The Battersea Poltergeist is is BBC Radio 4 podcast hit that has been streamed millions of times. It mixed documentary with drama as it told the true story of a haunting that began in 1956 and spanned for 12 years. The Battersea Poltergeist – Live is from the team behind the podcast as they delve deeper into the investigation, present new evidence and enable the audience to send questions into the team.

I went into the show having never listened to the podcast but interested in true life ghost stories. The first act of the show was all about what had happened, the evidence and the theories. It was hosted by Danny Robins who was incredibly engaging. With him was Evelyn Hollow and Ciaran O’Keeffe who argued for and against it being a poltergeist. The theories were interested and the audience were asked if they were #teamsceptic or #teambeliever. Hollow headed up #teambeliever, shutting down many of O’Keeffe’s (#teamsceptic) theories firmly. I found much of what O’Keefe had to say about the human psyche fascinating and this is a layer that you don’t always expect to get discussed in shows such as this.

Through out the night the audience were treated to some experiments such as demonstrating just how loud the banging would have been inside the house (pretty deafening was the answer). The first half was therefore utterly engaging and I found myself really drawn in to this true life case.

Act 2 focused on presenting new evidence which was testimony from new witnesses about other reported poltergeist activity in the hyper-local area. The main focus of the poltergeist was a young girl named Shirley. In her 80’s Shirley was also in attendance and able to retell parts of her own story. There was also an opportunity to ask questions during Act 2 however I found Act 2 less engaging and the new evidence more tenuous than the evidence produced in Act 1.

Our venue for the show was Clapham Grand and in this venues favour was the close proximity to the house where it all took place as well as other reported poltergeist hauntings. There were definitely a few extra chills up my spine knowing that the location was so close.

As someone who had not listened to the podcast before my interest was certainty piqued and it has tempted me to listen to the whole podcast to get a more in-depth look at the story. For those that were already fans of the podcast I am not sure what extra it would have added to the podcast but I’m sure it would have been a good evenings entertainment nonetheless.

The Battersea Poltergeist – Live, continues its tour so to find out more and to book tickets visit their website here.

If you like this review you might also like my review of The Woman In Black, Ghost Stories and Dial M for Murder.