Contains some upsetting scenes.

News imageAssume Nothing, The Séance Experiments, 1. A Man in His Usual Health

Assume Nothing

The Séance Experiments

1. A Man in His Usual Health

2 May 2026

12 minutes

Available for over a year

The story of Dr William Jackson Crawford, an engineer and teacher, who carried out a series of strange experiments with a teenage medium and her family before his untimely death on the shores of Belfast lough in 1920.

Dr Crawford’s findings were extraordinary and widely published – but was it all a hoax?

Episode 1 – A Man in His Usual Health.

The body of a man is found on a rocky shore near Bangor, Northern Ireland. In his pockets are a sealed letter to his wife, a silver watch stopped at 7.50 and a small bottle of whiskey.

Dr Crawford was a respected engineer, but in the years before his death he carried out a series of elaborate and increasingly unusual experiments – to prove that Belfast teenager Kathleen Goligher could communicate with the dead.

Written and presented by Reggie Chamberlain King

Readings by

Dave Fleming

Lucy McConnell

Mark Claney

Stephen Beggs

Produced by Conor McKay

Editor Andy Martin

A BBC Northern Ireland production