Danny Robins is bringing his spooky hit BBC TV show and podcast Uncanny to the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre. John Byrne catches up with the British writer and broadcaster who has embraced the supernatural.
What kind of believer are you? Some people believe in some sort of God, some don’t. Others believe there’s no rhyme or reason to life and it’s all just random stuff that somehow created the universe as we know it.
Then there are those who would rather believe in things that didn’t happen, just because it provides some sort of confirmation bias comfort. Chemtrails and ‘the covid scam’ spring to mind. Global warming, anyone?
Then there are those who believe in the supernatural. The genuinely strange stuff. The unexplained. The mysterious. This is the X-Files-like world where weirdness happens and Danny Robins dwells. His interest goes way back . . .
"From childhood, really," he explains. "I was that kid that was obsessed by ghosts. And I spent too many hours in the school library reading books about ghosts and looking at old pictures of ghosts."
He didn’t grow out of it. Quite the opposite in fact, as he embraced it. And then there was what he thought was a near-death experience.
"As I got older, I became more and more fascinated with it, and a fear of death. I had this moment in my early twenties when I was certain I was dying - I was convinced I was having a heart attack. And it was really scary. The scariest thing that’s ever happened to me, I think.
"I was hallucinating about angels and it turned out to be a panic attack. Not life-threatening but something that gave me a real fear of death for a long time afterwards. A really kind of full-on, debilitating fear of death."
That fear of death probably helped as he took to the stage to build a career as a comic. After all, if you can stand up on a stage in front of complete strangers and try to be funny, nothing else that being alive can throw at you will seem scary.
Robins began his comedy career as a teenager doing stand-up in his native Newcastle, where he was friends with Ross Noble (you know, the guy with the hair who's appeared on every single British TV panel show ever broadcast), and later at Bristol University as part of the trio Club Seals.
Their spoof archaeology programme We Are History (BBC Two, 2000) was followed by an adaptation of their Edinburgh Fringe Show The Museum of Everything for BBC Radio 4, which led to other writing credits ranging from radio sitcom to CBBC comedy Young Dracula to - boom! Boom! - The Basil Brush Show.
But in the back of his mind were his spooky thoughts. You could say he was haunted by them, but turned that into a positive.
"I think ghosts are the antidote to death," he says, matter-of-factly. "The idea that death is not the end. And that paradox that ghosts can be scary but can also be hopeful and optimistic. For me, that’s a big part of why I’m interested in it. Wanting to make sense of that mystery. Wanting to see if there is something beyond.
"It’s probably what makes a lot of us interested in it. The idea that human beings who live these amazing and complicated lives, communicating with each other and building up these amazing experiences – and then it just stops.
"It feels like it doesn’t make sense. It feels madly cruel that suddenly your life would end and it’s all meaningless. I love hearing these stories that suggest that there’s something beyond.
And it’s the basis of every religion that’s ever been founded."
Robins' interest in the supernatural and all things spooky has led to him writing and researching several radio series and podcasts on the subject. He created the podcast Haunted for Panoply in 2017.
For BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds, he wrote and presented The Battersea Poltergeist (2021), followed by Uncanny later in 2021 and The Witch Farm in 2022.
His play 2:22 A Ghost Story starring Lily Allen, no less, won Best New Play at the 2022 WhatsOnStage Awards. Uncanny launched as a TV series in October 2023 on BBC Two, written and presented by Robins. He was also an executive producer on the series.
From ghostly phantoms to UFOs, Uncanny led Danny Robbins to investigate real-life stories of supernatural encounters. And it has proved so popular, it’s been renewed by the Beeb for a second season.
Robins is currently touring his apparently terrifying and thought-provoking hit BBC podcast and now BBC 2 TV series on the road with his live show Uncanny: I Know What I Saw, which comes to Bord Gáis Energy Theatre on Friday July 28.
"Are we alone?" he asks, before noting: "It’s the conversation you could have with anyone, anywhere in the world. For us, with Uncanny, what’s been lovely is that previously, paranormal shows pretty much play to one side or the other.
"Like the shows on telly where people run around with night vision cams, screaming. The flip side of it was sceptics debunking and pouring cold water on everything. We sit in the middle.
"We listen. It isn’t about judgement," he adds, explaining the bottom line in Uncanny. "We keep an open mind. We explore these fascinating, strange, sometimes frightening, sometime moving moments in people’s lives. And try and make sense of it. We try to reach a definite conclusion."
Most fascinating of all, Danny Robins would encourage both believers and non-believers into the Uncanny fold. He feels it encourages conversation and a more open-minded attitude.
"I often think of it as a ‘choose your own’ adventure," he says. "If you’re a sceptic, you can treat it like a howdunit. And if you believe it, it’s a whodunit.
"I think either way is really fascinating, and I love that we’ve built this community of people, from disparate and divergent viewpoints, to kind of come together and agree to disagree. And have respectful debate around it.
"It feels quite unusual, really, in a divisive world, to have a place where people can do that."
Uncanny: I Know What I Saw takes place at Bord Gáis Energy Theatre on July 28. Tickets are available from Ticketmaster.
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