Uncanny · BBC Radio 4

Series 5: Case 9: Christmas Casebook with Diane Morgan

December 23, 2025·58 min·4 clips

Actress Diane Morgan describes a shadow that moved independently towards her face in her grandmother's house two weeks after her grandfather died.

A Christmas jumper will not help. Danny Robbins opens the special like a hamper of recent unsettling cases, with the season feeling less cosy than it should. Diane Morgan arrives dry and unimpressed. She cuts straight through the festive glow, calling Christmas sadder than the rest of the year and taking a swipe at the food. It works because the tone never stays in one place for long. One minute it is comic disbelief. The next, ordinary homes seem to be doing things they really should not do. Then Max the dog turns up. A witness describes an animal that appears to know when someone is coming home, even when the timing changes. Is it instinct, warning, or something harder to file away? Danny and Diane circle animals, children, death, illness, and the uncomfortable idea that some creatures notice things adults would rather explain away. The case never quite lands on an answer. Diane's joke that the dog may have caused everything gives the room a laugh, but the dread stays put. Always listen to your dog. From there, the show asks for similar stories, especially around the Norfolk Broads, and leaves the door open. Then comes Mariam Mashiri. Danny introduces her as a BBC newsreader who has reported on wars, pandemics, and disasters, so her fear carries weight. In 2005, while living with her parents and sisters in a huge southwest London house, she heard a clear voice outside her closed bedroom door. One word, small and domestic, but completely wrong.

As heard by us

A seasonal ghost-story special that balances unease with wit.

Uncanny's Christmas special pulls together several of the strangest and most unsettling stories Danny Robbins has heard recently, with Diane Morgan along for the ride and clearly game for it.

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Why you'd press play

Christmas ghosts, a sceptical laugh, and a dog that may know too much.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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