After emerging as the victors of a competitive situation, Blumhouse Television and Maniac Productions have landed the rights to the BBC Radio 4 podcast The Battersea Poltergeist. Now that the rights have been secured, both companies will work together to develop a scripted series, with the podcast serving as the basis for the first season. Oh, but they're not content to stop there. No, sir. They'll also be developing an unscripted companion series titled Blumhouse's Ghost Story. Additionally, both studios have acquired the life rights of Shirley Hitchings, who is known for bearing witness to the longest poltergeist haunting in history. The deal also includes the rights to Hitchings’ and James Clark’s book The Poltergeist Prince of London: The Remarkable True Story of the Battersea Poltergeist.
The spine-tingling docu-drama podcast The Battersea Poltergeist is written and presented by Danny Robins. It features the voices of Dafne Keen (Logan, His Dark Materials) and Toby Jones (The Dark Crystal). Here's the official description via Apple Podcasts:
A paranormal cold case re-investigated through a thrilling blend of drama and documentary. The true story of one of Britain's strangest hauntings, with Dafne Keen and Toby Jones.
Robins, Michael Seitzman of Maniac, and Jason Blum and Chris McCumber of Blumhouse TV will executive produce both the scripted and unscripted series. Emma Cooper is attached to produce the unscripted series via Empress Films.
“From our first listen to Danny’s captivating podcast, we were hooked and could easily envision how to bring the story to life – in both scripted and unscripted formats – for television viewers,” said Chris McCumber, Blumhouse Television president. “We’re grateful to Michael Seitzman for identifying the project early on, and championing it so aggressively.”
“It’s been an amazing journey making the podcast for the BBC and now I couldn’t have hoped for a better partner than Blumhouse, a leader in the genre when looking to further develop it,” said Robins. “I’m thrilled to work with them and Michael to bring the series to life visually. Ghost stories don’t get stranger or scarier than this.”
“Once you listen to the gripping and terrifying true story of Shirley Hitchings, it’s easy to understand why Danny’s podcast inspired two-page spreads in every newspaper in the UK,” said executive producer Seitzman. “It was exactly what we’d been looking for to launch our new ongoing series based on true hauntings. As he did with his podcast, Danny Robins will have viewers sleeping with the lights on after they watch his show!”
If supremely creepy podcasts are your thing, I highly recommend checking out Old Gods of Appalachia. Created by Steve Shell and Cam Collins, Old Gods of Appalachia is an eldritch horror anthology podcast.
Here's a brief description of the series:
Our world is an Alternate Appalachia, centered around the belief that the oldest mountains in the world were never meant to be inhabited. Long before anyone lived in these hills, beings of immeasurable darkness and incomprehensible madness were entombed beneath these hills. It was during this bygone age when the Appalachians towered much higher and more menacing than the slopes and ridges we know today, that they were conscripted after a great battle to serve as the final prison for these dark forces.
But of course, time marches inexorably on. Eons pass and the walls of the prison begin to wear thin. And Things that slumbered soundlessly below for millennia begin to stir and become restless. And they start to call to those who would hear them. They reached out across the shadowy abyss to the outcast, to the impoverished with nowhere else to go, to the frontiersman and the opportunist willing to kill and die for land and glory. Then they called to the rich men with their gnashing machines and their devastating blasts to search. To dig. To seek and find. To follow and serve. To keep this dark and bloody land for ourselves and our masters.
I've been obsessed with Old Gods of Appalachia for a few weeks now and cannot recommend it enough.