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savings and more inspiring flavors. The

0:38

Ghost of a Hand by

0:41

J Sheridan Lefano, narrated

0:43

by Tony Walker. Miss

1:00

Rebecca Chattersworth, in a letter dated late

1:02

in the autumn of 1753, gives

1:06

a minute and curious relation of

1:08

occurrences in the tiled house, which

1:11

it is plain, although at starting

1:13

she protests against all such fooleries,

1:16

she has heard with a peculiar

1:18

sort of particularity. I

1:21

was for printing the entire letter, which

1:23

is really very singular as well as

1:25

characteristic, but my publisher meets

1:28

me with his veto, and I believe

1:30

he is right. The

1:32

worthy old lady's letter is perhaps

1:34

too long, and I

1:36

must rest content with a few hungry notes

1:38

of its tenor. That

1:41

year, and somewhere about the 24th

1:43

of October, there broke out a

1:45

strange dispute between Mr Alderman Harper

1:48

of High Street, Dublin, and my

1:50

Lord Castle Mallard, who, in virtue

1:52

of his cozanship to the young

1:54

heir's mother, was undertaken for

1:56

him the management of the tiny estate

1:59

on which the tiny estate was built.

2:01

tiled, or tiled with a why-house, for

2:03

I find it spelled both ways, stood.

2:06

This alderman Harper had agreed for a lease

2:08

of the house for his daughter, who was

2:11

married to a gentleman named Prosser. He

2:13

furnished it, and put up hangings, and

2:15

otherwise went to considerable expense. Mr

2:18

and Mrs Prosser came there some time in

2:20

June. And after

2:22

having parted with a good many servants

2:24

in the interval, she made up

2:27

her mind that she could not live

2:29

in the house, and her father waited

2:31

on Lord Castle Mallard, and told him

2:33

plainly that he would not take out

2:35

the lease, because the house was subjected

2:37

to annoyances which he could not explain.

2:40

In plain terms, he said it was haunted,

2:42

and that no servants would live there more

2:44

than a few weeks, and that

2:47

after what his son-in-law's family had suffered

2:49

there, not only should he be excused

2:51

from taking a lease of it, but

2:53

that the house itself ought to be

2:55

pulled down as a nuisance and the

2:58

habitual haunt of something worse than human

3:00

malefactors. Lord

3:02

Castle Mallard filed a bill in the

3:04

equity side of the Exchequer to compel

3:06

Mr Alderman Harper to perform his contract

3:08

by taking out the lease, but

3:11

the alderman drew an answer, supported

3:13

by no less than seven long

3:15

affidavits, copies of all

3:17

of which were furnished to his lordship

3:20

and with the desired effect, for

3:22

rather than compel him to place them

3:25

upon the file of the court, his

3:27

lordship struck and consented to release him.

3:30

I am sorry the case did not

3:32

proceed at least far enough to place

3:35

upon the files of the court the

3:37

very authentic and unaccountable story which Miss

3:39

Rebecca relates. The

3:41

annoyances described did not begin till

3:43

the end of August, when

3:46

one evening Mrs Prosser, quite alone,

3:48

was sitting in the twilight at

3:50

the back parlour window, which was

3:52

open, looking out into the orchard,

3:54

and plainly saw a hand

3:57

stealthily placed upon the stone

3:59

window-sip. outside, as if

4:02

by someone beneath the window at

4:04

her right side intending to climb

4:06

up. There was

4:08

nothing but the hand, which

4:10

was rather short but handsomely formed,

4:12

and white and plump laid on

4:14

the edge of the window-sill, and

4:17

it was not a very young

4:19

hand, but one aged somewhere about

4:21

forty as she conjectured. It

4:24

was only a few weeks before that

4:26

the horrible robbery at Clendulkin had taken

4:28

place, and the lady fancied that

4:30

the hand was that of one of the

4:32

miscreants, who was now about to scale the

4:34

windows of the tiled house. She

4:37

uttered a loud scream and an

4:39

ejaculation of terror, and at the

4:41

same moment the hand was quietly

4:43

withdrawn. Search was

4:45

made in the orchard, but there were

4:47

no indications of any persons having been

4:49

under the window, beneath which, ranged along

4:52

the wall, stood a great column of

4:54

flower-pots, which it seemed must

4:56

have prevented any one's coming within

4:58

reach of it. The same night

5:00

there came a hasty tapping every

5:02

now and again, at the

5:05

window of the kitchen. The

5:07

women grew frightened, and the servant-man,

5:09

taking fire-arms with him, opened the

5:11

back door, but discovered

5:13

nothing. As he shut

5:15

it, however, he said, A

5:17

thump came on it, and a

5:20

pressure, as of somebody striving to force

5:22

his way in, which frightened him. And

5:25

though the tapping went on upon the

5:27

kitchen window-panes, he made

5:30

no further explorations. About

5:32

six o'clock on the Saturday evening

5:35

following, the cook, an honest sober

5:37

woman, now aged nine sixty years,

5:39

being alone in the kitchen, saw,

5:42

on looking up, it is supposed,

5:44

the same fat but aristocratic-looking hand,

5:47

laid with its palm against the

5:49

glass, as if feeling

5:51

carefully for some inequality in its

5:53

surface. She cried out and

5:55

said something like a prayer on seeing it,

5:58

but it was not withdrawn for several seconds.

6:00

seconds after. After

6:03

this, for a great many nights, there

6:05

came at first a low and afterwards

6:08

an angry rapping as it seemed, with

6:10

a set of clenched knuckles at the

6:12

back door, and the servant-man

6:14

would not open it, but called

6:16

to know who was there, and there came

6:19

no answer, only a sound

6:21

as if the palm of the hand

6:23

was placed against it, and

6:25

drawn slowly from side to side,

6:28

with a sort of soft, groping

6:31

motion. All

6:33

this time sitting in the back

6:35

parlour, which for the time they

6:38

used as a drawing room, Mr.

6:40

and Mrs. Prosser were disturbed by

6:42

wrappings at the window, sometimes very

6:44

low and furtive, like a clandestine

6:46

signal, and at others sudden and

6:48

so loud as to threaten the

6:50

breaking of the pain. This

6:53

was all at the back of the house, which

6:55

looked upon the orchard as you know, but on

6:58

a Tuesday night, at about

7:00

half-past nine, there came precisely the

7:03

same wrappings at the hall-door, and

7:05

went on to the great

7:07

annoyance of the master and terror

7:09

of his wife, at intervals for

7:12

nearly two hours. After

7:14

this, for several days and

7:17

nights, they had no annoyance whatsoever,

7:19

and began to think that the

7:21

nuisance had expended itself. But

7:23

on the night of the thirteenth September,

7:26

Jane Easterbrook, an English maid, having gone

7:28

into the pantry for the small silver

7:30

bowl in which her mistress's posset was

7:32

served, happening to look up

7:35

at the little window of only four panes,

7:37

observed, through an auger hole which was

7:40

drilled through the window-frame, for the admission

7:42

of a bolt to secure the shutter,

7:44

a white, pudgy

7:46

finger. First

7:49

the tip, and then

7:51

the two first joints introduced,

7:54

and turned about this way and that,

7:57

crooked against the inside, as if

8:00

in search of a fastening which

8:02

its owner designed to push aside.

8:05

When the maid got back into the kitchen

8:07

we are told she fell into a swooned,

8:10

and was all the next day very weak. Mr.

8:14

Prosser being, I have heard, a

8:16

hard-headed and conceited sort of fellow,

8:19

scouted the ghost, and sneered at the

8:21

fears of his family. He

8:23

was privately of the opinion that

8:25

the whole affair was a practical

8:27

joke or a fraud, and created

8:29

an opportunity of catching the rogue,

8:31

Flagrante de l'Icto. He

8:34

did not long keep this theory to

8:36

himself, but let it out by degrees

8:39

with no stint of oaths and threats,

8:41

believing that some domestic traitor held the

8:43

thread of the conspiracy. Indeed

8:46

it was time something were done,

8:48

for not only his servants, but

8:50

good Mrs. Prosser herself had grown

8:52

to look unhappy and anxious. They

8:55

kept at home from the hour of

8:57

sunset, and would not venture about the

9:00

house after nightfall, except in

9:02

couples. The knocking

9:04

had ceased for about a week, when

9:07

one night Mrs. Prosser, being

9:09

in the nursery, a husband who was

9:11

in the parlour, heard it

9:14

begin, very softly, at

9:17

the whole door. The

9:19

air was quite still which favoured

9:22

his hearing distinctly. This

9:24

was the first time there had been

9:26

any disturbance at that side of the

9:28

house, and the character of

9:31

the summons was changed. Mr.

9:33

Prosser, leaving the parlour door open,

9:36

it seems, went quietly into the

9:38

hall. The

9:40

sound was that of beating

9:43

on the outside of the stout

9:45

door, softly and irregularly, with

9:47

the flat of the hand. He

9:50

was going to open it suddenly, but changed his

9:52

mind, and went back very

9:54

quietly, and on to the head

9:56

of the kitchen stair, where there

9:58

was a strong closet. over the

10:00

pantry, in which he

10:02

kept his firearms, swords, and

10:04

canes. Here he called

10:07

his manservant, whom he believed to be honest,

10:09

and with a pair of loaded pistols in

10:11

his own coat pockets, and giving another pair

10:13

to him, he went as likely

10:16

as he could, followed by the man,

10:18

and with a stout walking cane in

10:20

his hand, forward to the door. Everything

10:24

went as Mr. Prosser wished. The

10:27

besieger of his house, so far from

10:29

taking fright at their approach, grew

10:31

more impatient, and the

10:33

sort of patting which had aroused his

10:36

attention at first assumed

10:38

the rhythm and emphasis of a series

10:40

of double knocks. Mr.

10:42

Prosser, angry, opened the door with his

10:45

right arm across, cane in hand. Looking,

10:49

he saw nothing. But

10:51

his arm was jerked up oddly, as it might

10:53

be with the hollow of a hand, and

10:56

something passed under it, with

10:58

a kind of gentle

11:01

squeeze. The servant neither saw

11:03

nor felt anything, and did not know

11:05

why his master looked back so hastily,

11:07

cutting with his cane and shutting the

11:09

door with so sudden a slam. From

11:13

that time Mr. Prosser discontinued

11:15

his angry talk and swearing

11:17

about it, and seemed

11:20

nearly as averse from the subject as the

11:22

rest of his family. He

11:24

grew in fact very uncomfortable, feeling

11:27

an inward persuasion that when in answer

11:29

to the summons he had opened the

11:31

hall door, he

11:33

had actually given admission to

11:36

the besieger. He

11:38

said nothing to Mrs. Prosser but went up earlier

11:40

to his bedroom where he read a while in

11:43

his Bible and said his prayers. I

11:46

hope the particular relation of this

11:48

circumstance does not indicate its singularity.

11:51

He lay awake for a good while, it appears, and

11:54

as he supposed, about a

11:56

quarter past twelve he heard the soft

11:58

palm of a hand. and patting

12:01

on the outside of the

12:03

bedroom door, and then

12:05

brushed slowly along it. Up bounced

12:09

Mr. Prosser, very much frightened, and

12:11

locked the door crying, Who's there?

12:14

but receiving no answer, but

12:16

the same brushing sound of

12:18

a soft hand drawn over

12:20

the panels, which he knew only

12:22

too well. In

12:26

the morning the housemaid was terrified

12:28

by the impression of a hand in the

12:31

dust of the little parlour table, where they

12:33

had been unpacking delft and other things the

12:35

day before. The print of

12:37

the naked foot in the sea-sand did

12:39

not frighten Robinson Crusoe half so much.

12:43

They were by this time all

12:45

nervous, and some of them half

12:48

crazed about the hand. Mr.

12:51

Prosser went to examine the mark and

12:53

made light of it, but as he

12:56

swore afterwards, rather to quiet his servants

12:58

than from any comfortable feeling about it

13:00

in his own mind. However,

13:02

he had them all, one by

13:04

one, into the room, and made

13:06

each place his or her hand, palm

13:09

downward, on the same table, thus

13:12

taking a similar impression from every

13:14

person in the house, including himself

13:17

and his wife. And

13:19

his affidavit deposed that the formation

13:21

of the hand so impressed differed

13:24

altogether from those of the living

13:26

inhabitants of the house, and corresponded

13:28

with that of the hand seen

13:30

by Mrs. Prosser and by the

13:33

cook. Whoever

13:35

or whatever the owner of

13:37

that hand might be, they

13:39

all felt this subtle demonstration

13:42

to mean that it was

13:44

declared he was no

13:46

longer out of doors, but

13:48

had established himself in

13:51

the house. And

13:54

now Mrs. Prosser began to

13:56

be troubled with strange and

13:58

horrible dreams. some of which,

14:01

as set out in detail in Aunt

14:03

Rebecca's long letter, are really

14:05

very appalling nightmares. But

14:08

one night, as Mr Prosser closed

14:10

his bedchamber door, he

14:13

was struck somewhat by the

14:15

utter silence of the room, there

14:18

being no sound of breathing which

14:20

seemed unaccountable to him as he

14:22

knew his wife was in bed

14:24

and his ears were particularly sharp.

14:28

There was a candle burning on a

14:30

small table at the foot of the

14:32

bed, besides the one he held in

14:34

one hand, a heavy ledger connected with

14:36

his father-in-law's business being under his arm.

14:39

He drew the curtain at the side of

14:41

the bed and saw Mrs Prosser lying, as

14:44

for a few seconds he mortally

14:46

feared, dead, her

14:48

face being motionless, white, and covered

14:50

with a cold dew, and on

14:53

the pillow close beside her head and

14:55

just within the curtains was, as he

14:58

first thought, a toad, but

15:02

really the same fattish

15:04

hand, the wrist resting on

15:06

the pillow and the fingers

15:08

extending towards her temple. Mr

15:11

Prosser, with a horrified jerk, pitched the

15:13

ledger right at the curtains, behind which

15:15

the owner of the hand might be

15:17

supposed to stand. The

15:20

hand was instantaneously and smoothly

15:22

snatched away, the curtains made

15:24

a great wave, and Mr Prosser got round the

15:27

bed in time to see the closet door, which

15:30

was at the other side, pulled

15:32

too by the same white puffy

15:34

hand as he believed. He

15:36

drew the door open with a fling and stared

15:38

in, but the closet

15:41

was empty, except for the clothes

15:43

hanging from the pegs on the wall, and

15:45

the dressing table and looking glass facing

15:47

the windows. He shut it

15:49

sharply and locked it and felt for a minute, he

15:51

says, as if he were

15:54

like to lose his wits. Then,

15:56

ringing at the bell, he brought the servants, and

15:58

with much of his attention, he was a man

16:00

of the eye. do their recovered Mrs. Prosser from

16:03

a sort of trance, in which, he says, from

16:05

her looks, she seemed to have suffered the pains

16:07

of death. And Aunt Rebecca

16:09

adds, from what she told me

16:11

of her visions with her own lips, he might

16:13

have added, —and of

16:15

hell also. But

16:18

the occurrence which seems to have determined

16:20

the crisis was the

16:22

strange sickness of their eldest child, a

16:25

little boy aged between two and three

16:27

years. He lay

16:29

awake seemingly in paroxysms of terror,

16:32

and the doctors who were called

16:34

in set down the symptoms to

16:36

incipient water on the brain. Mrs.

16:39

Prosser used to sit up with the nurse

16:42

by the nursery fire, much troubled in mind

16:44

about the condition of her child. His

16:47

bed was placed sideways along the wall,

16:49

with its head against the door of

16:51

a press or cupboard, which, however, did

16:53

not shut quite close. There

16:56

was a little valence about a foot deep round

16:58

the top of the child's bed, and

17:01

this descended within some ten or twelve

17:03

inches of the pillow on which he

17:05

lay. They observed

17:07

that the little creature was quieter whenever they

17:09

took it up and held it in their

17:11

laps. They had just replaced

17:13

him, as he seemed to have grown quite

17:16

sleepy in tranquil. But

17:18

he was not five minutes in his

17:20

bed, when he began

17:22

to scream in one of his

17:24

frenzies of terror. At the same

17:27

moment the nurse, for the first

17:29

time, detected, and Mrs. Prosser equally

17:31

plainly saw, following the direction of

17:33

her eyes, the

17:36

real cause of the child's sufferings.

17:39

Protruding through the aperture of

17:41

the press, and shrouded

17:43

in the shade of the valence, they

17:46

plainly saw the white,

17:49

fat hand, palm

17:51

downwards, presented towards the

17:53

head of the child. The

17:56

mother uttered a scream, and snatched the child

17:58

from his little bed, and she and the

18:00

nurse ran down to the lady's sleeping-room, where

18:03

Mr. Prosser was in bed, shutting the door

18:05

as they entered, and they

18:07

had hardly done so, when

18:10

a gentle tap came to it

18:13

from the outside. There

18:17

is a great deal more, but this will suffice.

18:20

The singularity of the narrative seems to me

18:22

to be this, that it

18:24

describes the ghost of a hand, and

18:26

no more. The person to whom that

18:29

hand belonged never once appeared, nor

18:31

was it a hand separated from a body,

18:33

but only a hand,

18:36

so manifested and introduced that

18:38

its owner was always, by

18:40

some crafty accident, hidden

18:43

from view. In

18:45

the year 1819, at a college breakfast,

18:48

I met a Mr. Prosser, a

18:50

thin grave, but rather chatty old

18:52

gentleman, with very white hair drawn

18:54

back into a pigtail, and

18:56

he told us all, with a

18:58

concise particularity, a story of his

19:00

cousin James Prosser, who, when an

19:02

infant had slept for some time

19:04

in what his mother said, was

19:07

a haunted nursery. In an

19:09

old house near Chapel Isard, and

19:12

who, whenever he was ill, over-fatigued,

19:14

or in any wise feverish, suffered

19:17

all through his life as he had

19:19

done from a time he could scarcely

19:21

remember, from a vision of

19:23

a certain gentleman, fat

19:25

and pale, every curl

19:27

of whose wig, every

19:30

button and fold of whose

19:32

laced clothes, and every feature

19:34

and line of whose sensual,

19:36

benignant and unwholesome

19:38

face, was as

19:41

minutely engraven upon his memory

19:43

as the dress and liniments of

19:46

his own grandfather's portrait, which hung

19:48

before him every day at breakfast,

19:50

dinner, and supper. Mr.

19:53

Prosser mentioned this as an

19:55

instant of a curiously monotonous,

19:58

individualised and persistent nightmare. and

20:01

hinted the extreme horror and anxiety

20:03

with which his cousin of whom

20:05

he spoke in the past tense

20:08

as poor Jemmy was at

20:10

any time induced to mention it.

20:35

So that was The Ghost

20:37

of A Hand by Joseph

20:39

Sheridan Lofano and it

20:42

is actually exerted from his

20:44

novel The House by the Churchyard. And

20:47

the novel was first published in 1863 by

20:50

William Tinsley and this

20:52

story is often taken out of

20:54

that and anthologized because it's a

20:56

very good standalone tale as I'm

20:58

sure you agree. When I

21:00

was reading it I was

21:02

struck by how authentic it sounds.

21:04

Now I've got a book called

21:06

Glimpses of the Supernatural by Reverend

21:08

Frederick George Lee and

21:10

he was he collected the so-called true

21:13

ghost stories in the in

21:15

a similar period to Lofano there.

21:19

And he's not the only one. I've got other books. I

21:21

can't remember the names of the of the editors but

21:23

oh there was one by a Lord So-and-so's

21:25

ghost book. I'm gonna have to Google that.

21:28

I didn't Google it. I've actually got it on my computer.

21:32

Lord Halifax's ghost book 1936 that

21:35

one came out. So but

21:38

the Reverend Frederick George

21:40

Lee's collection is earlier. Why

21:43

I mention this is it really struck me

21:45

that Lofano was it was an

21:47

authentic with the testimony of the great and

21:49

the good of the upper class people there.

21:53

And it was really

21:55

really rang true. Now I think this is

21:57

a tribute to Lofano's ability as a writer.

30:00

and I think it makes it scarier and

30:03

that is one of the issues about this hand.

30:05

It's just so odd and

30:07

weird. Funnily enough, I did

30:10

a similar story. There's a couple of stories

30:12

about things like this, isn't there? I

30:15

don't know if you heard the

30:17

story I did by Sabine

30:20

Baring Gold or Sabine Baring Gold

30:23

about the finger, a dead finger,

30:25

where there's this finger wandering around.

30:28

And then, of course, there's the W.F. Harvey

30:31

story, The Beast With Five Fingers, which is also

30:34

about a disembodied hand, which really,

30:37

the first time I ever saw the movie,

30:39

1946, make of it, I

30:42

was really scared. And then. A

30:45

bit after that, when I was a bit older, I saw

30:47

it and I thought it

30:49

was actually really comic. But so

30:52

there are a couple of stories about

30:54

disembodied hands wandering around. There's probably a

30:57

sub genre of the

30:59

spectral hand. OK,

31:01

this is some of the notes I'd

31:03

made and I read these and I think, what were

31:05

you thinking of? The spectral

31:07

hand itself stands out as a significant

31:09

symbol. I agree with myself

31:11

so far. Its partial visibility

31:13

represents the incomplete intrusion of the

31:16

supernatural into the natural world, embodying

31:19

the terror of the unknown. Well, the first

31:21

bit is actually I think, well, that's quite

31:23

clever thought, Tony. The second one is like

31:25

embodying the terror of the unknown. Maybe the

31:27

hand, which is never fully seen, maintains an

31:29

aura of mystery and menace, which is basically

31:31

what I've been saying, highlighting

31:33

the character's fear of what lies beyond their

31:36

understanding. And of course, this is again, I

31:38

keep coming to this the way the human

31:40

brain works. We what we

31:42

don't understand, we fill in. And

31:45

it's always bad. So you're standing outside the

31:47

dark darkened room and you imagine what's in

31:50

the darkened room. And in most parts, it's

31:52

not good, what you imagine. And

31:54

you're a bit on edge, you know,

31:57

whereas it's probably just got a sofa in and some

31:59

sticks of rock. and

32:01

maybe your toothless granny. I've got a funny story to

32:03

tell you but I don't know if I'm I don't

32:06

know if I'm safe to do that these days well I'll tell

32:08

you anyway. When

32:12

I was working I there was I

32:14

had just joined this team and a

32:17

lady who I later worked

32:19

for a nurse a nurse

32:21

manager what you call her sister she

32:24

came up and she said oh I

32:26

need a male nurse to come with

32:29

me and administer a an antipsychotic injection

32:31

to somebody who didn't really want it

32:34

and they lived in this I'm

32:36

not kidding you this it

32:38

was a medieval abbey they're

32:42

not there now I'm hoping I

32:44

don't let out of the bag where it is because it's a

32:46

very special place it was a

32:48

medieval abbey and there are the ruins

32:50

of the medieval ruins in the grounds but

32:53

then there'd been a massive Victorian

32:55

mansion built there fair enough which

32:58

then had fallen into some

33:00

disrepair because I believed

33:02

that the the the absentee landlords and they

33:05

lived away and they hired this caretaker to

33:07

come in and he and his wife and

33:09

they had two children had been there for

33:11

many years and his wife died I

33:13

remember the first time I went in they'd

33:16

had the funeral for a for the

33:18

wife in one of the big rooms and

33:20

it was in dilapidated state because there was

33:22

holes in the ceiling and they should have

33:24

these tin buckets collecting water but there were

33:26

these dried floral tributes still

33:28

all around the room they hadn't cleared

33:30

them away and they're just these dead

33:32

flowers all around this massive hall and

33:35

there was a front door that you went up there

33:37

were various doors but there was one up these stairs

33:39

that was the first time I went in and this

33:41

the daughter was a fey kind

33:43

of creature and she was she'd

33:46

be about in her 40s or 50s

33:48

and she would wander

33:51

round the lanes

33:53

at night in

33:55

a silk scarf and I remember the local

33:57

GP who we had there said once she'd

33:59

jumped out on him as he was driving

34:02

past to say that he needed to come

34:04

to see to her father because her

34:07

father sadly got dementia. So another

34:09

time we were called to them. This

34:12

is a long complicated thing. We had to have the police

34:14

and we tried to get into the cellars and they blockaded

34:16

it against us. And

34:18

we got in and it was

34:20

dark and we were in this room

34:22

with no lights. It's this massive

34:25

mansion. And my

34:27

colleague said, there's somebody in that seat. It

34:30

wasn't a rocking chair. And it was the dad and

34:32

they just let him sitting in the dark. I mean,

34:34

she fed him and he had a cold bowl of

34:36

soup, but they were very eccentric. And

34:38

the man I was schizophrenic and the man I

34:40

not the dad, he had dementia. The

34:43

daughter was just very strange. I don't

34:45

think she had a notifiable mental illness,

34:47

but the son who I actually

34:50

came to really like and

34:52

get on really well with. But he was pretty

34:54

mad. And he

34:58

used to stalk around and wander

35:00

around the corridors and

35:02

the top, the top corridors were didn't have

35:04

carpets or anything. Room after room

35:06

after room was empty. And because

35:09

he didn't want us to inject him fair

35:12

enough, although

35:14

he accepted the first time, he would

35:17

run around with a hammer. So we had to go in

35:19

with the police because he barricaded the door was threatening to

35:21

stay of our heads in with hammers. We

35:23

only had one hammer to be fair. So

35:26

we tried to get in underneath and

35:28

we had to abandon it because the police command said it

35:30

was too dangerous. We were going through the cellars and

35:32

then we did get in and there

35:35

were no police with us at that time. It was

35:37

just me and a social worker. And we found the

35:39

dad in this room. We didn't find any of the

35:41

other members of the family. And

35:43

I was just so Gothic.

35:47

It was fantastic. And but as I

35:49

said, and I said to I had

35:51

some conscience issues here because the

35:54

issue was, you know, the son was really desperately mentally

35:56

ill. So we were going to treat him and the

35:58

idea. And I said to myself, social work, we had

36:00

this chat. What we're going to do is

36:02

we're going to come in here, we're going to say they

36:04

can't live like this. The state will say they can't live

36:06

like this. So what we'll do in their best interests, we

36:09

will remove the father to a care home where

36:11

he can be nursed properly for his dementia. We

36:14

will remove the son to a psychiatric unit where

36:16

he can be treated for his schizophrenia and

36:18

the daughter won't cope on her own and

36:21

the whole place will fall apart

36:23

and sure enough, that's

36:26

pretty much what happened. The father went

36:28

to a care home, they washed

36:31

him, they cleaned him, they fed him and he was dead

36:33

within three months and

36:35

the son moved

36:37

out, got his own flat

36:39

in the town. Was

36:42

he happier? He wasn't less happy

36:45

but you know the family unit that kind

36:47

of existed, you wouldn't

36:50

want to live like that I'm sure. I certainly wouldn't

36:52

want to live like that because I don't know what

36:54

they ate. There was no electricity a lot of the

36:56

time. I'm not sure about

36:58

the plumbing and the sanitation but

37:01

it was this massive gothic mansion but

37:03

oh the adventures I've had but you

37:05

know I did think we

37:08

mean to do well and

37:11

we operated within

37:13

the law but

37:16

I wonder

37:19

you know what would have

37:21

happened if we hadn't intervened? Well

37:24

it would have become iller and iller I suppose but

37:27

at one point when we had the standoff

37:30

when he was barricaded in all the police

37:32

turned up and we had ambulances I

37:34

swear and because it was very boggy because

37:37

the road wasn't maintained we had the mountain

37:39

rescuing with kind of gear to help us

37:41

get across, help the police get across and

37:44

it was all in the end that

37:47

diffused and he came out and

37:49

I remember sitting in the back of the ambulance with him and

37:52

there's this guy you were really thinking is really dangerous

37:55

and all he said to me was he got a cigarette and

37:58

I said no I don't smoke but I tell you what. I'll go

38:00

and get you some. So I went and got him some and

38:03

we had this... He'd

38:06

been to Canada and we talked about Canada. Anyway,

38:10

so that's a personal story.

38:13

Now there's many people hate those but there's many

38:15

people love them so I'm

38:17

talking to the lovers not the haters. What

38:20

have I got to say about it? Yeah, no I mean

38:22

I just think it was a really good story. I hope

38:24

you enjoyed it. I've now finished the roll dial and

38:27

I've got a box here of books

38:29

to go to bookends to trade

38:31

in. What I do is when I fill the

38:33

boxes up I take them down I see Stephen

38:35

there and he says well I'll

38:37

give you so much cash so much credit

38:39

credit's always more and I know

38:42

if I get a credit I'm just gonna buy more books so

38:44

that's what I do and then

38:46

I kind of have more books and

38:48

I have to fill more boxes and

38:50

so it goes on but

38:53

it's all right it's a living. Well

38:56

it's not a living but it's a hobby. Anyway I

38:58

hope you're all well. I'm actually pretty well. I've been...

39:02

I decided as I'm getting on in years

39:04

I need to do something about my health

39:07

so this is lad I went to see

39:09

called Ryan. I was

39:11

talking about him the other day and I've had

39:13

my first personal trainer session for

39:15

me a 63 year old bloke and

39:18

so I am going to be a

39:20

bodybuilder but I

39:24

enjoyed it. I did... my arms didn't work properly. I'm

39:26

trying to drive the car and I'm thinking my arms

39:28

are just so weak I can't turn the steering wheel

39:31

but I did manage to do it

39:33

but so it's to stave off frailty

39:35

and you might say accept your frailty.

39:39

Stop being so fancy pants about it but

39:43

no okay so we need to

39:46

maintain muscle

39:48

mass and bone density. I

39:51

tell you why this is prompt because I saw how frail

39:53

my mother became at the end and how her

39:55

mobility was almost non-existent

39:58

and how she was in pain. from

40:00

her arthritis and I thought, you know what, I don't really

40:02

want to be like that so is there something we can

40:04

do about it? So that's where I've been today. And

40:07

then the printer broke and then oh dear, but

40:09

and the sun comes and goes. But anyway, and

40:12

then Sheila's going away this weekend to this festival

40:14

so I've got to get the tent and everything

40:16

out for her. So that's what I'm

40:18

going to do right now. Everybody

40:33

dies, don't they? Let's

40:35

certainly come back. Isn't

40:37

that so?