Who was the "Elephant Man"? Joseph Merrick's True Story

After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds & the Paranormal

History Hit

Myths, Folklore, Mystery, History, Ghosts, Society & Culture, Murder, Ufos, True Crime, Paranormal, Supernatural, Serial Killers

4.6 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 23 December 2024

⏱️ 49 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The life of Joseph Merrick, the man they dared to call "The Elephant Man", will fill you with pain and anger. He was treated so cruelly by society that he found becoming a freak show exhibit preferably to the life available to him elsewhere. Yet alongside darkness there is light and love in his story, and a sense of his own indomitable spirit throughout it all.

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Written by Anthony Delaney. Edited by Tomos Delargy. Produced by Freddy Chick. Senior Producer is Charlotte Long.

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After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds & the Paranormal is a History Hit podcast.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, we're your host's Anthony Delaney and Maddie Pelling.
0:03.7	And if you would like After Dark myths, misdeeds and the paranormal, ad free and get early access, sign up to History Hit.
0:11.1	With a History Hit subscription, you can also watch hundreds of hours of original documentaries with top history presenters and enjoy a new release every week.
0:20.7	Sign up now by visiting historyhit.com forward slash subscribe. top history presenters and enjoy a new release every week.
0:24.8	Sign up now by visiting history hit.com forward slash subscribe.
0:29.4	Hello and welcome to After Dark Season's Greetings. I'm Maddie.
0:30.5	And I'm Anthony.
0:35.9	And Christmas is upon us. You're probably listening to this after one too many minutesce pies. And I want you to picture me and
0:38.1	Anthony on Christmas Day, also in our probably Christmas pyres, eating mince pies. We won't be together
0:44.6	for Christmas. We might be, Maddie. How dare you say that? We spend all of our time together
0:49.7	every single waking day. Listen, it has properly been just the most incredible first year for
0:56.7	after talk. Can you matter? It's been only one year. Like, it feels like we've been here forever.
1:00.5	It's so incredible that we have this much support already. And we started back in October 2023
1:05.4	and I've put out 129 episodes. Oh my goodness. I'm exhausted. And that's the end. No. And we've just genuinely,
1:14.7	honest to God, we have been blown away by you guys and your feedback. It's been amazing, Maddie,
1:20.9	hasn't it? We are currently away, obviously, for the Christmas break. So we thought we would pick out
1:26.3	some favourite episodes so far for you to
1:29.7	enjoy. Yeah, and we are starting with one that got us both, and that was the history of Joseph Merrick,
1:37.3	also known as the Elephant Man. It's a remarkable story. It's set in Victoria and London,
1:43.4	and it's a time and place that we have
1:45.8	visited a lot on After Dark. We spend a lot of time walking Victorian streets, but it was Merrick's
1:51.8	story that made us see another type of darkness within the human beings in that tale. And it's that story that we want to explore for you today.
	...

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