monastery at Lindisfarne, a remote tidal island in North East England, sent psychological and cultural shockwaves through the history. It's a story of blood and terror, but there's more subtlety…
Oscar Wilde's Very Victorian Scandal [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:06:15
In 1895, the world witnessed its first true celebrity trial when Oscar Wilde was charged with “Gross Indecency". To tell the powerful story of Wilde's life in its fullness, Anthony and Maddy are joined by Merlin Holland,…
Does Every Family Hold A Dark Past? [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 57:54
Maddy and Anthony dig into their own family history in collaboration with Ancestry! They find stories from the darker side of the past in their own family trees. Huge thanks to Ancestry's genealogists and family historia…
What Happened The Day Pompeii was Destroyed? [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 53:03
We all know the story of Pompeii: the Roman town reduced to ash when Mount Vesuvius erupted. Roughly two-thousand years later, archaeologists have been able to uncover the stories of its victims. What do we know of the l…
The Dark Side of the Vikings [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 56:57
How dark really were the Vikings? How much of a part did human sacrifice play in their world? And what was their relationship with magic?Joining Anthony and Maddy in today's episode is historian, author and all-round Vik…
The Only Prime Minister Ever Assassinated [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 46:16
Was this moment the closest Britain came to revolution? When Prime Minister Spencer Perceval lay dying on the floor of the Parliament, many feared it was the start of bloody revolt. We discover the assassin, John Belling…