{"podcast":{"title":"General Witchfinders: The British Horror Podcast","slug":"general-witchfinders-the-british-horror-podcast-3516772","podcast_index_feed_id":3516772,"rss_url":"https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/5fd77337c08ac45a2c50d003","website_url":"http://www.generalwitchfinders.com","image_url":"https://assets.pippa.io/shows/5fd77337c08ac45a2c50d003/1772694982754-eb0af34b-8742-48c8-a3e1-0d3fc0433f39.jpeg","author":"Ross Cleaver, Jon Pountney, James Randall","episode_count":82,"summary":"General Witchfinders: The British Horror Podcast Welcome to General Witchfinders, a podcast dedicated to the dark heart of British horror and classic Hammer horror films – officially selected for permanent preservation in the British Library’s National Sound Archive. If you are passionate about British horror cinema, Hammer films, classic folk horror, Nigel Kneale’s Quatermass, and the chilling legacy of British supernatural television, this is the podcast for you. Hosted by lifelong friends Ross, Jon, and James, General Witchfinders dives deep into the world of British horror, gothic cinema, and unsettling archive television. We explore everything from Hammer horror’s blood-drenched vampire classics – starring Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing – to the eerie landscapes of The Wicker Man, Tigon’s The Creeping Flesh, and Amicus anthology films. Whether it is cinematic British horror icons like Dracula AD 1972 and The Curse of Frankenstein, modern independent UK folk horror like Possum and In The Earth, or sci-fi horror thrillers like Event Horizon and The Medusa Touch, we unearth the films that shaped the genre. We cover the definitive British sci-fi horror of Nigel Kneale – includ…","last_synced_at":null,"page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/general-witchfinders-the-british-horror-podcast-3516772"},"episode":{"title":"62: The Plague of the Zombies (1966) – Hammer Horror – Dir. John Gilling – André Morell, Diane Clare & John Carson","slug":"62-the-plague-of-the-zombies-1966-hammer-horror-dir-john-gilling-andr-morell-diane-clare-john-carson","published_at":"2025-09-26T23:01:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/general-witchfinders-the-british-horror-podcast-3516772/62-the-plague-of-the-zombies-1966-hammer-horror-dir-john-gilling-andr-morell-diane-clare-john-carson","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/general-witchfinders-the-british-horror-podcast-3516772","url":"https://shows.acast.com/general-witchfinders/episodes/62-plague-of-the-zombies-hammer-horror","audio_url":"https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/5fd77337c08ac45a2c50d003/e/68c3e46d44d0096b87707283/media.mp3","summary":"Hammer horror reaches peak gothic chills with The Plague of the Zombies (1966), a Hammer Film Productions classic that defines British horror cinema. Shot at Bray Studios from 28 July 1965 and filmed back-to-back with Hammer’s The Reptile (see episode 19), it used the same eerie Cornish village set designed by Hammer’s celebrated production designer Bernard Robinson. Director John Gilling – the so-called “gentleman pig farmer” behind The Shadow of the Cat and The Mummy’s Shroud – stages a story of graveyards, curses and the undead that became a template for Hammer zombie horror. Writer Peter Bryan, who joined Hammer Film Productions in 1948 as a camera operator before turning to screenwriting, provided the script and left the studio shortly after completing A Challenge for Robin Hood in 1967. When The Plague of the Zombies was submitted to the BBFC it was heavily trimmed: André Morell’s Sir James Forbes originally decapitated a zombie with four shovel blows in the graveyard sequence, reduced to one for the censors. Heatherden Hall at Pinewood Studios doubles as the Forbes mansion, better known to James Bond fans as SPECTRE Island from From Russia With Love . Diane Clare, cast as Sylvia, had been one of the best-paid child “film babies” of the 1940s, appearing in The Ghosts of Berkeley Square and The Silver Fleet before leading roles in Hammer horror such as The Haunting , Witchcraft and The Hand of the Night . Her entire performance in The Plague of the Zombies was dubbed by South African actress Olive Gregg without her knowledge, a practice Hammer repeated when re-voicing Ingrid Pitt in Countess Dracula . André Morell himself had turned down both The Quatermass Experiment and Quatermass II on television before finally playing Professor Bernard Quatermass in the BBC’s…","meta_description":"Hammer horror reaches peak gothic chills with The Plague of the Zombies (1966), a Hammer Film Productions classic that defines British horror cinema. Shot…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":6041,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/general-witchfinders-the-british-horror-podcast-3516772/episodes/62-the-plague-of-the-zombies-1966-hammer-horror-dir-john-gilling-andr-morell-diane-clare-john-carson/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/general-witchfinders-the-british-horror-podcast-3516772/62-the-plague-of-the-zombies-1966-hammer-horror-dir-john-gilling-andr-morell-diane-clare-john-carson.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}