Danny Robins Learns About 'The Boy In Room 3' That Haunts Ampleforth Abbey In North Yorkshire
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Photo: © Pauline E
Following the success of its first series, Danny Robins returns with a new episodes of 'Uncanny' that is sure to continue to fuel the debate between 'team believer' and 'team skeptic'.
The first series of the BBC Sounds podcast became a huge hit and the talk of the paranormal world, thanks to tales like Ken's story of hauntings in Room 611, the story of journalist Hannah Betts haunted childhood, and the gripping report of a haunting in the Highlands at Luibeilt.
The paranormal podcast hasn't strayed from its winning formula in the new series. As always, Danny expertly guides listeners through the case of Marie, who experienced a series of supernatural events while working as a live-in cook at Ampleforth Abbey in North Yorkshire.
The British podcast brings on a new guest each episode, inviting them to share their personal, unexplained experiences that have left indelible marks on their lives, further deepening the intrigue and mystery surrounding these eerie occurrences.
Marie's story features in the first episode of the new series, entitled 'The Boy In Room 3', which is available to listen to now on BBC Sounds. In the episode, Marie, a woman in her early 40s, shares her story of grief, isolation, and unexplained phenomena with Danny.
It all started for Marie in 1998, after the tragic loss of her friends in a car accident. She leaves the Isle of Wight and eventually finds work as a live-in cook at Ampleforth Abbey, a working monastery and boarding school. She is assigned a room in a large, empty building called Junior House, which has a reputation for scaring off occupants.
Soon, Marie hears a child sobbing every night in room three, even though she's the only person living in the building. Marie feels a connection with the child and remains determined to stay in Junior House. Marie experiences other strange occurrences at Ampleforth, such as encountering a monk who vanished before her eyes, and the ghostly form of a young boy in a bathroom.
The monks and other staff at the Abbey seem unfazed by these ghostly encounters, accepting them as part of life there. But after discovering an ominous Ouija board etched on to a mirror in Junior House, Marie seeks the help of resident Father Christopher, a monk knowledgeable in the occult.
Danny's expert guests, Deborah Hyde and Barry Dodds, examine Marie's experiences with the potential haunting at the abbey. Deborah suggests that Marie's contemplation of death and grief after her friends' car accident may have predisposed her to believe in ghosts. Both experts agree that the child's cry is a unique and distressing noise, but while Barry thinks it might indicate a ghost, Deborah wonders if it could be a sleep-related hallucination.
As for the ghostly monk in the refectory, Deborah believes that Marie might have been in a state of hyper-alertness, while Barry can empathise with her fear, having had a similar experience himself. Regarding the little boy in the bathroom, Deborah suggests that sleep-related hallucinations could still be a possibility if Marie was overtired, even though the incident took place in the daytime. Barry, however, thinks that the boy could be the same one from room three, potentially trying to communicate a message to Marie.
Towards the end of the episode, Marie and Danny discuss the possibility that the boy in room three was one of the children who died at Ampleforth during World War II. Danny tells us that students of the boarding school had died in a fire on a train that was returning them to school after the Easter holidays in 1941.
The children were wartime evacuees, which leads Danny to reflect on the similarities between Marie's story and those of the evacuated children, suggesting that the house may have accepted her as one of its own.
More episodes of Radio 4's 'Uncanny' are available on BBC Sounds now and will also be broadcast on Saturday nights at 11:30pm on Radio 4 from April 8.
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