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BBC Sounds. Music, radio,

0:50

podcasts. I think we follow

0:52

the trail because what else is there? Not following

0:54

the trail? Following the discussion

0:57

in the studio, Marcus Byron and Eleanor

0:59

Peck had gone their separate ways. Kennedy

1:02

and I, looking for a change of scene, had de-camped

1:04

to the coffee place across the road to talk things

1:06

over. Isn't this just following the yellow brick road to

1:08

more crazy, dangerous bullshit? Almost certainly. I

1:11

thought the plan was to bring these people to account. Yeah,

1:13

it is, but which people? To account for what? Well,

1:16

you have the next leader of the government involved in an occult

1:18

conspiracy that's as near to fascism as... We can't prove

1:20

it. We have Robert Blake's notebook. Yeah,

1:23

but even if there was a way to prove it was genuine,

1:25

which a decent lawyer would absolutely argue it wasn't,

1:28

what does it actually prove? To someone

1:30

who hasn't seen what we've seen, that book reads like the

1:32

ramblings of a lunatic.

1:33

They murdered Theo Martin to get that book. Yes,

1:36

but we can't prove that either. Look,

1:38

Robert Blake devoted his life to exposing

1:40

these people, as did Edwin Lillibridge, and

1:43

neither of them got close. And they were respected journalists

1:45

at a time when that still meant something. We have

1:47

a podcast.

1:48

Okay, I mean, yeah, that's true. It's

1:51

out there, and however many thousand people will hear

1:53

it. Which does nothing, because I suspect a lot of our

1:55

listeners already believe some wild shit. Exactly.

1:59

And if it does have any kind of impact... We get sued for libel.

2:01

And we lose. Look, Robert

2:03

Blake wanted to bring these people down, but at

2:05

a certain point I think he gave up on that idea.

2:08

I think that's why he was looking for the church's

2:10

starry wisdom. I think he

2:12

got to the point that exposure was just never

2:14

gonna happen, and he realized he had to stop

2:16

them, regardless of whether anyone ever knew about

2:19

it. And he got killed. I'm keen

2:21

not to leave that part out. We've already succeeded

2:23

in stopping them once. Yeah, entirely by accident.

2:26

And you got sucked into God knows where for three

2:28

years. Do you have a better idea?

2:30

Sorry, sorry, Kenneth.

2:34

I have a lot of better ideas. But they

2:36

all involve drinking, or being on a beach, or

2:38

both. Fine.

2:43

We both know this conversation does not end with us walking

2:45

away. It did, and we would never show.

2:48

And literally dozens of people would be disappointed.

2:55

You really want to do this?

2:56

I don't see that we have a choice if we're

2:58

going to stop them. The next morning

3:00

we reconvened at the studio with Elena Peck

3:03

and Marcus Byron. Marcus

3:05

had brought along a friend.

3:07

Reality is going to stop them. Reality

3:10

doesn't care. Oh God, not the catchphrase. Victoria

3:13

Ness, who I had last seen posing as

3:15

a geography teacher in a private school.

3:18

I appreciate your skepticism, Dr Peck, although

3:20

I must say I am surprised by it, given

3:22

all you've experienced. Someone has to maintain

3:24

some objectivity around here. You

3:27

all think you're off to battle goblins. You need

3:29

to be reminded that you're going up against

3:31

people who are extremely powerful

3:33

here in the real world. I think you'll

3:35

find they're extremely powerful in both worlds. Well,

3:37

whichever it is, we don't have enough evidence to go public,

3:40

so we need to find out exactly what they're up to and stop them. And

3:42

step one is to decode whatever Blake is saying

3:44

in his notebook about the Church of Starry Wisdom. Is this it?

3:48

Where are you securing

3:49

this? I locked it in my desk drawer overnight.

3:52

Are you serious? No one even knows we have it yet. They

3:54

will. They probably do by now.

3:57

This needs to be properly secured. It doesn't matter.

3:59

We made copies.

4:00

and I've photographed it all and uploaded the images

4:02

to three separate secure locations. When did you

4:04

do that?

4:05

Before we went home last night. Well, at least someone has their

4:07

head screwed on.

4:09

And so we sat down with the copies of the Blake

4:11

notebook and tried to pick our way along the

4:13

trail Blake was leaving. The

4:15

problem, which we discovered after a few hours,

4:17

was that the trail didn't seem to lead anywhere.

4:21

It's incomplete, isn't it? What do you mean?

4:24

He's right. It doesn't go anywhere. Some

4:26

of the clues are okay, but they don't all join up, and

4:28

even where it's possible to fill in the gaps with educated

4:30

guesses... It doesn't lead anywhere. I mean...

4:33

As a

4:35

primary source... It's a real

4:37

mess.

4:38

You can't read Blake's handwriting most of the time. He

4:41

seems to have gone back over the text and annotated

4:44

it, referring to previous notebooks that we don't have.

4:46

If the clues weren't there, then Ashton Heath

4:48

and his cronies wouldn't be looking for it. Well,

4:50

they might.

4:51

They don't know what's in it any more than we do. A

4:53

kid died for this book. Right,

4:54

but that doesn't make the book valuable. It just makes the

4:56

people harass their assholes. There's no

4:59

obvious chronology to any

5:01

of this. The parts about Blake and Lilybridge make sense. But the rest

5:03

of it... I've got to keep trying. I

5:05

think this section is actually written

5:07

in some kind of

5:08

code. I mean... Have we spoken... Eleanor?

5:12

Yes,

5:12

yeah, yeah. Keep trying. But

5:14

this isn't GCSE code-breaking, Matthew.

5:17

We're not going to miraculously get to an answer just by... Ooh, ooh, trying harder.

5:21

Then what? Just give up.

5:23

Throw in the towel, go back to sneering at everyone

5:25

from cosy academia. Nah. These

5:28

people, they have to be stopped. They have to

5:30

answer for... fucking

5:32

people! Hey!

5:33

Fuck this! Is

5:42

he going to do something stupid?

5:44

Um, I'm going

5:47

to go back to... Eleanor.

5:50

Cosy-acting? Oh, and a... OK, wait, can you... You

5:52

want us to go after him? No,

5:55

obviously. I don't want to wind him up any more than he already

5:57

is. And that was out of character? Are you

5:59

just... He knocked all that stuff off

6:01

the table with his right hand. What does that mean? I'm

6:04

not sure. Either he's getting better or he's getting

6:06

worse. We'll keep an

6:07

eye on him. I'm sorry,

6:09

Kennedy, but...

6:15

You okay?

6:16

Yeah.

6:17

Yeah, I'm... I'm

6:20

okay. What is it? It's...

6:24

it's been really difficult.

6:28

Ma, since you came back, the

6:31

mood swings and this... this

6:34

anger all the time, no one

6:37

knows. I'm...

6:42

I'm sorry,

6:42

Kennedy. I

6:44

didn't say anything before,

6:45

but I didn't realise... You've

6:47

seen it too? I thought it was me. I

6:51

thought it was something about me and him. The

6:54

recorder goes on and it's old Matt,

6:57

but... The minute

6:59

he switches it off again... Exactly! We used

7:01

to record everything. That was our thing,

7:04

and now he goes nuts if he sees a recorder

7:06

in my hand. Everything

7:08

that's gone into the show so far, it

7:11

sounds like Matt, like old Matt,

7:14

but

7:15

it's

7:16

curated. It's a performance.

7:19

Well, that red light is still on, so I guess

7:21

the game's up now. He can't hide

7:23

in the gaps anymore. What is

7:25

it? Post-traumatic stress

7:27

or...? It's out

7:29

of my wheelhouse. I

7:31

mean, that would make sense, wouldn't it? He definitely

7:33

needs to

7:33

see someone. He won't. Not

7:36

yet.

7:39

I want to help him, but...

7:42

We need to get him to slow down. He's

7:45

on this mission to... You

7:54

said... Hide

7:57

in the gaps, you

7:57

said.

8:01

I think the gaps are the clue.

8:04

Well, that was a nice moment

8:06

while it lasted.

8:11

I didn't appreciate it at the time, but

8:14

I was out of control, and I had

8:16

been ever since I got back. The

8:18

first few days I think I was disassociated

8:21

from what had happened. I had no memory

8:23

of those missing three years, and like someone

8:25

in shock or grieving, I

8:27

was just trying to convince myself that nothing

8:29

had changed, that I could stop working

8:31

to my old life as if I'd never been away. And

8:35

then the dreams started.

8:38

I didn't tell Kennedy about them because I

8:42

think I was scared. They were

8:44

terrible dreams that would

8:46

see me waking in the middle of the night drenched

8:49

in sweat. I only remembered

8:51

fragments, snapshots of a world

8:53

that wasn't like ours in

8:55

any way, of creatures that

8:57

defied description, that

9:00

were more like... like feelings

9:02

than objects. But

9:05

unlike nightmares, I understood

9:07

that these were something else. I

9:11

had been to this place. I

9:14

had seen these things. These

9:17

were memories. I

9:20

started trying to stay awake. I

9:23

became scared of closing my eyes, and

9:25

so the lack of sleep contributed to my altered

9:27

psychological state. But

9:30

that wasn't the whole of it. I

9:33

was a different person. As

9:35

Kennedy and Eleanor witnessed, I was angry

9:38

now. Or maybe I'd always been

9:40

angry, and now I was just left able to filter

9:42

it. When Victorian

9:44

Ness told me that people who had come back from

9:47

where I'd been often lost their sanity

9:49

as their memories came back, it scared

9:51

the hell out of me. Was

9:53

this already happening? Was the clock ticking?

9:56

Was I running out of time? Some

9:59

combination... of all that was running through my

10:01

mind as I switched on my recorder

10:04

and set about making one of the worst decisions

10:07

of my life.

10:14

Mr. Ashton, hey. I'm sorry, I'm afraid

10:16

I'm... Agh! Oh,

10:21

sorry. I know what you did. I

10:23

know everything

10:24

you do. I should be a such... You

10:26

had the department shut down. You had Theo

10:28

Martin's kills, I know all of it. I'm

10:32

sure I don't know what you're talking about, Mr.

10:35

Heywood, is it? I do, however,

10:37

know the penalties for assaulting a member of His Majesty's

10:40

government. It's no rather

10:42

a great mistake, I'm afraid. Oh,

10:45

it's going to know what you did. Is that right? Everyone,

10:49

or just a dozen or so Jim

10:51

Wits and conspiracy theorists who listened

10:53

to your little radio show. I know

10:56

about the hunter of the dark. I

10:59

don't care what you think, you know. I

11:02

care what you can prove. If you

11:04

had any evidence to back up these wild

11:06

allegations, I'd be throwing

11:08

punches in the street.

11:12

What was it like in there, Mr. Heywood?

11:14

A glorious,

11:18

long, slow day.

11:26

You draw this unpleasant little encounter

11:28

too close. I have an appointment to

11:30

keep, so... Oh,

11:33

instead, would you? I

11:35

wouldn't want anyone to say I don't feel as good

11:37

as I get.

12:02

I came to on the pavement. Ashton

12:05

Heath and his goons were long gone. I've

12:09

just got back to the studio and there's

12:12

no one here. I don't know where they

12:14

are. Kennedy and Eleanor aren't answering their

12:16

phones. I don't really blame

12:18

them. It

12:21

was stupid to think we could win this one. Stupid

12:25

to think we could take on the British establishment

12:27

and achieve anything better than nothing

12:30

at all. They have the media,

12:33

the lawyers, the power. Nothing

12:35

sticks. Even

12:37

when it looks like one of them might finally,

12:40

in whatever minor way, have to

12:42

face the music, some light

12:44

entertainment presenter gets involved in a scandal

12:46

and all the attention immediately goes to them. Ernest

12:51

Bradwin was a fascist

12:54

who rose through the ranks to the top of the pyramid.

12:57

No one ever told the world who he really was and

13:00

now his grandson is following suit. Fascism,

13:06

occult beliefs, murder. These

13:09

people can do what they want, hurt

13:12

whoever they want and

13:14

we don't hold them to account. Ever.

13:19

This

13:22

is all I know. A big waste

13:24

of time to spend this whole thing. No

13:29

one's who we call a break. No, not once have

13:31

we made a dent. Caroline.

13:40

I hear you had an altercation with my brother.

13:43

I did. He came out of it rather better.

13:45

He should probably put

13:47

some ice on that. So

13:52

this is where it all happened. It's

13:54

not exactly glamorous is it? I was

13:56

rather hoping it wouldn't be.

13:58

Why did you confuse me?

13:59

I don't know, it was stupid.

14:02

It wasn't therapeutic, never. Oh,

14:05

we found Robert

14:06

Blake's notebook. It doesn't help. Help

14:08

with what? I

14:09

mean, it's useless. There's background information on your grandfather,

14:12

but we thought it might lead us somewhere. There

14:15

were clues Robert Blake left, but it doesn't. And

14:17

so, out of frustration. Yeah, I let my temper

14:20

get the better of me. Tell me you at

14:22

least got one good puncture. Yeah, I did. Well, it

14:24

wasn't bad. Good for you. Is this it?

14:28

It is, yeah.

14:29

I've got it! What?

14:33

Matthew, hey, we've been here by C-52. Wait.

14:36

The equipment on these books is under the right to order to order by

14:38

the Broadway singers of 1996. What's

14:41

going on? Take everything. Wait,

14:45

please. What?

14:47

You were being

14:49

seated. Not so

14:51

well done for thinking that idiot brother

14:53

was pulling the strings. Yes,

14:57

the women can hide in plain sight,

14:59

you see. My grandmother

15:01

taught me that. She let

15:03

Grandpa run around making all the noise while

15:06

she quietly got on with the business of corrupting

15:08

the 20th century. I'd

15:10

say she was rather effective, wouldn't you?

15:14

Your grandmother? Abigail

15:17

Gladwin. Although you knew

15:19

her as Abigail Fisher.

15:22

Insmouth? Insmouth,

15:24

indeed. What a dump,

15:27

by the way. Kennedy's account of that place

15:29

was far too kind. My grandmother left

15:31

in 1928 when the FBI raided the town. She

15:34

was 28 years old. She

15:36

was born in 1900. January the

15:38

1st. Abigail Fisher was the object

15:41

of the Melatine ritual. She came

15:42

to England and married my grandfather. An

15:45

occultist, her fascist leanings, was perfect

15:47

cover for what she needed to do.

15:48

And he didn't care that she didn't want his children.

15:50

But she had... My mother and

15:53

my aunt, yes.

15:55

Obed Marsh's children. The man

15:57

you consigned to oblivion.

15:59

We tried to bring him back,

16:01

no easy task by the way, and

16:03

we got you instead. So

16:06

really the least you could do is find that notebook

16:08

for me. And what's to stop me telling

16:10

everybody about this? Nothing. Apart

16:13

from the fact that every shred of evidence you ever

16:15

had is currently being packed up and taken away.

16:18

Are

16:19

you recording this? No

16:22

I'm...

16:22

Oh Mr Haywood.

16:24

Oh,

16:26

nice try.

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