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More than 200 hours of audio tapes provide the best “evidence” for the Enfield poltergeist there is.

Screams and bangs; interviews with those who said they had just experienced the supernatural; the voice of a 72-year-old man purportedly coming out of an 11-year-old girl called Janet.

They form the basis of a four-part docuseries exploring a phenomenon that gripped the north London suburb of Enfield – and the rest of the country – in the 1970s.

Not that director Jerry Rothwell is setting out to prove or disprove any theories with The Enfield Poltergeist. He wants to keep audiences in the space between knowing and not knowing, he told Sky News.

“It’s about how do we know what’s real and what might be beyond our perceptions, beyond our senses?”

Olivia Booth-Ford as Janet Hodgson and Ingrid Evans as Maisie Besant in “The Enfield Poltergeist,” premiering October 27, 2023 on Apple TV+.
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Janet, played by Olivia Booth-Ford, appeared to be the focus of the poltergeist. Pic: Apple TV+

Set in a reconstruction of the semi-detached council house where the Hodgson family was seemingly plagued by the paranormal for 18 months, the series weaves together audio recordings with contemporary interviews and photos from the time.

Paranormal investigator Maurice Grosse from the Society for Psychical Research was sent to investigate, spending months at the family home between 1977 and 1979. The audio he recorded there is central to the series. As well as interviewing people, he would leave the tape running for long periods.

“What you get out is a sense of the context of family life that’s going on. Sometimes you’ll hear a noise, a scream, a bang or a rap and people’s response to it,” Rothwell said.

But the origin of those noises is “incredibly ambiguous”.

“I don’t think there’s many incidents where we see the paranormal cause of something, what we see is the effects of this on people.

“If we see a kettle fall over, we catch it in the last inches of its flight rather than see how it started – which I think is consistent with people’s experience of the paranormal.”

Christopher Ettridge as Maurice Grosse in “The Enfield Poltergeist,” premiering October 27, 2023 on Apple TV+.
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Grosse (played by Ettridge) was sent to investigate the paranormal activities at the council house in Enfield. Pic: Apple TV+

Witnessing the unexplainable

Former Daily Mirror photographer Graham Morris was one of the first people at the Enfield home after the Hodgsons’ neighbours called the newspaper about the strange events.

“Up to 18 months I spent on and off in that house and saw so, so much happen, from the first night being hit by that Lego brick,” he told Sky News.

He said as soon as 11-year-old Janet entered the house, loose objects such as marbles and Lego pieces started to “whiz around the room” – with one of them hitting him above the eye and leaving a lump that lasted days.

From his vantage point through the camera lens, he could see nobody had thrown it, he said.

It was “unexplainable” he said – but he knew it was “true”.

“So, so much happened. It would have been impossible for the girls or any member of the family to have done it. It’s just too much. It was constant, it was relentless.”

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One of Mr Morris’s photos was used by the paranormal investigators as evidence of the supernatural; they said it showed Janet levitating.

The image of Janet “flying across the room” was taken in the dark, with Mr Morris operating the camera remotely from downstairs, primed to press the button at any noise.

“They [the paranormal investigators] are the experts. If they want to say she’s levitating, fine.

“I was there as a photographer. I’m not there to say what’s happening – I’ve got my own theories – but as a pure layman, I just left it to the experts.”

So as one of the few witnesses still alive, what is Mr Morris’ theory?

“I don’t believe in ghosts, I don’t believe that’s what it was.

“I believe that there was something that as yet we don’t know about, some sort of force that was centered on Janet.”

Janet was trying to relate to her family, who “for various reasons, weren’t that communicative”, he said.

“She must have found it so, so frustrating that for some reason this energy is being let off and things are happening – kinetic energy, so things are moving.”

Christopher Ettridge as Maurice Grosse, Paula Benson as Peggy Hodgson, Charlotte Miller as Margaret Hodgson and Olivia Booth-Ford as Janet Hodgson in “The Enfield Poltergeist,” premiering October 27, 2023 on Apple TV+.
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Janet and Margaret’s bedroom was the centre of much of the paranormal activity. Pic: Apple TV+

Interviewing the Hodgson sisters

In the new Apple TV documentary, merging recreation with reality went as far as the set, which featured items from the Hodgson family home including pots and pans, a stack of Jackie magazines – and even some Lego.

They were provided by the Hodgson sisters, Janet and Margaret, who were 11 and 13 when the strange happenings started.

Both are interviewed in the series. Rothwell said he wanted to put them back at the heart of the story.

“For me, it is primarily their story and it was absolutely crucial to involve them in that because I think otherwise… you are making them public property without much control.

“These events at the time were very traumatic and have in many ways shaped the direction of their lives.

“Firstly, because of the events themselves, but also because of people’s fascination with those events and the ways in which that fascination, you know, fixes who they are.”

Christopher Ettridge as Maurice Grosse in “The Enfield Poltergeist,” premiering October 27, 2023 on Apple TV+.
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Christopher Ettridge as paranormal investigator Maurice Grosse. Pic: Apple TV+

Marrying past and present

Actors in the series also lip sync the recordings from the audio tapes – a skill that was easier for the younger TikTok generation to master than the older cast members, Rothwell said.

“You’re taking away one of the tools that an actor has in their armoury, which is how they deliver a line.”

A lot of the actors said the key was “finding the way the person breathed – and as soon as you got that, you could lip sync”.

The tapes also became something of a director in their own right, Rothwell said.

“The more we listened to the tapes, the more you’d realise about what it was telling you about things that were going on in the room.

“We’d be shooting a scene and we suddenly realised there’s no way that person can be in that position, they have to be over there.”

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The Enfield poltergeist has sometimes taken on something of a life of its own. It was front-page news in the 1970s – not always portrayed in ways the Hodgson family agreed with – and has spawned multiple documentaries as well as inspiring The Conjuring 2.

What is sometimes forgotten in retellings – and what Rothwell wanted to get back to – is that this is a real family, and their story.

“It was important to honour people’s experience,” he said. “You know, people are absolutely saying they have had these experiences, they’ve seen this, they’ve heard this – and I wasn’t there, so who am I to argue with it?

“This is essentially a working-class family with few resources who are beset by middle-class ghost hunters or physicists or academics, and whose house sort of came out of their control.”

The Enfield Poltergeist is available on Apple TV+ from 27 October.

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Joy star James Norton on the ‘postcode lottery’ of IVF – and playing the scientist who was part of creating the first ‘test-tube baby’

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Joy star James Norton on the 'postcode lottery' of IVF - and playing the scientist who was part of creating the first 'test-tube baby'

Actor James Norton, who stars in a new film telling the story of the world’s first “test-tube baby”, has criticised how “prohibitively expensive” IVF can be in the UK.

In Joy, the star portrays the real-life scientist Bob Edwards, who – along with obstetrician Patrick Steptoe and embryologist Jean Purdy – spent a decade tirelessly working on medical ways to help infertility.

The film charts the 10 years leading up to the birth of Louise Joy Brown, who was dubbed the world’s first test-tube baby, in 1978.

James Norton stars in Joy. Pic: Kerry Brown/ Netflix
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In the UK, statistics show the proportion of IVF cycles paid for by the NHS has dropped from 40% to 27% in the last decade

Norton, who is best known for playing Tommy Lee Royce in the BAFTA-winning series Happy Valley, told Sky News he has friends who were IVF babies and other friends who have had their own children thanks to the fertility treatment.

“But I didn’t know about these three scientists and their sacrifice, tenacity and skill,” he said. The star hopes the film will be “a catalyst for conversation” about the treatment and its availability.

“We know for a fact that Jean, Bob and Patrick would not have liked the fact that IVF is now so means based,” he said. “It’s prohibitively expensive for some… and there is a postcode lottery which means that some people are precluded from that opportunity.”

Bill Nighy, Thomasin McKenzie and James Norton star in Joy. Pic: Netflix/ Kerry Brown
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Bill Nighy, Thomasin McKenzie and James Norton star in Joy. All pics: Netflix/ Kerry Brown

Now, IVF is considered a wonder of modern medicine. More than 12 million people owe their existence today to the treatment Edwards, Steptoe and Purdy worked so hard to devise.

But Joy shows how public backlash in the years leading up to Louise’s birth saw the team vilified – accused of playing God and creating “Frankenstein babies”.

Bill Nighy and Thomasin McKenzie star alongside Norton, with the script written by acclaimed screenwriter Jack Thorne and his wife Rachel Mason.

The couple went through seven rounds of IVF themselves to conceive their son.

James Norton and Thomasin McKenzie star in Joy. Pic: Kerry Brown/ Netflix
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Norton portrays scientist Bob Edwards, while McKenzie plays embryologist Jean Purdy

While the film is set in the 1970s, the reality is that societal pressures haven’t changed all that much for many going through IVF today – with the costs now both emotional and financial.

“IVF is still seen as a luxury product, as something that some people get access to and others don’t,” said Thorne, speaking about their experiences in the UK.

“Louise was a working-class girl with working-class parents. Working class IVF babies are very, very rare now.”

In the run-up to the US election, Donald Trump saw IVF as a campaigning point – promising his government, or insurance companies, would pay for the treatment for all women should he be elected. He called himself the “father of IVF” at a campaign event – a remark described as “quite bizarre” by Kamala Harris.

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Bill Nighy ‘proud’ of new film on IVF breakthrough

“I don’t think Trump is a blueprint for this,” Norton said. “I don’t know how that fits alongside his questions around pro-choice.”

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In the UK, statistics from fertility regulator HEFA show the proportion of IVF cycles paid for by the NHS has dropped from 40% to 27% in the last decade.

“It’s so expensive,” Norton said. “Those who want a child should have that choice… and some people’s lack of access to this incredibly important science actually means that people don’t have the choice.”

Joy is in UK cinemas from 15 November, and on Netflix from 22 November

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Cillian Murphy and wife Yvonne McGuinness buy cinema Oscar winner visited as a child

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Cillian Murphy and wife Yvonne McGuinness buy cinema Oscar winner visited as a child

Cillian Murphy and his wife Yvonne McGuinness have bought a cinema the Oscar-winning actor used to visit as a child.

The couple will refurbish The Phoenix Cinema in Dingle, County Kerry, south-west Ireland, next year.

The venue, which had previously been used as a dance hall, had been in operation for more than 100 years, and on the market for three before Murphy and McGuinness bought the building.

Oppenheimer and Peaky Blinders star Murphy, from Cork, said: “I’ve been going to see films at The Phoenix since I was a young boy on summer holidays.

“My dad saw movies there when he was a young man before me, and we’ve watched many films at The Phoenix with our own kids. We recognise what the cinema means to Dingle.”

McGuinness added: “We want to open the doors again, expand the creative potential of the site, re-establishing its place in the cultural fabric of this unique town.”

FILE - Cillian Murphy poses in the press room with the award for best performance by an actor in a leading role for "Oppenheimer" at the Oscars in Los Angeles on March 10, 2024. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP, File)
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Murphy won big this awards season. Pic: AP

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The Phoenix is the only cinema in the tourist area of the Dingle Peninsula, and without it, the closest other movie theatre for residents of the town is in Tralee, almost 30 miles away.

It opened in 1919 and was reconstructed twice in the decades that followed, after fires damaged the building.

Its previous owners struggled to keep The Phoenix going amid the COVID-19 pandemic and shut the cinema’s doors in November 2021, citing rising costs, falling attendance and challenging exhibition terms.

Murphy took awards season by storm this year, winning a Golden Globe, a Bafta and an Oscar for his performance as the titular character in Oppenheimer.

Next year, he will reprise one of his most well-known roles by playing Tommy Shelby in a movie version of Peaky Blinders.

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Ed Sheeran ‘helped Ipswich sign player’ before appearing on stage with Taylor Swift

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Ed Sheeran 'helped Ipswich sign player' before appearing on stage with Taylor Swift

Ed Sheeran helped Ipswich Town to sign a player over the summer just before getting on stage with Taylor Swift, according to the club’s chief executive.

Mark Ashton claims the pop star got on a video call to encourage a prospective new signing to seal his move to the East Anglia outfit.

He did not reveal the player’s name, but said he is “certainly scoring a few goals” and is a fan of Sheeran, who is a minor shareholder at his hometown club.

“Ed jumped on a Zoom call with him at the training ground, just before he stepped on stage with Taylor Swift,” Ashton told a Soccerex industry event in Miami.

“Hopefully that was a key part in getting the player across the line.”

Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran perform onstage during "Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour" at Wembley Stadium on August 15, 2024 in London, England. (Photo by Gareth Cattermole/TAS24/Getty Images for TAS Rights Management )
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Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran at Wembley Stadium. Pic: Gareth Cattermole/TAS24/Getty Images

Sheeran and pop icon Swift were on stage together on 15 August at Wembley Stadium, one day before Sammie Szmodics signed from Blackburn.

After scoring an overhead kick in Ipswich’s 2-1 win over Tottenham this month, he shared a picture of himself with Sheeran on Instagram.

“Overhead kick, Win & a smudge with big ed. GET IN THERE,” Szmodics wrote alongside the post.

Ashton joked Sheeran is now “officially a part of our recruitment team”, adding he is a “local man” and “global superstar”.

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Sheeran has been the club’s shirt sponsor since 2021 and is regularly seen at matches at the club’s Portman Road stadium.

Ipswich host giants Manchester United on Sunday, a match that’s particularly notable for being Ruben Amorim‘s first game in charge of the Red Devils.

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