The court has declared you innocent. You're free to go. But there's just one problem. You still have to go home.

What happens when you return to the very people who accused you of being in league with the Devil? Can you ever clear your name? And what happens to your family when suspicion becomes something you can inherit?

In this episode of Witches: Truth, Trials and Terrors, Jon Briggs is joined by historians Robin Briggs, Dr Jan Machielsen and Professor Alison Rowlands to explore the lives of those who survived the witch trials.

But did survival mean freedom? Could an accusation become a weapon in the hands of the accused? And how did the terrifying figure of the village witch eventually find her way into children's bedtime stories?

Because a court could close a case. A village was under no such obligation.

Send us Fan Mail

If you've enjoyed this episode - please follow, subscribe and comment so that we can continue creating more historical highlights.

A Showstealers Ltd Production

They've spent their careers investigating some of the darkest chapters in human history. But what actually frightens the people who study witches?

For this special Halloween edition of Witches: Truth, Trials and Terrors, Jon Briggs turns the tables on our five historians: Robin Briggs, Jan Machielsen, Julian Goodare, Alison Rowlands and Marion Gibson.

First, he invites them to throw their most hated witchcraft myths onto a Halloween bonfire. Then he ask sthem to venture into the darker corners of their research and reveal the discoveries that have genuinely disturbed them.

Some of their answers are chilling. Others are deeply unsettling. And what they tell him raises an uncomfortable question: have we really left the age of witch hunts behind us?

Finally, there's one question he's been saving for Halloween. And their answers might surprise you.

Five historians. some two and a half centuries of expertise. This Halloween, it's the experts' turn to be frightened as Jon discovers why the most frightening things about witches may have nothing to do with witchcraft at all.

Send us Fan Mail

If you've enjoyed this episode - please follow, subscribe and comment so that we can continue creating more historical highlights.

A Showstealers Ltd Production

For centuries, thousands of people across Europe were accused, tortured and executed for crimes we now know were impossible. And then, it stopped.

But why? Did science finally triumph over superstition? Did governments develop a conscience? Did judges begin to question the evidence? Or did hunting witches simply become very unfashionable?

In this episode of Witches: Truth, Trials and Terrors, Jon Briggs is joined by historians Robin Briggs and Professor Julian Goodare to unravel one of the most surprising chapters in the story of European witch persecution.

Discover why the witch hunts ended at different times in different places, who dared to challenge them, and why some of the people who helped bring them to an end still believed witches were real.

Because stopping the executions was one thing. Stopping people believing in witches was quite another.

Send us Fan Mail

If you've enjoyed this episode - please follow, subscribe and comment so that we can continue creating more historical highlights.

A Showstealers Ltd Production