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This is the BBC. This

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outside the UK.

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BBC Sounds.

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Music, radio, podcasts. Less

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than a mile south of Dunwich in Suffolk, on

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National Trust land that is given over to a nature

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reserve, there is a caravan park. These

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are privately owned static caravans.

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More like cabins, really. If

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you're wondering if I'm standing here having flashbacks

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to the Devil's Reef trailer park in Providence, you'd

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be on the money. But this place

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is a lot more picturesque. I'm

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here to see the manager, and again, we've

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been here before. But the manager of

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this caravan park is a man called Ian

0:43

Bartram. He used to be a cop,

0:46

a detective, with the Suffolk Police. Ian

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was the lead detective investigating the disappearance

0:51

of the Blake family in 2010. That

0:54

was his last case before he retired.

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I've come to talk to him because

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I still can't shake the idea that Philip Gibson

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had Robert Blake's notebook with him when

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he went to the Blake house. Maybe it

1:04

got picked up and thrown into an evidence

1:06

box somewhere. Have you come up

1:08

from London? I have, yes. You found

1:10

it all right? I've been to Dunwich

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before, so... Ian lives on site.

1:16

His wife died a few years back and he didn't do well

1:18

on his own, so he took this job to be around

1:20

people. This small cabin is neat

1:22

and tidy. You get the sense of an ordered,

1:25

organised mind at work. Once we'd

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settled, I asked him about the Blake family. Ah,

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yes. Not the best way to go out.

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You always want to close the last one, put a full

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stop on it all. They

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brought me back in in... 2016 to

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consult when they found the bodies.

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Right. They were in the cellar of

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the old Marston house? That's right. Burned down

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in 1935 when

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the little Marston girl killed her whole family.

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The cellar was all that remained of it and that's

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where we found five bodies, all

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stabbed to death with dressmaking scissors.

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No idea how they all got there.

2:02

So it was Mr and Mrs Blake and their

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son and Philip Gibson? I

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don't believe we ever released that name. But that's

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not a no. And the fifth

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body? Unidentified. Officially

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and unofficially?

2:15

Unofficially.

2:17

There was a DNA match to her family

2:19

in Norwich, but no one from that family was missing.

2:22

So that didn't make any sense. But

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then there are a few things about those bodies that don't make sense. Such

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as? You're

2:32

all going to make me look foolish on your radio

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show? I'm just

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stating the facts as I know

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them. I understand. The

2:43

Forensics people, this is in 2016, did

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all their usual tests, trying to date

2:50

those bodies, how long they'd been dead, level

2:52

of decay, all that sort of thing. They

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got a weird set of results the first time

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out, so we sent the tests back, had them

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run everything again, twice as

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it turned out. But the result

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never changed. I'm

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sorry, what? According to the tests,

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the Blake family and Philip Gibson and

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the mystery fifth victim had all been

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dead since 1935. But

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they weren't even born in 1935. So

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they can already have been murdered then, and that's why

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the case got shelved. You can only present that

3:26

in court, can't you? I'm looking for a notebook.

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I think Philip Gibson had it on him

3:31

at the Blake house when he disappeared. Oh, I never

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saw a notebook. It was a while back, would you remember?

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If someone had taken it as evidence

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and put it in a box? The

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only thing that got bagged up alongside

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five sets of bones was a digital voice

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recorder we found beside the body of Philip Gibson. What

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was on it? No idea. No one

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could get it to play. According to the forensics,

3:52

tests the recorder have been in that cellar

3:54

since 1935 too. A

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digital recorder, mind you, with more than any...

3:59

80 years worth of metal decay. Where

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is it now? Gone.

4:04

As I understand it, someone filtered

4:06

the evidence box. Seriously? I'd

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like to think it wouldn't have happened on my watch, but

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anyway, we never found any notebook. What's

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so special about it? It belonged to a man called

4:19

Robert Blake, Jonathan Blake's grandfather.

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The journalist. Yeah.

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He was a bit of a local character. He'd

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known Philip Gibson. We think he gave Gibson

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the notebook. Oh, Robert Blake.

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Blimey.

4:34

Died during the hurricane in 1987. That

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was quite a thing. Took down half of Rendlesham Forest.

4:38

Was his death treated as suspicious? Well,

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it was no hard attack, they reckoned.

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Found him in the lane outside the little cottage he had

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down near Orford. Outside

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mine during the hurricane. Maybe he'd

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been trying to get inside? No, he

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was facing the wrong way, and there were footprints

4:55

in the mud behind him, and it was based like he'd been running

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away from the house. Running from what?

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Well, then I don't know. I've

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seen plenty of higher attack victims in my

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time. Sometimes

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they look perfectly calm. Like

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they never knew what hit them. Sometimes

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they looked like they were in pain. I

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don't know what Robert Blake was running away from

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that night, but I've never seen a face like that.

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Oh, much pure bloody terror that was.

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I just want the truth, Sir Godfrey. For once, I

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would just like to know... Truth, Mr. Blimey? And

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what exactly is that? What is the truth

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as you perceive it? I want to know what happened

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to Edwin Lilybridge. Well, that's a bit for

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my time, isn't it? I don't even know if I was a year

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old. Didn't know what happened. Perhaps I dispatched

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your Mr. Lilybridge from my cradle. Perhaps

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I murdered him with the power of my infant mind. It

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was glad to him, wasn't it? No, no,

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Mr. Blake. I'm sure you know

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better than to throw around... I

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know Gladwin was involved. I

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know this all links into the Church

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of Starry Wisdom. The Church of what? I'm afraid you have

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me at a dissident church. The church is still going.

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I know that McCann and Daly are involved. Those

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are not names I would be bandying about if I

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were you. Reputations such as there. What

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is the Haunter of the Dark?

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Be

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very careful, Mr. Blayton.

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You've made it your business to upset some people

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in very high places. Thus

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far they have satisfied themselves with ensuring

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that the nonsense

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you write does not make it to anyone's

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efforts to. But as a friend,

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I suggest you give all this up now for

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all the true consequences of the cause you are attempting

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to navigate. Become only two at

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times. Tell

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me what happened to Lady Bridge!

6:49

So what do you make of that? I don't know. I mean, it's interesting.

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Not sure it's going to have a British establishment quaking

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in its booze. What you just

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heard was the recording that Diane Netley had

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given me. Robert Blake had left it

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in her care, believing it to somehow be

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the smoking gun that would bring down the British elite. When

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I finally made it back to the studio with the tape

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after what had been an exceedingly strange day,

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Eleanor Peck was waiting for me.

7:13

So this Diane Netley woman thinks that

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Wilberforce Ashton Heath

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can cure her husband's multiple sclerosis. I

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think so, yeah. Well, she's

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not the full ticket, is she?

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The circus has lost its ringmaster. Also, there's

7:24

no consistency. If you think Wilberforce Arsehole

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Bellend is an all-powerful wizard, I mean,

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seriously, that bloke? Do we

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really think someone who can command cosmic forces

7:33

is going to ponce about with that hair spouting

7:35

codd Latin in modelling suits from the early 80s? Anyway,

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the point is, if you do

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buy this Theotonian brown shirt as an avatar

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of Azathoth or whatever, does blackmailing

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the bloke seem like a sensible move?

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No, probably not. But

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I'm not sure that Diane is thinking about this from every angle. So

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what about this other woman? The other woman

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that Eleanor was referring to was someone else

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I had met that day. I

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left Diane Netley's house in Sibyl Headingham

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and headed back up the main road to where I parked

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the car. At the corner

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of an old Tudor house there was a red telephone

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box. As I walked past,

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the phone started ringing. There

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was no one else around.

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The whole village seemed deserted, so

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I turned my recorder on.

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Hello? Mr. Heywood.

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Who is this? You're not supposed to be

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here. Where's he? Anywhere. Are

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you being phone? No, I don't think so. Who is this?

8:30

Get in your car, drive along Rectory Road until

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you see St Peter's Church on your right and

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pull up there. No, wait, I'm not... Hello?

8:38

Curiosity obviously got the

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better of me. The

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church was only a few minutes' drive from where I

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had parked. As

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I approached, I couldn't see anyone

8:49

around. I slowed down and pulled up on the grass verge across

8:51

the road. I

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didn't know what was going on. I

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didn't know what was going on, but there was no one there. I

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was about to leave again, when...

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Drive. All right, hold on

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a second, because I'm not sure... It's

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perfectly possible to live your whole life in

9:11

Britain without seeing a handgun in the flesh. That

9:15

would not be my life, however. Because

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the woman who had just got into my car

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had opened her coat

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and showed me that she had one

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strapped to her side. See

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you recording this? Yes, I am. No, keep

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on...

9:32

She directed me along a series of narrow country

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lanes.

9:35

Even by the standards of rural England, we were

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clearly going the back way to our destination.

9:41

Once I got over the initial shock of being abducted

9:43

at gunpoint in my own car, I got

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up the courage to ask her some questions. She

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told me her name was Victoria Ness, but

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that she wouldn't be saying any more until we got to where we

9:54

were going. I'd place her somewhere

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in her late forties, early fifties. Lean.

10:00

healthy looking. She wasn't wearing

10:02

a wedding ring, but there was a pale band

10:04

of skin around her finger where one used to

10:06

be. Despite

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the clandestine nature of this encounter, I

10:11

can reveal where we ended up, because

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Victoria will be long gone from there by the time

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you're listening to this. She directed

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me to a village about 30 minutes from Sybil

10:20

Headingham. It was home to a large

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private school. The school dates

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back to the 1500s, but has been extended

10:27

and modernized quite a bit since then. She led

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me into a large Victorian building and along

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a long stone corridor lined with classrooms.

10:36

It was half turn, there was no one around. She

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led me into a classroom with a high ceiling, walls

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covered in maps and information about geography.

10:45

The floor was wooden and there were rows of desks.

10:48

A series of large windows along one side

10:51

looked out onto immaculate playing fields.

10:55

It was only once we had settled in there that she

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signaled that I could begin recording again. Okay,

11:03

I'm recording, but I don't really know what to ask you.

11:05

It's not time for an interview. I'm hoping you

11:07

record this, because you're going to need to remember what

11:09

I tell you. I don't have the patience

11:11

to wait for you to write it all

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down. So this is off

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the record. I don't care. By the time you broadcast this, I'll

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be long gone.

11:16

So do you work here at the school? I'm

11:18

a geography teacher. I joined a year ago.

11:21

A geography teacher with a game.

11:22

I find it helps the kids pay attention. That's

11:25

a joke. Right, good. My job here

11:27

is a cover. I used to work with Parker.

11:30

At the Department of Work. And when they shut it down,

11:32

a number of us had to disappear very quickly.

11:34

We're being hunted, Mr Heywood. Who by? By

11:36

the same people you're looking into, the Church of

11:39

Starry Wisdom. They came out of nowhere.

11:42

We certainly weren't on our way, doll. We took that whole

11:44

business with Obed Marsh disappearing as

11:46

a win.

11:46

Yeah, I didn't. Do you

11:48

remember anything? I don't know what I think. That's

11:51

not uncommon. It might start

11:53

to come back. Wait, are you saying it's happened before?

11:56

Everything's happened before. Look,

11:58

if you start to remember anything...

11:59

you should get some help. What does that mean? It

12:02

means if you let yourself remember too much

12:04

without the aid of a therapist and

12:06

a good amount of medication, you'll probably

12:08

wind up insane.

12:09

So where was I? I've

12:11

no idea.

12:12

As I say, at the point that people start to remember,

12:14

they tend

12:14

to stop making any sense. I'm left hand in

12:16

there. Well don't bother buying new scissors, it probably

12:18

won't last. So why have you brought me here?

12:21

Because, ridiculous though

12:23

this may seem, you and Kennedy Fisher

12:25

are part of the last line of defence. The

12:28

department

12:28

was smashed to pieces, among others,

12:30

but yes, he was the one who pulled

12:31

the

12:34

trigger. Now we are scattered to

12:36

the forewinds now, fair game for the

12:38

starry

12:38

wisdom people. And you really didn't see them

12:41

coming?

12:42

Well think of this as our version of 9-11. We

12:45

were looking in the wrong direction. We barely

12:47

knew this organisation existed, we certainly didn't know how

12:49

old it was or how powerful this had

12:51

become. So how old is it? Old.

12:56

Old.

12:57

Because this is all part of Obed Marsh's

12:59

thing, so you can probably track it back in

13:02

its various guises for several thousand

13:04

years. But this iteration,

13:06

the Church of Starry Wisdom, dates from

13:09

Melisene in 1914.

13:09

They brought something through. Yeah,

13:12

the curse of the 20th century. Put

13:15

into the body of someone who had been bred

13:17

to carry it. A person who? Well

13:19

we don't know.

13:20

As I say, we play catch up here

13:22

and we don't have the resources we used to.

13:25

From what we understand, the vessel is someone

13:28

born on January 1st 1900 and who would have died

13:32

on December 31st 1999.

13:33

I can't be that many of them. Oh

13:35

record, no.

13:36

But this pest may well not appear on any records

13:39

or may have disappeared

13:40

from them. And then what? We don't know.

13:43

It connects to something that Starry Wisdom people

13:45

refer to as the Haunter of the Dark, that

13:47

the vessel is able to communicate with. So

13:50

we're talking murky. And up in fascist notions

13:52

of white supremacy and some kind of mythical spirit

13:55

of ancient Albion. And as your friend

13:57

Dr Peck would say, it's all

13:59

bullocks.

13:59

Because it all comes back to Nala Potepp. You

14:02

don't.

14:03

But I think Starry Wisdom people knew

14:05

that. I don't think these people have been duped

14:07

into thinking they're going to achieve great power or

14:09

some kind of paradise on Earth. This

14:12

is their version of Judgment Day. I

14:14

think they're zealots who actively want to destroy

14:17

everything.

14:17

So how do we stop them? Well, we need Robert

14:19

Blake's notebook. He was all over Starry

14:21

Wisdom while the rest of us were looking the other way. We

14:24

can't find the notebook.

14:25

Philip Gibson had it when he died. It's

14:27

in the Blake House.

14:27

Oh, no, Kennedy's looked there.

14:30

She was looking in the right place, but at the wrong

14:32

time. Have you checked your voicemail?

14:33

I had seen that I had a voicemail from Kennedy

14:36

that she must have left while I was talking to Diane

14:38

Netley. I hadn't had a chance

14:40

to listen to it yet. Somehow,

14:43

Victoria Ness had.

14:44

The forensics tests determined

14:46

that Gibson and the Blake family were murdered in 1935.

14:49

No, that's not possible. Oh, it's perfectly

14:51

possible, if it's a breach. Oh, what?

14:54

Oh, it doesn't matter. Marcus Byron is

14:56

on his way to Suffolk. He and Kennedy are going back

14:58

to the Blake

14:59

House. Well, I should probably go... No,

15:01

no, no, you shouldn't. Someone

15:03

in your condition should not be anywhere near a breach.

15:06

Get the notebook, guard it with your life. I'll

15:08

be in touch.

15:10

Okay. Well, she seems just as crazy as the rest of them.

15:12

Did you speak to Kennedy?

15:13

Her phone's going to voicemail.

15:15

Oh, Christ. Here

15:18

we go again.

15:38

I'm Indira Acczinn, and I just want to quickly talk to

15:40

you about witches. In

15:43

this new series

15:44

from BBC Radio 4,

15:45

simply titled Witch, I'm

15:47

going to explore the meaning of the word today.

15:50

It is a twisting,

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turning rabbit-warring of a world full

15:55

of forgotten connections to land and to

15:57

power, most grave, human

15:59

words.

15:59

and indelible marks

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on the world.

16:03

Because the story of the witch is

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actually the story of us all. Come

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and find out why on Witch with

16:11

me in Dirac atun. Subscribe

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on BBC Sounds.