News imageAssume Nothing, The Séance Experiments, 2. The Unseen Operators

Assume Nothing

The Séance Experiments

2. The Unseen Operators

2 May 2026

14 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 2 – The Unseen Operators

Dr Crawford invites a visitor to attend a séance with Kathleen and her family, known as the Goligher Circle. Sir William Barrett, a highly respected physicist and parapsychologist, is astonished when a wooden table appears to float into the air.

Meanwhile, nearly one hundred years later – Reggie Chamberlain King’s plans to give a lecture about Dr Crawford and Kathleen Goligher are disrupted when a protest is announced.

Readings by

Dave Fleming

Lucy McConnell

Mark Claney

Stephen Beggs

Produced by Conor McKay

Editor Andy Martin

A BBC Northern Ireland production