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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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Diogo Jota: Liverpool players join mourners as Premier League star and his brother Andre Silva buried in Portugal

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Diogo Jota: Liverpool players join mourners as Premier League star and his brother Andre Silva buried in Portugal

Liverpool players past and present have joined the family and friends of Diogo Jota and his brother Andre Silva for their funeral in Portugal.

A service was held in the Igreja Matriz de Gondomar church in their hometown of Gondomar near Porto in northern Portugal on Saturday morning.

Mourners lined the streets and some in the crowd clapped as the brothers’ coffins were carried into the church.

The funeral – in pictures


Liverpool's captain Virgil van Dijk arrives on the day of the funeral ceremony of Liverpool's Portuguese soccer player Diogo Jota and his b
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Liverpool’s captain Virgil van Dijk. Pic: Reuters

Liverpool's Ryan Gravenberch and Cody Gakpo (right) arrive at the funeral of Diogo Jota and Andre Silva
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Liverpool’s Ryan Gravenberch and Cody Gakpo (right) arrive at the funeral of Diogo Jota and Andre Silva. Pic: PA

Jota, 28, leaves behind his wife of only 11 days, Rute Cardoso, and three young children.

His younger brother, 25, was an attacking midfielder for Penafiel in the second tier of Portuguese football.

Liverpool manager Arne Slot, captain Virgil Van Dijk and teammates including Andy Robertson, Conor Bradley, Ryan Gravenberch, Cody Gakpo, Curtis Jones, Darwin Nunez and Joe Gomez were seen at the service.

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Former teammates Jordan Henderson, James Milner and Fabinho were also there.

Van Dijk carried a red wreath with Jota’s number 20, while Robertson had a wreath featuring number 30, Silva’s number at Penafiel.

Diogo Jota funeral
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Manchester United and Portugal player Bruno Fernandes. Pic: PA


Liverpool's captain Virgil van Dijk and Liverpool's player Andrew Robertson arrive on the day of the funeral ceremony of Liverpool's Portug
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Liverpool’s captain Virgil van Dijk and Liverpool’s player Andrew Robertson. Pic: Reuters

Some of Jota’s teammates in the Portuguese national side also attended, including Bruno Fernandes, of Manchester United, Ruben Dias and Bernardo Silva, of Manchester City, Joao Felix and Renato Veiga, of Chelsea, Nelson Semedo, from Wolves, Joao Moutinho and Rui Patricio.

Ruben Neves was one of the pallbearers after flying in from Florida where he played for Al Hilal in the Club World Cup quarter-final on Friday night.

‘More than a friend’

In a post published on Instagram before the service, he told Jota he had been “more than a friend, we’re family, and we won’t stop being that way just because you’ve decided to sign a contract a little further away from us!”

Jota’s fellow Liverpool midfielder, Alexis Mac Allister, said on Instagram: “I can’t believe it. I’ll always remember your smiles, your anger, your intelligence, your camaraderie, and everything that made you a person. It hurts so much; we’ll miss you. Rest in peace, dear Diogo.”

Porto FC president Andre Villas-Boas and Portugal national team manager Roberto Martinez were also in attendance.

‘With us forever’

Speaking after the ceremony, Martinez said the period since their deaths had been “really, really sad days, as you can imagine, but today we showed we are a large, close family.

“Their spirit will be with us forever.”

The service was private, but the words spoken by the Bishop of Porto, Manuel Linda, were broadcast to those standing outside the church.

He told Jota’s children, who were not at the service, that he was praying for them specifically, as well as their mother and grandparents.

“There are no words, but there are feelings,” he said, adding: “We also suffer a lot and we are with you emotionally.”

The brothers died after a Lamborghini they were travelling in burst into flames following a suspected tyre blowout in the early hours of Thursday morning.

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No other vehicles are said to have been involved in the incident.

Liverpool have delayed the return of their players for pre-season following Jota’s death and players past and present paid tribute to him and his brother on social media.

Flowers have been left outside Anfield, where flags have been lowered to half-mast and all club shops, museums and tours have been closed until Monday.

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Rachel Reeves hints at tax rises in autumn budget after welfare bill U-turn

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Rachel Reeves hints at tax rises in autumn budget after welfare bill U-turn

Rachel Reeves has hinted that taxes are likely to be raised this autumn after a major U-turn on the government’s controversial welfare bill.

Sir Keir Starmer’s Universal Credit and Personal Independent Payment Bill passed through the House of Commons on Tuesday after multiple concessions and threats of a major rebellion.

MPs ended up voting for only one part of the plan: a cut to universal credit (UC) sickness benefits for new claimants from £97 a week to £50 from 2026/7.

Initially aimed at saving £5.5bn, it now leaves the government with an estimated £5.5bn black hole – close to breaching Ms Reeves’s fiscal rules set out last year.

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Rachel Reeves’s fiscal dilemma

In an interview with The Guardian, the chancellor did not rule out tax rises later in the year, saying there were “costs” to watering down the welfare bill.

“I’m not going to [rule out tax rises], because it would be irresponsible for a chancellor to do that,” Ms Reeves told the outlet.

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“We took the decisions last year to draw a line under unfunded commitments and economic mismanagement.

“So we’ll never have to do something like that again. But there are costs to what happened.”

Meanwhile, The Times reported that, ahead of the Commons vote on the welfare bill, Ms Reeves told cabinet ministers the decision to offer concessions would mean taxes would have to be raised.

The outlet reported that the chancellor said the tax rises would be smaller than those announced in the 2024 budget, but that she is expected to have to raise tens of billions more.

It comes after Ms Reeves said she was “totally” up to continuing as chancellor after appearing tearful at Prime Minister’s Questions.

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Why was the chancellor crying at PMQs?

Criticising Sir Keir for the U-turns on benefit reform during PMQs, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said the chancellor looked “absolutely miserable”, and questioned whether she would remain in post until the next election.

Sir Keir did not explicitly say that she would, and Ms Badenoch interjected to say: “How awful for the chancellor that he couldn’t confirm that she would stay in place.”

In her first comments after the incident, Ms Reeves said she was having a “tough day” before adding: “People saw I was upset, but that was yesterday.

“Today’s a new day and I’m just cracking on with the job.”

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Reeves is ‘totally’ up for the job

Sir Keir also told Sky News’ political editor Beth Rigby on Thursday that he “didn’t appreciate” that Ms Reeves was crying in the Commons.

“In PMQs, it is bang, bang, bang,” he said. “That’s what it was yesterday.

“And therefore, I was probably the last to appreciate anything else going on in the chamber, and that’s just a straightforward human explanation, common sense explanation.”

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Diogo Jota and Andre Silva’s funeral in pictures

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Diogo Jota and Andre Silva's funeral in pictures

The family and friends of Diogo Jota and his brother Andre Silva have been joined by Liverpool stars past and present and other Portuguese players at the pair’s funeral near Porto.

The Liverpool forward, 28, and his brother died in a car crash in Spain on Thursday.

Pictures below show the funeral at the Igreja Matriz de Gondomar church in the town of Gondomar near Porto. Click here for our liveblog coverage of the day’s events.

Jota's wife Rute Cardoso arrives for the funeral of him and his brother his brother Andre Silva. Pic: Reuters
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Diogo Jota’s wife Rute Cardoso arrives for the funeral of him and his brother Andre Silva. Pic: Reuters


Liverpool's captain Virgil van Dijk and Liverpool's player Andrew Robertson arrive on the day of the funeral ceremony of Liverpool's Portug
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Liverpool players Virgil van Dijk and Andrew Robertson arrive for the funeral. Pic: Reuters

Liverpool's captain Virgil van Dijk and Liverpool's player Andrew Robertson arrive for the funeral of Diogo Jota. Pic: Reuters
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Van Dijk carried a wreath with Jota’s number 20 while Andrew Robertson’s had a 30 for Andre Silva. Pic: Reuters


Liverpool's captain Virgil van Dijk arrives on the day of the funeral ceremony of Liverpool's Portuguese soccer player Diogo Jota and his b
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Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk. Pic: Reuters

Portugal's Ruben Neves arrives at the funeral of Diogo Jota and Andre Silva being held at Igreja Matriz de Gondomar in the town of Gondomar near Porto. The Liverpool and Portugal forward died along with his younger brother Andre Silva in the accident in Zamora on Thursday morning. Picture date: Saturday July 5, 2025. PA Photo. Photo credit should read: PA Wire.
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Portugal player Ruben Neves arrives at the funeral. Pic: PA

Liverpool's Joe Gomez and Arne Slot arrive at the funeral of Diogo Jota and Andre Silva being held at Igreja Matriz de Gondomar in the town of Gondomar near Porto. The Liverpool and Portugal forward died along with his younger brother Andre Silva in the accident in Zamora on Thursday morning. Picture date: Saturday July 5, 2025. PA Photo. Photo credit should read: PA Wire.
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Liverpool’s Joe Gomez and manager Arne Slot arrive at the funeral of Diogo Jota and Andre Silva. Pic; PA

Liverpool's Ryan Gravenberch and Cody Gakpo (right) arrive at the funeral of Diogo Jota and Andre Silva
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Liverpool’s Ryan Gravenberch and Cody Gakpo (right) arrive at the funeral of Diogo Jota and Andre Silva

Manchester City and Portugal player Bernardo Silva arrives at the funeral of Diogo Jota and Andre Silva being held at Igreja Matriz de Gondomar in the town of Gondomar near Porto. The Liverpool and Portugal forward died along with his younger brother Andre Silva in the accident in Zamora on Thursday morning. Picture date: Saturday July 5, 2025. PA Photo. Photo credit should read: PA Wire.
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Manchester City and Portugal player Bernardo Silva arrives at the funeral. Pic: AP

The coffins of Diogo Jota and Andre Silva are brought into the Igreja Matriz de Gondomar in the town of Gondomar near Porto. The Liverpool and Portugal forward died along with his younger brother Andre Silva in the accident in Zamora on Thursday morning. Picture date: Saturday July 5, 2025. PA Photo. Photo credit should read: PA Wire.
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The coffins are carried to the church. Pic: PA

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Miguell Rocha played with Jota for around ten years with Gondomar Sport Clube in Portugal.

People line up as they wait to enter at a church where the bodies of Liverpool forward Diogo Jota and his brother Andr.. Silva have been brought for a wake and funeral in Gondomar, near Porto, Portugal, on Friday, July 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
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People line up to enter the church. Pic: AP


Pallbearers carry the coffins of Liverpool's Portuguese soccer player Diogo Jota and his brother Andre Silva, who died in a car crash near
Image:
Pallbearers carry the coffins of Diogo Jota and his brother Andre Silva

Pallbearers carry the coffins of Liverpool's Portuguese soccer player Diogo Jota and his brother Andre Silva, who died in a car crash near Z
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Pic: Reuters

People crowd outside the church during the funeral of Diogo Jota and his brother Andr.. Silva, in Gondomar, near Porto, Portugal, on Saturday, July 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
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Pic: AP


People gather outside the Chapel of the Resurrection, on the day of the funeral ceremony of Liverpool's Portuguese soccer player Diogo Jota
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People gather outside the Chapel of the Resurrection. Pic: Reuters

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The former captain was seen wiping away tears as he read messages and laid his tribute down.

Fans pay their respects outside Anfield Stadium, on the day of the funeral of Liverpool soccer player Diogo Jota in Portugal, in Liverpool,
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Fans pay their respects outside Anfield in Liverpool. Pic: Reuters


A board displays a picture of Liverpool soccer player Diogo Jota as tribute on the day of his funeral in Portugal, outside Anfield Stadium
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A board with a picture of Diogo Jota outside Anfield Stadium. Pic: PA

The coffins of Diogo Jota and Andre Silva are brought into the Igreja Matriz de Gondomar in the town of Gondomar near Porto. The Liverpool and Portugal forward died along with his younger brother Andre Silva in the accident in Zamora on Thursday morning. Picture date: Saturday July 5, 2025. PA Photo. Photo credit should read: PA Wire.
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The coffins are carried to the church. Pic: PA

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