Welcome to the second part of our journey through Arthur C Clarke’s World of Strange Powers, and to our ongoing reappraisal of the acclaimed author’s TV output of the 1980s. By the power of digital technology, Clarke reappears as our host, and takes us back on a tour of his case files, introducing the mysteries which would inspire many a young viewer to become a lifelong fortean.
So far, we’ve seen poltergeists, psychics and lurid stigmatics as the series continues to focus on the human capacity to experience the inexplicable. This month, we tackle a few episodes dealing, in their different ways, with what awaits us beyond the grave. But lest the mood grow too grim, we have plenty of larger-than-life characters to lift the gloom, and a smattering of dancing fairies too.
EPISODE 5: GHOSTS, APPARITIONS AND HAUNTED HOUSES
Clarke begins with the tale of a spectral Dutch lady, floating silently along the battlements of the 17th century fortifications at Galle, in his adopted home of Sri Lanka. Everyone loves a good ghost story, Clarke reminds us, and one in 10
Britons claims to have encountered a ghost.1
But first we join the ‘serious’ American ghost hunters on the Chicago Supernatural Tour, led by local raconteur Richard T
Crow. He introduces us to Resurrection Mary, whose spirit danced with former funeral director Gerry Paulus and dematerialised on return to the cemetery.2
The tour continues to take in gangster Al Capone’s grave at Mount Carmel, where we hear how in life he was tormented by the spectre of his rival, James Clark. The programme doesn’t make the obvious connection to Capone’s slide into syphilis-induced insanity.3 Nearby, the incorruptible body of Julia Buccola, the ‘Italian Bride’, treats the tourists to the miraculous smell of roses.
Throughout, the laconic Crow keeps the momentum rolling; he suggests
