Must Watch Reviews: Suranne Jones: Investigating Witch Trials

Every week, the Must Watch podcasters review the biggest TV and streaming shows.

This week, Hayley Campbell and Scott Bryan join 5 Live presenter Nihal Arthanayake to review Suranne Jones: Investigating Witch Trials.

It is a documentary hosted by BAFTA-winning actress, Suranne Jones as she delves into the history of witches across the world.

Suranne travels from Lancashire to Massachusetts exploring why women were the main targets of witch trials, how they were persecuted and the lasting effect this had on history.

Nihal: “Hayley, what is it going to be?”

Hayley: “It’s a two part series on channel 4 hosted by Suranne Jones and it’s about the history of those who were accused of witchcraft, the political and societal context of witch hunts and also the impact the trials had on communities.

“She talks to academics and experts and it all starts out near to where she was born, in Lancashire, in the village of Pendle, which was the site of one of the most famous witch trials in English history.”

'I learnt so much here which I found to be fascinating'

Nihal: “Is that a Must Watch, Scott?”

Scott: "It is for me. It started with her going, ‘I’m going on a journey’, which is the cliche of every TV documentary you’ve ever seen done by a celebrity, which initially made my heart sink a little bit because they can always end up being a bit formulaic and you don’t learn anything new.

“But I learnt so much here which I found to be fascinating, it’s really well put together.

“I think there have been 100,000 trials throughout history. 75% were always women and half of those people who were accused ended up being executed. And it was mostly the women who were silenced and oppressed. They also go into how witchcraft came about and the reasons behind it.

"And if you look at, for example, wizardry, which is more associated with men, has always been seen to be a good thing. Whereas witches, which are more associated with women but deals with lots of the same stuff, have always been more closely associated with evil.

“I think I like this documentary because it took you in a different direction to what you first expected. I thought it was going to be something which was dealing with witchcraft in the more modern way it gets portrayed in Hollywood films or TV shows such as Sabrina.

“But it actually looks at the role of women in society and the way they were treated by men. So, for me, I learnt a lot and it was not what I had been expecting, it is a Must Watch for me.”

'The oldest thing in the world is to be suspicious of women'

Nihal: “Hayley, is it a Must Watch for you?”

Hayley: “It is and my review is pretty much the same as Scott’s. I think we all know that ‘actor investigates something’ is not the best genre of TV show, they’re usually pretty poor. So I went into this with low hopes.

"But actually, this is a pretty great primer on what happened. It doesn’t have reenactments with lots of people with mud on their face and black teeth, which is the kind of thing I was expecting. It’s Suranne Jones talking to academics from all over the place. They’re in the UK, they’re in Europe and in the second episode, she’s in America. And they talk about exactly what happened and why. Even though, what we do know, is kind-of third hand and all written by men.

“It goes into why the invention of the printing press was a huge factor in how these ideas about magical, evil women spread across the world. It was a bit like something going viral on the internet. Even though this book, which was written by a crackpot, outlined who witches were and what they did, it never specified a gender. It was society who mostly ended up blaming women.

“It’s a really interesting story about the persecution of women through history and how we still feel the same effects now, the same ideas are still floating around. The oldest thing in the world is to be suspicious of women. This is old testament stuff but we see it in incels now who believe women are tricksters.

"Yeah, this is a must watch.”

The first episode of Suranne Jones: Investigating Witch Trials launches on Sunday 23 June on Channel 4.

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