The Dark World of Dorian Deathly.

All pictures used in this post are used under the kindest permission of Mr and Mrs Deathly.

Hello, Dear Reader! welcome, come in, come in. What’s that? Why have I asked you to a spooky looking house in York? Well, lets head to the sitting room. Today dear reader, I want to introduce you to someone. An expert in the macabre, A tour guide who works in the darker hours of the day. This, dear reader, is a shadowy flight into the world that not many men dare step foot in. This man is Dorian Deathly! And he’s on the other side of this door. Let me get it for you [door creaks open] . Go on, guests first! What? What do you mean what do I mean guests first? And no, I’m not scared…The cheek of it!

So here we are at the Tuesday post, its a little different this week. It’s part me sharing something that I really like, part review, and part promotion. It’s also a look at how the arts are really good at times like these and how important people sharing their talents and utilizing the means to do so, and one outcome of this has been to have a distraction from all the horrid things happening in the world at the moment, and I think that’s what we need at the moment, good distractions. And this was brilliant, originally streamed on the 31st May 2020 we were given the gift of ‘Tales From the Fireplace’ hosted by one Dorian Deathly. Normally, his natural habitat is giving a guided tour of the ghosts of York on a bus. Now, both he and his good lady wife Mrs. Deadly have brought the tours to Facebook. There have been two walk around tours of York recounting tales of the local ghosts and spirits, they were both well thought out and paced and was gripping through out. Plus, you also got to see York in its splendor. Believe me, it has been lovely to see the city again when all you’ve seen are the same four walls for months and I can highly recommend them too.

Now, I have digressed a little there. So, back to the stream from Sunday. When this was announced there was mention of ghost stories and I assumed it would be a selection of readings of some classic tales. I would have loved that, I love stories, and judging by how well read the short story presented was, it wouldn’t have been disappointing. However, I was pleasantly surprised. We got so much more than what I was expecting. There were three interviews where the interviewees recounted there own paranormal experiences. There was analysis on a collection of photos that had captured ghosts, including one that just seemed a little troubling. The picture was of two ladies each with a child on their lap. the left hand side of the picture had what appeared to be a humanoid figure hanging from the ceiling, it’s hands and head nothing more than a black mass. looking back at the stream as I write this, the image just feels…wrong. Each picture was well researched and the delivery of that information was engaging. The short story was the ‘Monkey’s Paw’ by W.W. Jacobs. As as I mentioned earlier, our host read it beautifully, it was affecting and drew you in to the story leaving you felling more than a little unnerved by the end. This was broken down in to three part across the stream and – as was mentioned in the comments of the stream – at first I felt like maybe this could have been done in one go. On reflection though, I quite liked it broken into parts as it gave you the chance to have a breather as you were presented by the other elements of the show. There was good engagement with the commentors as well where suggestions were noted and question answered.

Technically, I couldn’t fault the production the pacing was great and you weren’t given a chance to get board. At first i worried about the blue and red lighting, I thought maybe it would make set seem too dark. But that worry was short lived, it added atmosphere to the proceedings and the music cues were all timed well, and I have to mention the piece of music that was played on the count down to the start of the stream it was a really nice piece that set the tone for what was to come perfectly. Overall, the whole experience was great. As I mentioned in one of my previous posts about the paranormal, I’ve become more skeptical. I still am, but I had an excited tingle that I haven’t had since watching my first episode from the second series of Most Haunted way, way back when. and I have to say that it’s nice to feel excited about the paranormal again. I really hope they come back to this format as there is so much scope to delve further into paranormal and not just the ghosts of York, it would be really interesting to touch on stories from around the country and the world. I’m really looking forward to more ‘Tales From The Fireside’, I think they hit on potentially engrossing concept that the audience can participate in too.

If this has got you curious about ghosts and the history of York and you have a Facebook account, type in ‘Dorian Deathly’ and the Facebook page should be at the top of the list, this is where you’ll find all the details of upcoming events (I would have put a link in but I haven’t figured out how to do that yet) and all the previous streams. Dorian is also on Twitter and he also has a Youtube channel, however, that appears to just have two videos at the moment, hopefully all the streams will find their way on there for those who may not have Facebook. And to wrap up, please find below the details of the next stream coming soon. I think it’ll be a good one and I hope you’ll join in too.

So there you have it Dear Reader. He wasn’t too bad was he, a thoroughly nice chap! Come on, I’ll show you out. I do hope you’ll come by again, and go and give dear Mr Deathly a visit. Whilst your at it maybe go and give Redshirt Films a look on Youtube as well, it’s run by a another chap who looks suspiciously like Dorian. Anyway I hope you’ve enjoyed this one. You what? what do you mean I’ve waffled again?… The cheek of it! See you Thursday.