Dream Dinner Guests and Conclusion

So good, so good, so good. New markdowns up to seventy percent off are at Nordstrom Rack stores now. Stock up and save big on shoes, tops, dresses, accessories, and more must haveves for summer. Join the Nordy Club to unlock exclusive discounts, shop new arrivals first, and more Plus, buy online and pick up at your favorite rack store for free. Great brands, great prices. That's why you rack. Hello everybody and welcome to episode three of Season two of In Conversation W. I'm T D. Campbell, author of the Bowry Society series of Cime fiction books. I'm absolutely frilled today to be join a very special guest, somebody who I've admired quite a long time. so I'd like just to introduce yourself. Hi there. I'm Richard Wilden the narrator of Bedtime Stories Y that's the Youube channel isn't it Led Time Stories? And? Yes ye and podcast yeah. Yeah Don't let the title mislead you. It's not all cozy and lovely childildren stories. It's all creepy sort of cases and mysteries isn't tr to crime and that sort of thing Yeah absolutely ye. so supposed That' I was going to say it's supposed to be the name's supposed to be ironic. I've had quite a few comments actually from people saying you know I let my children watch this and I didn't realize it was creepy stuff and I also like to think that it's It's hard as an adult to sort of listen to Like with your headphones in, why are you lying in bed anywways? So it was like that quort to immerge yourself in your voice and the narration and the images the artwork's absolutely amazing in the videos So I like to in that angle. so it's for adult bedtime so in that sense. That's absolutely the idea, yeah. Yeah ye As I say to people who do watch the channel, they'll obviously recognize your voice Your voice definitely adds that sort of ced ultimate cynical edge to the videos. Asriginually my friend introduced me to Bed Te Stories channel and but it was the Fanel Iisles particularly that really sort of caught my attention, that led to me sort of reading up on the case and then actually writing a short story based upon that But for you of all the cases that you've covered. Is anyone in particular that'sort stayed with you Afterwards, Well first of all, thanks for the kind words about my voice will say I will say straight off the bat that I absolutely hate my own voice like everybody does. Yeah. Yeah, my friends always wind me up about the fact that I always use my telephone voice in the stories. Obviously my conversational voice is very different and I've got a bit of a Birmingham twang as well. so I try to get rid of that in the stories themselves. But in terms of cases that have stuck with me, funnily enough, the Fananals' Lighthouse Mystery is one of those cases because There's a very good reason why it was the first case we ever covered. and it's because of that whole mystery of these three men isolated on an island that was twenty miles from the nearest landmass, which is the outer Hebrides. and they just vanished No Well people just they're still questioning it today. I mean, people say a freak wave or they say people landed on the island and kidnapped them. But I guess we'll just never know and that's always kind of stuck It's not horrifying, but it's a very eerie and creepy tale. And aside from that, obviously the skinwalker Ranch stories, a lot of people tend to feel a bit mixed on that. They say it's all a load of rubbish but I just think there's too much testimony out there for that to be all made up, especially like you know, there's previous owners who had experiences there, you had the NIDs team who went out Yeah and they were they were skeptics themselves and they they went to disaprove things if anything and they ended up coming away absolutely puzzled by what was going on there. And then finally, obviously the Datlov passass Yeah. case as well, just because it's so Well bizarre really. I think that bedtime stor does very well though, is that you sort of you examine all the cases from all angles and you you explain different possibilities and different arguments fallen against and I think that's quite a balanced way that you approach those cases. so you can almost then make up your own mind by the end of the video. you're not trying to push on a particular narrative. if you're just saying, this are the facts, this is what we know and then this is the theories around it. Absolutely. Yeahah we tried to do that with everything. There's been a couple of cases where we haven't really We just kind of say, well, whatever happened, we'll leave that to you to decide. Yeah. We've been a bit lazy, but I mean, that's few and far between, yeah Yeah. So one of the videos that I watched you described or weird events which have happened to your person. you did a series events, didn't you? different members of the team sort of described different things that happened to them other strange or p normal or just things that you didnt couldnt quite explain. And I know that dickularider, you describe yourself as a skeptic who keeps you our mind open to up possibilities U so My question is, would you ever consider sort of dissecting or viral videos of alleged ghost site of the paranormal to sort of debunk them? And what is your personal opinion generally of like paranormal investigation and those sort of videos in general Well, I'll start with my opinion on paranormal and supernatural things to start with. I'm generally a skeptic, but I've had a lot of strange experiences myself. So there stuff that I couldn't explain and when those occurrences did happen and I approached it like a I'd say a scientist I didn't get like you know a bunch of burners out hereah. No I didn't get like technical equipment out, but I did quite a few investigations to see whether, you know, like we had doors slamming in the one house. and you know, there was no backdrafts anywhere I put it down to maybe we had a mouse that was reallyning knocking things off shelves. but when you've got a money box full of coins which weighs, you know a couple of kilogram. Yeah being being knocked off a shelf, you know that's not the wind and you know that's sort of mouse. what was doing that. So there was definitely things in those situations that I thought, well You know, what's going on here? something something there's obviously something more than just sort of natural explanations. And then I mean, I've even had things happen here that I just can't explain. likeike I've had knocking at night at three o'clock in the morning. They do say it's a oc of the morning quite supposed to have significance isn't it? Ifuff happens with a people in the morning, it's meant to be like the I don't know, the time when it's the fininnest between the two realms whver it is so Yeah. So it's supposed to be the witching hour they say. Yeah. I don't know. I can tell you some stories that have happened here. I mean. Yeah. Q quite interesting. I've got time. Yeah, okay. so I'm now to figurered I'm now watch that door behind you figure if that door shut, I D'g'll be like, that's it? No. Oh do My dog's down there so he's probably You know, you'd be responsible for anything like that, but u Yeah, it wass not long after we moved into this house in twenty nineteen My girlfriend at the time, she took the two children out to watch the newew Avengers movie at Christmas So I was left in the house on my own. and we had three other children at the time, but they were too young obviously. The one was I think two years old or just going up to three and then we had two twin boys as well who were about I think about eight months old at the time. Yeah. And I'm sitting down here in this office working away And all of a sudden out of nowhere, I just hear this Sound which is the you know, like the bathroom light switch. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah yeah. yeah. ye static d light sound. like a pool chord, is it Exactly, yeah. it's very distinctive like pool chord sound. Yeah. And I think, oh, Hudson must have gone to the back and just as I'm thinking that, And I just say, well, he's two years old. There's no way he can reach that pool cord. It's about four foot off the ground. Yeah, yeah. So I don't Well one of the older kids must have stayed behind. so I go walking upstairs. Yeah. I walk past the bathroom. bathroom doorors open, it's dark in there The light switch is doing that swinging around. So I go into Hudson's room.. he's fast asleep. you know He's absolutely flat out. He's even snoring And I go into the twins room. I don't know why obviously they're eight months. they're in cuts so they're gonna get out and they're not they can't to you know, pull light switch cord. Sounding each other my shoulders to beach to the courarer. Yeah. And then I go into the the older kids' bedrooms and they are not there, obviously because they've gone to the cinema. Yeah. So I'minking that's really strange. I've come back walking down the landing and I'm coming past the master bedroom, which is my girlfriend's bedroom. Yeah And I hear the light switch in the ens suite in that room go And I rush into that room open the door to the ensite, the en suite lights off and the light switch is doing that And I was just like, what the hell is going on? So I came down here and I just got the dog and put the dog in the office and shut the door and I went, Nope, I'm not dealing with that. And ye you walking the saage out. Yeah been there's been quite a lot of other experiences as well. And I've noticed more as I've done this sort of work where you know talking about these creepy and paranormal events, that quite a bit more stuff happens around me. And speaking to other YouTubers who also do this, they say they've experienced the same sort of thing. Beyond Creepy, there's another channel that I really like.. the guy Mr. Black, as he calls himself, he's mentioned multiple times that since he's been doing these stories, mostly about alien abduction and stuff like that, but he's had a lot of weird experiences going on around him Be that's one theory, isn' it? One theory is that a lot of paranormal happens actually could potentially be related to aliens and them interfering with like the magnetic field and stuff here. Interdimensional anomalies. Yeahes. so basically there's a theory out there that all paranormals comes from the same place. even ghosts. You know, it all comes up poltergeist espeally Pol Gist activity is very much tied to alien abuction cases as well, which is a strange one. But I mean even sitting here, I've had a wisp, a white wisp in the hallway out there Yeah you know, just kind of and I'm not the only person who's seen it. I thought I was going mad, but yeah other people have been to this house have seen it as well. So and this house is quite new. was built twenty odd years ago. So maybe it' new maybe it's all gets you roobb in the house Yeah. Well actually I thought it was my ex girlfriend because she did have something following her and that was that was the cause of all the other stuff in old house which was the slamming doors and yeah you know some weird electr magnetic anomalies that went on there. It was crazy. But anyway, yeah. you see some of theseort alleged paranormal videos on YouTube, do you watch those or do you look at them think that's blantly staged or do you think I mean a lot of it will be staged and a lot of it'sort A lot of especially slaming doors, when you don't see the whole door you thinking,'s blat need something going on there But do you find yourself watching those or do you tend to steer clear of those s I I I watch quite a lot of paranormal channels. I like the ghost hunting channels.. you don't mind if I give a couple of shout outs. watch' h anything Yeahah yeah. And complete transparency, I do not have any association with these channels whatsoever. They're just my favorite channs that I like to watch. Ghost nighting channel I really like called ghost Theory. Yes. And it it's two guys and they don't take it too seriously. I mean, they take it, you know, they take it seriously but they have a laugh while they're doing it. Yes. and Yeah, but what I like about those is that when they're doing these hunts, they always go to the most rational explanation first. So if they hear a bang, they're walking around an abandoned house and they hear a bang or a crereeak or something they say, well that could be a rat. then approach it. ye yeah And a lot of these other channels things like Colby and Sam, they hear something like that and they go, that was paranormal straight away. And there's no consideration of other possibilities But other than that or they shout I go make a noise and don't makes a noise and then they all scream and they the running out like, when you asked Somet where to make a noise and then when you get your the results you want, then can't're afid to stay where you are. Absolutely ye yeah yeah, that's another thing as well. And I'd love to do ghost hunts myself. you know, I'd probably do a spin off bedtime stories or bedtime ghost hunts or something like that. I think that would be you could visit locations that you mentioned in your bedtime story videoos That' be quite cool Yeah, we've done Canic chase. me and my friends have done Cannic chase ourselves, you know, we've got up there. Nothing happened. We didn' in the lock upp in Birmingham, you can actually stay overnight and do ghost hnts there. Yeah, there's quite a few places like that. There's Shresby prison as well that's down the road for me. I's trying to say by friends to do that and I'm like, no, no, I're not saying every night. No. I'm like Well, it'll be fun no. Yeah. What I' saying is your home? Exactly, yeah. Hitchhikers as they call them but There are other channels that I follow as well. There's one called Bizar Bub, I think or Bizarre Bub. I don't know if I'm saying that right. But I don't know where this guy gets his videos, but he seems to find the most phenomenal sort of paranormal videos. and because they're so phenomenal I sit there thinking God, most of these have got to be fake. You know, peopleople have been trying to capture ghostly activity on video for years and before the advent of YouTube and social media and all that It was very few and far between. We rarely saw anything that was compelling on, you know, these TV shows like Strange But Tue and all that, you know? Yeah Oh yeah I love that. Yeah, Stange was Stange But True. But yeah, one of my favourites I was growing up as a kid. but The Fe Trbe was the most scary part of it, though, but Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Go back now it's quite tame by today. I know Yeah But yeah, watching those videos, I'm always looking for, well, that could be a string being pulled. you know, there could be somebody standing there on that door. you know, there's lots of now to not things you can quite add in stuff post production. I think the most intriguing ones when it's live But then even then it could be just a Confederate who's sort of stood in a to can of heard in like moving past windows and stuff so you might don't onlyly know And as you see if for it excel, if we don't ity know actually what you're seeing Yeah. Well For instance, you get these channels that aren't ghost hunting channels at all. say they're people who go out into the woods and they come and explores and that sort of thing, Yeahah. Well, we're not necessarily, you know, they're just survivalists. they're showing Yeah, you know, So they don't have any paranoid they've never had anything like that. And then all of a sudden a video appears where they've had a weird experience in the woods Now On the surface, that might sound like, oh well, he's got to be telling the truth because he's never done anything like this before. Yes. But my critical mind or my cynical mind is going, well, that's a very good way to up your views and support. That's what I would say good for you. You know, and one of them has been found out that you know he was camping somewhere and there was this whispering going on behind him And he got all freaked out and he packed up his camp and he left. And then when people analyzed the video later on, they found that that whispering that was behind him was actually inserted into the video and it was a stock sound. Yeah. So you've got to be very careful about believing this kind of thing When I created bedtime stories, I wasn't trying to build a business. I wasn't sitting there with spreadsheets, growth plans, or five year projections. I simply wanted to tell stories Like a lot of people who start creative projects, I was focused on the thing I enjoyed doing and gave very little thought to everything that comes afterwards The reality is that once something starts growing You quickly discover there's a whole other side to it Suddenly you're dealing with websites, merchandise, marketing, payments, customer questions, analytics, and a hundred other things that have nothing to do with the reason you started in the first place That's why platforms like Shopify have become such a valuable tool for millions of businesses around the world Shopify is the commerce platform behind millions of businesses and ten percent of all e commerce in the United States It brings everything together in one place, from building an online store and running marketing campaigns to managing payments, inventory and analytics I also like that Shopify now includes powerful AI tools that can help with everything from product descriptions to enhancing product photography And if you ever need help, their award winning twenty fourty seven support team is always available. Start your business today with the industry's best business partner, Shopify and start hearing Sign up for your one dollar per month trial at shhopify. com slash bedtime Go to shhopify. com slash bed time. Once again, That's shhopify d. com slash bedtime. I know Nuke's top five, what he'll do somet he'll include strange Mjoos but they're noticely ghost' like Unsettling account of other people Yes. So he makes point it sometimes. then the more sccaary figures actually are human being as well than then ghosts and things that go bump in the night. So I think it's quite a good point to make really because some of those are more they are more inssating because you think o that could happen to anybody, that sort of situation Yeah, definitely. Obviously the true crime stuff that we cover. I mean, I know you there's We don't do it as much as the paranormal stuff, but yeah, some of those stories are actually you know far more horrifying and unsettling than the paranormal stuff. But you know it's one of those things. So Mike Tanu creates the stunning artwork for Bedt Tom Stories and Simon Andrews writes plastics which as well as yourself for the channel So my question is really, What is the process for creating a bedtime staught' video? How do you get from idea to final video? Do you sort sit down sort storyboard or do you get the artwork first and then the script or vice versa? So how do you approach that process? Right. Okay. so first of all, I will say that I'm also a script writer, so I do quite a bit of script wrriting myself as well as Simon. and we do have a third writer as well. But yeah, generally what will happen is we've got a big list of ideas for episodes like cases we know about, some of them famous, some of them less Less so. Yeah And then whenever we get a suggestion from a subscriber, it might be in the comments or you know, it could be emailed in If we have not heard of the case We generally kind of add that to the list and then You know, we don't work it through it in any order. We just go through and say what episodes have we done recently?, We've done quite a lot of alien stuff recently. So let's go to a Ghostore or a cryptid or something like that So that's how we decide on the subject matter And then Simon or myself will go away and write the script There's a process of editing then, obviously We do a longer script for the podcast episodes generally. so I think they need to be half an hour for advertiser obligations When it comes to the YouTube video, we tend to break that down to about two thousand five hundred words, which is about twenty minutes worth of audio. Yes. So there's a lot of editing involved there. and then I'll obviously break that down into scenes. So there's probably So' about eight or nine scenes per episode Yeah. And once I've done that, I'll make an artwork brief using Google images for reference. So I'll say to Mikea, this is the sort of background we need. We need a character doing this and another character doing that So a'll brief exactly what needs to go on in the image and send that off to him and that takes him about ten days to do. Yeah. They very intricate illustrations. I mean I reallyious watch them on the Billy Bern en counter and I love how the way how sometimes you will have the fase image of the street with the street lamps and then you had like overlay that you had like him going into the ambulance It's sort of like it evolves throughout the video and there's so much detail in the images themselves. and that really adds the atmosphere to the videos Yeah, yeah. Mikey's artwork as well It used to be very basic when we first started because we needed to get videos out quick so a lot lower quality. and then obviously when we we kind of, you know u We started getting this influx of subscribers, Mikey started thinking, oh well, you know, I've better up my game a bit yeah. Yeah. wellah peopleople think he's improved. It's not an improvement. He was was able to draw like that. He just he wanted to just imp ging himself a bit more time to get to that Yeah H qu make it first. Yeah. Yeahah, exactly. ye. But as a result of that, you know, it means that we can only release an episode once every two weeks instead of once every week. But I love the fact that it's a bitgin of artwork. I love the fact that it's not just stock images or AI. AI Tony absolutely can't stand that. I mean, and a lot of people are doing it now. they're kind of just Theyre getting an AI to write the scripts, theyre getting AI toarr eight for them and theyre getting an AI to do the the images. so what work have they actually done? It's really laazy and it's killing human creativity. So I'm not against AIs at tool. so in other words, in certain ccus artists, like use an AI For say medical research and sort of diagnosis Cick of like c I completely get behind that because that's also food data into that and ites comes with patterns and that definitely works in that setting By the it, when it comes to artwork, when it comes to writing and it comes like I say to voice work It has to come from somewhere And so even if you think, o, well, I'm just putting these pumps in and it's some people think maybe now we think that it's just the software just comes it from nothing. It doesn't. It's been fed on people's creative Petine And that and without their permission, basically as well I can imagine especially like something like a YouTube channel where that's maybe a constant Be already been previously before that I have heard of YouTubers had their videos downloaded by people and then re uploaded on their own channels. So they've already been piloted that way. and in now this whole AI has a whole different level before you know, your own artwork and your own voices even could be used in another AI model and that really annoys me Yeah, that's the thing. with these channels as well, you see them just basically taking our video getting the AI to rewrite the transcript then they're relload. I mean It' it's classed as imitation rather than not imitation, sorry, inspiration rather than imitation. So when YouTube you report it to YouTube as a possible copyright infringement and they say, well, they haven't actually They've changed just en num that's different enough that it's not actually a vatant stealing. Yeah Yeah, exactly. So I mean, I've se channs with similar or even the same thumbnails used, but they they've used their own narration well, not in their own but it Mrter Nightmare had people just literally take his videos and just be up of them as they were not of his. Well we've had that we've had that as well, you know? Yeah partarticularly from other countries, but I won't mention where But when I say using AI as a tool, I mean it's to supplement, not to completely replace. So Simon might send me a whole portion of a script and I think, well, this is a bit clunky And I might critique my own work and think, well, that's a bit clunky. that could be improve for flow and I'll feed that portion of it into AI and say, can you just rewrite this for flow? Yeah. But I'm not asking AI to do the thinking or to craft the story. I'm just saying just rewrite this so it it flows better, you know? Yeah yeah yeah But that's that's used sparingly. We don't we tend to just at all rather than a cban, yeah. Yeah. so we use our own words, our you know our own thoughts on paper kind of thing. But anyway, going back to the process. So Mikey takes about a week and a half to do the images and whilst he's doing that I'll then record the narration, edit out all the mistakes because I do it all in one take and I make a hell of a lot of mistakes. and obviously we get planes flying over. Oh yeah. there was one time I remember a few months back I was doing my recording here I've got my little booth there And this plane come over I was like, And I was sitting there going, when's this guy going buger off? Yeah Eventually it went. So I started the narration again, then all of a sudden I was like, Are you lost? You know, it was really so you get that quite a lot and especially if I do it in the afternoon, you get the sound of kids coming home from school with their parents or people walking the dogs in the woods over there and the dogs cre happening. Yeah. Well, no not so much around here. I don't know why we don't get any ice cream vandans in this street for some reason. But yeah, absolutely there's always some outside sound. so I tend to do it late at night or you know, in the early hours of the morning, which makes, you know even creepier Yeah makes it a bit creepier. Yeah. So once that's done, I obviously edit all the narration down to like the final audio file. and then it's just a matter of putting in the music and all the sound effects and you know the sound design. and then Mikey delivers the artw, which then I drop into the video and yeah we have the finished product. So the whole process start to finish probably takes about two to three weeks, I think. It's not that long really Do you think about it? Not really no. No nos. do you sort of work so many big days ahead? So you always sort of like a couple of months ahead or are you literally just like get it done out, get it doneun out Yeah, we used to fly by the seat of our pants in that way. but now we because we got the podcast. a lot of the stuff is released on the podcast first, but obviously with the podcast you don't get the benefit of the artwork. I mean I think some podcasting platforms are actually allowing video now which I I don't see the point of it's supposed just watch YouTube ye. Yeah exactly. But yeah, you don't get the benefit of the artwork. But some people are just happy to listen and you know they're not really bothered about seeing the images, even though the amount of effort that Mikey puts into them, you know, I think it's worth it to be. I know for me and my friends, the artwor's one of the biggest drawers to us But there was the channel. We love that aesthetic of the channel and I think it is part and parcel of the identity of the channel so that's why I always watch the videos Mart with to the podcast Yeah It's they on a big TV screen as well Yeah, I think that's the best experience really But what surprised me when I first started this was people using it for ASMR. Is my voice that boring, you know? But No you've got a very interesting voice and very easy to listen to voice. And I know you say you've got bit of tue, but I love accents anywways. I think that makes it very interesting to listen to You don't want to be too like monoton because it would be very, very boring Yeah. I try I try to actually get rid of the the billing I' Tang when I'm When I'm narrating, I do try and enunciate the words properly and not draw them out like a typical person from Birmingham would. I mean, my dad was from Birmingham and my mom was from Warsaw, so I didn't really stand much of a challenge to accents like that. so yeah I say ass well as sort of all this paranormal stuff, Betice also covers the were mented like strrange death s or two crime. sort cases So do you find that cover not more gritty arts or more grounded topics makeakes you more cynical apparent about the world in general And have you found that they're more sort of more creepier than sort of like ghosts and paranormal to thinks same sort of the way you perceive the world through those lenses. Well, I'm pretty cynical about the world anyway. And I don't mean I don't mean people in general, like individual like people as individuals Yes When people get into groups Yeah and you get this hygmentality takes over. Yeah, and especially after twenty twenty and you know we've seen a lot of corruption in politicians and famous people. I don't want to mention a certain set of files. But I know what the aair to, but yeah. Yeah, so I'm quite cynical about the. I don't like any I tend to keep politics out in my life as much as I can. I don't like being I don't like the divisiveness that's happening in the world. like, you know, the left and right divide is bigger than it's ever been. And for me when I look at it, I think, well, we actually have more in common with each other than we don't you know, you're just you're focusing on superficial issues that really probably don't affect you from day to day, you know, andre you're dividing yourselves and actually insulting each other over this and it's not worth it. You should always question, who's telling you what they're telling you and what is their motive behind that telling you Exactly.'s like why can't you just let people have their opinions on things? You have your opinions on things Otherwise, you'd have a pleasant conversation with that person. You could have a perfectly pleasant conversation about other things. Yeah what we want is a peaceful life and to raise our children and for your children to be successful. That's what everybody wants, you know? Yeah. But anyway, yeah, I'm going off for a bit of a tangent. so yeah To cut this long story short, I already am a bit cynical about the way the world's going. But in terms of Jal murders, you make paranoid about all the world. in terms what people are capable of in terms of how easily things can just go quite dark. Yeah, I'm obviously I've always been a bit fascinated by the whole Serial killer thing, like how did people get like that and the crim criminology and the psychology behind it? Yeahah. What's the thought process? Like the whole man from the train I mean, that's just a theory. I mean, it's not been it's not been proven, but are you aware of that one? you know do you know that story? No, tellell me Okay, so basically through the early twentieth century there were a stream of murders across the US. Okay All had a similar MO and you know, the bodies were found in a similar way. they'd been killed in a similar way. but they were spread so much across the United States that nobody put them together uil recently. and they think it was one travelling man that called him the man from the train. and what he would do is like a vagrant who'd just travel on the train, get to an area, he'd probably work for a bit to earn a bit of money and then he'd kill like a family But like I said, it' that s some of that's obvious is connected, but on the first surface of it is not it doesn't seem that way. So it's simply just traveling on the train across the country and killing people Yeah, yeah, exactly. And they think it might be linked to the Hintterkaiifeck murders as well because u He was apparently a German immigrant named Paul Mueller. And yeah, but the whole mentality behind that is just how does somebody get to that point? How does somebody get to a point? I mean, I couldn't harm somebody just for the pure fact that it's somebody's son or somebody, you know someomebody's father, I'm like, you know, you know? I just don't get it. and that intrigues me in a lot of ways. but the It doesn't disturb me as much as the thought of waking up and seeing this big black eyed alien next year. I've always found that way more of an unsettling thought because obviously it's not grounded in a reality that we're familiar with. Do you know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. I would find the paranormal and kind of ali encrypted, all that kind of thing would probably disturb me a lot more than the true crime stuff would. And I think as well, being a man If you look back through history, these murderes or serial killers, they tend to be men and they generally tend to target women. Yeah. Now I'm not being sexist by saying this, but as a man, I feel I'd be able to defend myself a bit more or you know at least match up But you could argue may women is very good at getting away with it D. Well, yeah, I mean, don't get wrong. There has been a few female serial killers, but I'm just talking in general terms. Yeah yeah, yeah it's kind of yeah, it's kind of one sided And I think that's something that you know, women would be more kind of unsettled by, I think. Yeah becausecause obviously there's a very very real physical disadvantage there. And they do say that statistically women over forty are the biggest fans of true crime Hm. Yeah, that's strange as well. It's like ye. Yeah, it should be the thing that's creeping about most because obviously, you know So for me it's all about the detection and actually it's almost reassurance because you find out how they identified that person and sort of took them off the streets and so you're sort of watching it to reassure yourself that actually that it is possible that that it can be. taken away as a danger butook rather than natural crime itself. That's what I mean like Iess that's why I find I find more justed by the actual case and the detective work and the police work rather than the Tita tow the serial killer was't mind myself Yeah, absolutely. I mean, that's another the just how they find out things is Yeahaz, especially in modern times, we'll probably never see another Ted Bundy or you know, Yorkshire ripper because the techniques that they use now to find and catch people is just way and above Yeah, There's no way that a potential killer couldn't leave sort of DNA evidence of some sort and you know, they're very easily tracked down The older I get, the more I realize just how important sleep really is When you're younger, you can get away with a bad mattress a few hours of sleep and still somehow function the next day. These days, if I don't sleep well I feel it My concentration suffers, my energy drops, and I spend the entire day trying to catch up. 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Do you wait until it's sort of out of living memory or do you you stay away from the more modern crimes U we tend to If it's too fresh in there, you know, we don't want to risk hurting somebody or u You know, because the channel is watched. you know, across the world by ye, hundredundreds of thousands of people. so there is a chance a relative of. said crime might see that and comment upon what we said about the individual involved. I mean that happened that actually happened with An episode we did on the Brgend Suicides. Yeah. was last n Yeah. Yeah. so You know, we had a lot of relatives of those people emailing us to say, you made my brother sound like a scumbag. And that wasn't intentional. I mean that actually really upset us because at the end of the day, I mean, we only had what was in the press to work with Dadline. And a lot of people who are involved in that, they're closed off. they don't want to speak about it, you know they don't want to talk about it anymore. So' you can only go so far in terms of research. Yeah. But yeah, we tend to kind of focus on more historical cases. We have covered recent cases as well there was one that we did on the podcast recently about a man called Timothy Brady. and that was because his sister actually emailed us and asked us to look into it. and we did. and You know, I think we did it justice, but the yeah, mean that's the only kind of circumstances where we would do a very recent one is if the relative involved has actually asked us to do a video to raise awareness and to get people to you know possibly give information if they have information Okay So touching on back on too the paranormal ty of things. If somebody if you were to talk this bit of ghost hunting video series, if somebody was to invite you to investigate their domestic house site it' like a haunting there, would you Yeah for doing that. If somebody said don my house is haunted Could you come and another look yet? Absolutely. I'd love to do something like that yeah. That's always intriguing. I mean, even though what was going on in my own house many years ago, the house where we used to live, even though that was terrifying in some respects, it was still really interesting. There was still like a morbid fascination with what was going on You know Yeah, you like Yeah because it' just it was I mean, you said you ran you went straight into the bathroom and I'd be like, Nope, not going in, no, no. Yeah. Well yeah, this in this house, yeah, but I was on my own at the time. It was nobody got no choice about here. Yeah I mean, there was nobody here to kind of, o, that was which, you know, kind of confer with. and well, maybe it was this and maybe it was that And I just had my own thoughts running around and yeah Okay so in all of these videos we have quizzes and twofs quiz and this time you've chosen the special topic your own videos. So let's see how well you know Y bed to storage videos. These are all two and false. You get extra points if the ones are false get extra points if you can give you the correct answer So there's eight questions in all and there's a total of twelve points up for grrabs So Question one Several people were killed when a pair of hairy hands allegedly took control of their motorbike or steering wheel whilst driving on the B three two two road that runs through Darkmall is that true or false. Yes I will say I did try to do these' all got a British theme. so these are all sort of British sort of based cases For one off So this next question is from the video Return to the night shift So In the summer of twenty thirteen, the security guard who emerged from his nighttime patrol of a former prison in England to find wasteland with destroyed buildings and a purple moon and sky was called Carl Whitmore true or false False Yes, itfos, can you give me his correct name I wouldn't be able to tell say you know, but I know it wasn't Whitmore. It was Carl White House White House. Yes ion free. According to the theory, several people have lost their lives from drowning in canals due to one individual known as the Lancaster Pusher, is a true or false It's the Manchester pusher Yes. T points there Question four. The nameless horror of Berkeley Square is a series of disturbing events which allegedly happened within number fifty Berkeley Square in London, England. is tr false is two doing very well. S you know you own videos The most haunted house in England once stood in the sleepy village of Borley. Is that true or false upposedly the most horunet out in England, yes, it was in Borley foray rectory. The mysterious disappearance of three lighthouse keepers from their station on Eileen Moooor Alien W in the Fannon Islands took place in december nineteen oh one Suualfalls nineteen one ninet It was nineteen hundred, I think. Yes Dcember nineteen hundred two point seven So you can tell which one quick my interest is is again from the Fannon Isles Nighthouse Mystery. So the three lighthouse keepers who had disappeared all worked for the Southern lighthouse board is at tr or false. Norn lighthouse. Yes. I thought I've made it quite hard A last question. The Wavertree bus incident in nineteen sixty one took place in the UK city of Liverpool was that true or false. true. A two. Oh I'm going to good U o you got eleven and out twelve So but pretty much full month. Well well done I was surprised I was thinking I'd forget a lot of details there, but yeah I it was trying to go morebscore details, but yes, you'll clearly know your own videos You mentioned earlily want of that you write some of the scripts as well. So you could have a passion for sort of writing So have would you ever consider writing a novel or something bit more sort of longer length? And if so, what would you write about Well, we have written They've got the books haven't you the book??. But if you're doing some more sort of work of fiction, would you consider do some more fiction or Yes, there are actually three ideas I have for books, but it's just having the time to sit down and actually write them Yeah So I'd love to do that. I mean, I've always fancied myself as a bit of a writer. But yeah, this one I'd love to do this, I've always had this idea since I was about fourteen years old Um to do an epic kind of Fantasy of over four books Okay. set on a different world Um It's kind of the remnants of humanity after colonizing the galaxy and then see what happened, which humanity basically disappeared and they're left on this one planet orbiting this this star that's light years years away. And it's a big, you know, a big war and whatever I've always had this idea that, you know, It's it interesting that you' fantasy roob and horror U there is Sorry, my armss going off. there are a couple of ideas for horror as well, but I don't really want to go into those because no, no, no, the ide I know. Yeah, yeah, one's got a twist ending, which, you know, obviously that would spoil the story anyway, but if I ever get around to writing it, abbsolutely love to do that. Would you write that under your own name or would you have a pseudonym? I'd write it under Mysterious pseudonym. nobody knows who the author really is and it's just like from mistory around your own identity and your own mind career. I'd definitely do it under my own name. I'm actually working on a graphic novel as well at the minute. but that's not the same as you know writing pros. You don't have to It is a different set of skills yeah. It's basically just explaining to the artist what you want in the scene and what you. I would find it harder I'd find that hard to do write phographic novel with actually write for Pose Really? I Yeah Yeah. I mean, I guess Yeah, because you have to kind of take it on a director's kind of Yes angle is it not more be sureah. How do you do it like you Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's the sameame yeah Do the ye, doing the scene frames and everything. But yeah, and then obviously planning out how the page, I don't do the actual planning, but I've got to kind of consider how many panels you've got in each page and then you've got to consider each beat like an expression because that it's all done visually.'s not it's not so by the word because it's all dialogue, but yeah. Be in season one of Incnation M, I spoke to the creat an author of London Gothic graphic novels So yeah, weve talked a lot about his process and workl of the artist and everything and it is It's really interesting to sve actually how to get from there, just the text just to the final product Yeah, ye. fununnily enough, this one's about a serial killer well In a sleepy English town. but yeah. what oned does it in? Oh no, no, no, no no, notot as bad as that No it's a bit more gritty and dark, but yeah Yeah. We did talk about doing a kind of graphic novel on Like a team that investigates weird happenings Yeah and the setting was really interesting. It was actually set in after a big war between the USA and China. Okay. And it was like years after this and Yeah, it was a group of people who'd A lot of the American landscape was kind of desolate and destroyed and obviously it happened all over the world, but yeah, it was a very nice kind of setting to it and it was a very dark and eerie vibe. It never came to fruition in the end, but'd it's something I'd love to revisit and possibly make even a series out of like a fictional series using graphic novel images as a way of storytelling in a video format. Yeah. So yeah, that'd be good Well if you ever do get around to writing a prose novel, I'd be very interesting to read that Yeah, definitely. ye.''ll yeah, I've got to make some time for it. I really do. But when you got children andes or qu on this.. Eactly. Oh yeah, I know what that's like. So last question, this is the question I ask everybody who comes on the show, which is really interesting to see what they come up with. If you could pick free people living or dead famous or not famous to have coffee with Who would you pick? Why would you choose them? and what would you talk about? U Right, first of all, I think the first person I would speak to is Marcus Cicero. Okay. I don't know if you know who he was, but he was a Roman senator. And I don't know I've just always been drawn to Roman history and culture. I've always loved it since I was a kid, you know, reading the books and doing it history lessons in school on it. But he had probably the best seat when it came to witnessing the Roman Republic become the Roman Empire Yeah and he just he just He was a political genius. He was an orator, you know, good storyteller. obbviously there's a bit of an affinity there. but Yeah, I just I think it would be fascinating to pick his brains over what he saw and all the political backstabbing and maneuvering and corruption whatever else he saw, that would be fascinating to me. Secondly would probably be somebody like Tesla, Nicola Tesla, just because again, ecentric genius Yeah And obviously you've got that conspiracy theory that he was an alien disguised as I have you heard that? wasas he an alien intelligence? But Yeah, just just just some of the ideas he had was was absolutely crazy. And obviously he did a lot of work on the free energy thing and Yes you know, that'd be that'd be kind of I think that'd be fascinating to hear about. And then finally, and this is just a bit self indulgent. notot somebody well known or famous Either my past self or my future self Okay thatisted. Purely because I would give advice and wisdom to my past self that I didn't have then Yeah O I would take advice and wisdom from my future self that I don't have now. So you know, I think that would be That'd be an interesting one as well. Yeah get advice and wisdom from the other two as well. They could givet to your past or future self as well. that wouldd be interesting Hmm, abbsolute yeah I don't know how much you could talk to Cicero, I don't know how the language would work, but yeah that would beumably you can understand each other, yeah yeah. it's a hypothetical, isn't it? you know? Yeah I think I asked my brother the same question years and years ago and one of the people he chose was Adolf Hitler And I thought And he said, No, not from an aspirational point of view. he was saying, but I'd just like to know what was going on that you know, why why he was head. did he ever think he was wrong? Did he think he was doing good, you know? And I thought Yeah, right fair enough. It' a thought provoking kind of thing. Yeahah, that's V of a weird one. Thank you very much. We've come to the end already. No worries, it's been an absolute pleasure. Thank you join to remind everybody where they can listen and watch watch the videos way they listen to the podcast where they can follow by Tom stories Yeah, so obviously you can find us on YouTube, We're just type in bedtime stories. I think we werere one of the channels that come up and then the podcast, that's on all the major platforms Spotify, Amazon and Apple. And if you just search bedtime stories, you'll see the similar logo. so yeah, you should find it easy enough. Is that all bedime stories on social media as well, is it?? it's Facebook and Facebook and Twitter as well and Instagram Yeah. Thank. than very much No, thank you