Witches of Essex review – Raylan’s look at the real-life witch trials Treat Us Like Idiots | television

WWe’re halfway through October and Halloween-related programming is starting to become inundated. Most of them are the television equivalent of the worthless tattoos that fill supermarkets. The first plastic pumpkin/polyester cosplay costume dress to adorn timelines is Witches of Essex, a three-part documentary about the real-life witch trials presented by X Factor star and Essex boy Rylan Clark and anthropologist and professor of public engagement in science Alice Roberts. The dynamic feels awkward, as Rylan — a quick, witty guy and an effortlessly charismatic host — is forced into the role of a gruff regular guy, there to listen to Roberts and other experts and ask questions on behalf of the dumbo audience.

On the plus side, Witches of Essex isn’t one of those boring shows about the supernatural, where celebrities are sent into haunted houses to investigate whether ghosts or goblins are real. (This shit tends to be around Halloween – I’ll avoid anything H-focused from now on.) ​​It looks at matters of the historical record – Essex was the center of witch-hunts in the 16th and 17th centuries – and focuses on three of the most famous trials of the time.

The first episode deals with the trial of Hatfield Peveril, which resulted in the arrest of three women and the death of two – Agnes Waterhouse and Elizabeth Francis – by hanging, as required by the Witchcraft Act of 1563 passed by Elizabeth I as part of her need to appear as a strong leader and break away from her femininity, as well as trying to put the kibosh on plots to get rid of her through magical means Black. The second episode finds us in St Osyth, where 20 years or so after Hatfield Peveril’s death, the mixture of fear and misogynistic pleasure that drove the manhunt was escalating and 14 women were arrested, interrogated until confessions were extracted and two more were executed. In the final part, Raylan and Roberts take us back to the year 1645, when the man who became known as the Witch Finder General, Matthew Hopkins, found his calling in his hometown of Manningtree. Twenty-three local women were accused, almost certainly tortured, and tried in Chelmsford. Four died in prison and the rest were hanged.

The program hints at the deeper context and motivations behind the history of women accused of witchcraft, but despite its generous runtime, it remains frustratingly superficial. He treats the audience as he treats Raylan within the show: as if we are unable to connect the dots, to understand the mentality of previous generations, who believed in magic as well as religion and did not always distinguish between the two.

He has brought together some excellent speakers – from familiar landmarks such as Professor Ronald Hutton from the University of Bristol (you’ll know him when you see him if you’ve watched any program relating to Britain’s non-Christian or pagan heritage, or our folklore) to Professors Nandini Das from Oxford and Marion Gibson from the Universities of Exeter. But she prefers to fill the time reconstructing trials that barely bother to dramatize the facts and have the poor actors simply fling around exposition in costumes salvaged from the nearest school wardrobe.

There’s also a lot of time spent watching Raylan and Roberts nod sadly at each other as they lament the suffering of the accused women and all the injustice that has been done, and then nod wisely as Roberts reiterates how it only happens to the poor, the weak, and the misfits of society, because – get this – they are the easiest people to turn on when the going gets tough. The rise of anxiety fueled by anti-magic propaganda, crowd mentality, and social hysteria has been mentioned, but no overt comparisons with our own times have been made, although they certainly scream.

Roberts is more keen on the “state-sponsored violence” of it all – a phrase she repeats several times – which is the least interesting or meaningful element of the witch hunt. The state, after all, was made up of men, to a greater extent, and sometimes to a lesser extent. There’s a reason they never hunted witches. There is a reason why there have never been mass trials of weak, poor men who could be accused of supernatural crimes and executed without evidence, based on the word of a child or a single judge, and there never will be mass trials. This is because there is always one group of people at the bottom of the totem pole who are already viewed with hostility and suspicion, and this is where the hostility will pool and create chaos.

But maybe that was just the old bitter talk inside me! I’m going to pet my cat – yes, a black cat, what about it? – and I’m trying to improve my mood before the next part of All Hallows tat comes out. Here, kitty kitty kitty!