Spring Heeled Jack - Your History Podcast

Your History Podcast is a new podcast to arrive at the history scene. The host, Dan Brown (a name to be blessed with), announces the aim with the podcast: to reveal those stories that so easily go lost.

The first episode, A Victorian Character, does exactly that: it tells a story (transcript). The story is of Spring Heeled Jack, a mysterious figure that roamed London in the nineteenth century. In confusing accounts Jack's victims describe how they are attacked by somebody more resembling a monster rather than a ring of the mill criminal. They were also not robbed, they were just scared out of their wits, sometimes groped, but nothing more.

The true identity of Jack, it was presumed, would be an upper class prankster, but he was never caught and he continued to roam even when some of the suspects had died. Jack has been reported well into the twentieth century and Dan concludes he might be roaming still, hence sticking to the story-telling quality of the podcast. This is entertainment mixed in with history and it is pulled off rather well. We will keep an eye on Dan Brown's progress.