There’s a witch in your village. Now what?

Who do you call on? How do you know who to suspect? What exactly are you looking for? And what happens when the person who arrives has no official authority whatsoever?

Matthew Hopkins called himself the Witch Finder General. But who appointed him? What did he actually do? And how did he "find" witches?

Jon Briggs and Robin Briggs are joined by historians Marion Gibson and Alison Rowlands to follow the witch hunters across England and Europe, where suspicion, strange tests, children’s accusations and tell-tale marks could all become evidence.

There’s a witch in your village. The really frightening question is who decides what happens now?

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Witches flying through the night. Secret gatherings. Feasting, dancing, sex with demons and worshipping the Devil. There was just one problem with the witches’ Sabbats: they almost certainly never happened. However your invitation isn't lost in the post - it's right here - so do you know what to wear?

Jon and Robin Briggs are joined by Professor Julian Goodare to discover why people confessed to attending these extraordinary gatherings, what they claimed went on there, and how an imaginary party could lead to very real arrests, trials and deaths.

Expect flying witches, fairy queens, terrible food, discordant music, the Devil himself... and a surprisingly important chicken.

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Your child falls ill. Your cow stops giving milk. You suspect a witch. Who do you call?

Across early modern Europe, cunning folk claimed to heal the sick, identify witches, recover stolen property and even send curses back to whoever cast them.

Fresh from publishing her new book Witchland - Jon and Robin Briggs are joined by historian and author Professor Marion Gibson to explore the extraordinary world of supernatural problem-solving, from witch bottles and healing charms to magical side-hustles, dubious doctors and the surprisingly dangerous business of being good at magic.

Because the difference between being the village healer and the village witch was sometimes simply a question of whether the cure worked or not.

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What if witches weren’t discovered at all... but invented?

For centuries, Europeans feared magic, demons and heretics. But somewhere along the way, those separate fears were stitched together into something new: the witch, a servant of the Devil and member of a secret conspiracy threatening Christian society.

Jon Briggs is joined by historian Robin Briggs and demonology expert Dr Jan Machielsen to uncover how that extraordinary idea took shape, why medieval scholars were summoning demons of their own, what “God’s hunting dogs” had to do with it, and whether anyone actually believed the notorious Malleus Maleficarum.

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When you picture a witch, who comes to mind?

For most of us, it's an old woman living on the edge of a village.

But what if that picture is completely wrong?

In this episode of Witches: Truth, Trials and Terrors, broadcaster Jon Briggs is joined by Oxford don Robin Briggs and Professor Alison Rowlands to uncover one of the biggest surprises in witchcraft history - the forgotten victims of the witch hunts, the men!

We explore why women were still far more likely to be accused, why women often accused other women? And why have the thousands of men who stood trial for witchcraft been almost completely forgotten?

The truth is far more complicated, and far more fascinating, than the stereotype.

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How many people were really executed during the witch hunts?

The answer is almost certainly not the one you think.

In this episode of Witches: Truth, Trials and Terrors, broadcaster Jon Briggs is joined by historians and witchcraft experts Robin Briggs and Dr Jan Machielsen to unravel the myths surrounding Europe's witch trials. From the famous claim that nine million women were burned to the surprising number of men accused of witchcraft, you'll discover why the real history is every bit as fascinating as the fiction.

If you think you know the story of the witch hunts... think again.

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Imagine living in a world where every illness, every storm and every stroke of bad luck had a supernatural cause.

Long before Europe's witch hunts began, people believed the world was filled with unseen forces capable of helping... or harming them.

In Episode One of Witches: Truth, Trials and Terrors, broadcaster Jon Briggs, historians and witchcraft specialists Robin Briggs and Professor Alison Rowlands uncover the world in which our ancestors were steeped, a world that made belief in witches seem perfectly rational.

Before people believed in witches, they believed in a world where almost nothing happened by accident. A World Before Reason.

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