Witch Hunt: A Century of Murder | Channel 5's grisly documentary is a must-see

On Channel 5 in the UK tonight at 9pm, Witch Hunt: A Century of Murder finds Suzannah Lipscomb investigating the original of the obsession for mass witch gunts and trials that swept the British Isles during the 17th century.

The two-part documentary ends next week with a profile of Matthew Hopkins, the opportunistic puritan witch-hunter who transformed paranoia about Satanism into a lucrative business as he hanged hundreds of people for crimes they could not possibly have committed.

Making use of contemporary reports, Suzannah paints a portrait of a man who believed he could cross any boundary and break any law to achieve his goals. Naming himself 'Witchfinder General', Hopkins toured the country charging fees for his services, but Suzannah's research reveals that ultimately, the public's distaste for witches was not as strong as its hatred of being conned by charlatans.

Hopkins would eventually die of tuberculosis in relative obscurity, but his malign legacy lived on across the Atlantic, as witch-hunts began in Salem, Massachusetts.

The real story of Hopkins and the English witch trials will also feature in a special talk being conducted during the Vincent Price London Legacy Tour on Sunday 8 November when I shall be taking a group on tour to Lavenham in Suffolk, the real-life setting for the 1968 horror classic Witchfinder General, starring Vincent Price as Hopkins.

Tickets for this tour are almost sold out, so if you want to join me then click here or on the photo below to book your tickets now!

The Witchfinder General will hang, burn and mutilate you if you don't tune into BBC2 tonight!

UK viewers can catch a late night screening of Michael Reeves cult 1968 horror, Witchfinder General on BBC2 today at 12.35am, and in HD.

To celebrate, here's a selection of scenes, plus some lobby cards, the trailer and some drawings and paintings that I've found of some artists' renditions of Vincent Price as Matthew Hopkins. If you have any to share, then I'd love to post up here, so do get in touch.

 

Witchfinder General to screen as part of the BFI Gothic: The Dark Heart of Film season

In a career-highlight performance, Vincent Price plays corrupt real-life inquisitor Matthew Hopkins who journeys across 17th-century East Anglia extracting confessions of witchcraft using cruel torture and public burnings. This censor-shocking period piece is regarded as director Michael Reeves' masterpiece and one of the most stylish of witch-trial horrors spawned in the late-1960s.

Screening as part of the BFI Gothic: The Dark Heart of Film season at the BFI Southbank in London, the 1968 film, which also stars Ian Ogilvy, Hilary Dwyer and Nicky Henson, will be introduced (9 December only) by Peter Hutchings, author of The A to Z of Horror Cinema, who explores what motivates film-makers to turn Britain's usually idyllic countryside into haunting landscapes as seen in the likes of The Wicker Man and Reeves' Witchfinder General.

SCREENS AT THE BFI SOUTHBANK

December 9 at 9pm	Buy
December 15 at 6.30pm	Buy
December 29 at 4.10pm	Buy