Tag: Dr Dorian Deathly

Posted on

Neon Crypt bring added comic bite to The Hound Of The Baskervilles at Theatre@41

Michael Cornell’s Sir Henry Baskerville, Laura McKeller’s Sherlock Holmes, centre, and Laura Castle’s Dr John Watson in Neon Crypt’s The Hound Of The Baskervilles

YORK Gothic humorists Neon Crypt will serve up The Hound Of The Baskervilles with side-splitting stupidity, hot dog disguises and absolute terror at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, from May 5 to 9.

Expect a relentlessly silly, very funny and very fast-paced show suitable for all ages, albeit with some mild peril, as Laura McKeller, Laura Castle and Michael Cornell tackle a typically high-brow, 120-minute adaptation by Peepolykus co-founder John Nicholson, in the wake of staging Nicholson and Le Navet Bete’s Dracula: The Bloody Truth last May.

Directed by Jamie McKeller, alias York ghost walk supremo Dr Dorian Deathly of Deathly Dark Tours, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s most celebrated Sherlock Holmes story is given a madcap makeover as Holmes and Dr Watson are summoned to investigate the ancient curse of the Hound of the Baskervilles.

To do so, they must unravel the mysterious death of Sir Charles Baskerville, who is found dead on his estate, with a look of terror still etched on his face and the paw prints of a gigantic hound beside his body.

The Hound Of The Baskervilles director Jamie McKeller in Dr Dorian Deathly ghost walk guide mode

“Our memories of The Hound Of The Baskervilles in York go way back to York Theatre Royal doing it with panto villain David Leonard as Holmes [in 2016],” says Jamie. “Within Neon Crypt, there are four of us, and we get together to throw it around the room, saying ‘you read this part’, ‘you read that part’, and it ended up landing the way it has with the two Lauras as Holmes and Watson and Michael playing Sir Henry Baskerville, Sir Charles Baskerville, Dr Mortimer, a cabbie and multiple meat-wielding Yokels.

“We knew one of us would direct the show, and the general feeling was that it would go a certain way, but it didn’t go the way we thought it would! I thought I’d end up as Holmes because he’s so stoic, but then Laura [McKeller] read the part and nailed the arrogance and Basil Rathbone air of ‘Britishness’.

“Laura [Castle] has such an everyman quality to her acting, and she started to read Dr John Watson in an Received Pronunciation English accent, but I said, ‘no, give me Bradford, give me the moors, give me West Yorkshire’, and that’s how she’s now playing him.”

Laura C will focus on Watson and a Yokel, while Laura M will be even busier in her multi-role-playing duties than Cornell. “She’s doing at least ten roles because Holmes is not always present. She’ll be Mr and Mrs Barrymore; the train guard; Cecile Stapleton; Jack Stapleton and Slasher Selden, ‘the Notting Hill murderer’, among others,” says Jamie.

Laura McKeller’s Sherlock Holmes in hot dog disguise in Neon Crypt’s The Hound Of he Baskervilles

“She has to go off, change character and be back on in a heartbeat – and our stage manager, Rebecca Payne, will be multi-rolling too with all the scenes changes, costume changes and props, so she’s as much a character in the show as the other three. Though she doesn’t say anything, she has to do a lot on stage, with the running joke of the cast tipping her every time she comes on but becoming more and more begrudging about doing that.”

Analysing The Hound Of The Baskervilles’ abiding popularity, Jamie says “It’s a good sleuth story where the audience feels ‘Let’s go sleuthing’. If anything, in this version, the story is on the backburner, so there are moments when the sleuthing is going on, where we have to find the chance to hit the brakes to say to the audience, ‘Are you keeping up?’.

“We’re staging it on a thrust set design, so the audience are invited into the action straightaway. Within 30 seconds, the house lights are up and the audience are involved.

“The show is right up our street in terms of silliness, and though we place it in the late-1800s, with Watson in a Victorian two-piece and Holmes in a deer stalker and cape, the cast can break out of the period setting, like the moment when they pull out a mobile phone.”

No smoke without (gun) fire: Laura Castle’s Dr John Watson in Neon Crypt’s The Hound Of The Baskervilles

The two Lauras wore Holmes and Watson’s waxed moustaches in rehearsal for the first time last night (30/4/2026). “But Laura M is no stranger to having moustaches and mono-brows on stage,” says Jamie. “Laura C likes to do her nails with themed symbols on: bats for her Dracula last time; now moustaches on blue nails for Doctor John Watson!”

From Star Wars music in one scene to the bubbling bromance of Holmes and Watson, anything could happen in Neon Crypt’s show. “I think there’s permission that if anyone ‘cracks’ on stage in a preposterous comedy, it’s not the end of the world,” posits Jamie. “It makes it feel more grounded, and you’re at such close quarters with the audience at Theatre@41 that it’s a really transformative venue, where you can have it anyway you want.”

Jamie has plenty on his thespian plate, by the way. “I’ll be playing Frank in Jim Paterson’s production of Educating Rita for Black Treacle Theatre in June, and with the volume of lines in each show, I couldn’t have done both Sherlock and Frank,” he says.

Neon Crypt in The Hound Of The Baskervilles, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, May 5 to 9, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

Florence Poskitt: Playing hairdresser and Open University Eng Lit student Rita in Black Treacle Theatre’s June production of Educating Rita

YORK company Black Treacle Theatre will present Educating Rita, Willy Russell’s warm, witty and moving two-hander about the power of education to change lives, at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, from June 9 to 13.

Company founder and director Jim Paterson will direct Jamie McKeller and Florence Poskitt in Russell’s tale of Rita, a working-class hairdresser hungry for something more, signing up for an Open University literature course.

There she meets Frank, a disillusioned academic whose passion for teaching has long faded. Their weekly tutorials become a battle of ideas, humour and honesty as Rita’s confidence blossoms and heavy-drinking Frank wrestles with his demons and the possibility of a second chance.

As Rita discovers the worlds of art, culture and self-expression, she begins to question the life others expect her to live. Change, however, comes with difficult choices, whereupon both teacher and student must reconsider who they are and who they want to be. Tickets for the 7.30pm performances are on sale at tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

Coming next from Neon Crypt

NEON Crypt will stage The Battersea Poltergeist and Uncanny podcaster, broadcaster and journalist Danny Robbins’s smart, modern-day London supernatural thriller 2:22 A Ghost Story at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, in Halloween week.

“Nick Hern Books contacted us to say the rights were becoming available from midday that day and would we be interested?” says Neon Crypt artistic director Jamie McKeller, who will feature in the cast alongside Laura McKeller, Laura Castle and Michael Cornell, directed by Alex King.

More details will follow.

Dr Dorian Deathly: Making the Grand Opera House his latest haunt for ghost stories

Deathly Dark Tours to go behind scenes at Grand Opera House on May 25

DR Dorian Deathly, alias Jamie McKeller, is teaming up with the Grand Opera House, York, for a “unique experience on stage and behind the scenes after dark” as visitors investigate the Cumberland Street theatre’s 120-year history with the York ghost walk host on May 25.

Deathly Dark Tours supremo Dorian will lead ghost-walkers on a backstage tour replete with stories of people connected with the theatre’s past. Tours will start at 6pm, 7pm and 8pm. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

Posted on

Deathly Dark Tours to launch ticket office & retail shop in Grape Lane on Friday the 13th

Deathly Dark Tours tour guide in chief Dr Dorian Deathly

FRIDAY the 13th. Could there be a more perfect date for York’s Deathly Dark Tours to open their doors?

After five years of meeting guests on Grape Lane, Dr Dorian and Dede Deathly – Jamie and Laura McKeller – are overjoyed to have acquired a good old bricks-and- mortar property that will serve as new ticket office and space for spooky, tour-themed retail.

“To celebrate the opening, we are offering an opportunity for people to pop down to explore the shop and also to join a free tour on Friday 13th February,” says Dr Dorian.

“Due to the January weather carrying on stubbornly into February, the tours will be just half the usual length of the public tours at a snappy 45 minutes. Our guide will take guests on a whistle-stop tour of some of York’s most spooky spots, parting ways on Shambles, which is perfect for a post-tour tipple.”

The doors to the shop, at 4 Grape Lane, will open at 5pm and all are welcome to attend. “We will be running a free tour at 6pm and again at 7pm, starting from the shop, with 30 spaces available on each one,” says Dede Deathly (Laura).

“If you would like to grab some tickets for either of the tours, please send an email with the name of the lead guest, which time slot you would like and how many tickets you need to DORIAN@DEATHLYDARKTOURS.COM. The tickets will then be sent over to you.”

Posted on

The clock is tick-tock-ticking for Rowntree Players’ adventures in Peter Pan panto land at Joseph Rowntree Theatre

Jamie McKeller (Captain Hook), second from right, in rehearsal with Gemma McDonald (Barkly), Michael Cornell (Nanny McFlea) and musical director Sam Johnson for Rowntree Players’ The Pantomime Adventures Of Peter Pan

ROWNTREE Players pantomime co-writer and director Howard Ella had always avoided Peter Pan…until now.

“I see it as a bit of a Cinderella, where the story is so familiar to everybody that it’s hard to tell that story, do it justice and make it a panto at the same time,” he reasons ahead of tomorrow’s opening performance at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York.

“It’s taken me 16/17 years to find the courage. You can’t just do the book, but I want to be loyal to the[J.M. Barrie] text while making it into a panto, and I think we’ve nailed it.”

By “we” he is referring to co-writer and regular goofing loon Gemma McDonald, cast as eager apprentice Barkly this time. “I’ve had Gemma by my side again, working from a great traditional story with great characters that give you a good foundation to then work out how to bring together the traditional while being forward facing; how you then get that balance right.

“A story like Peter Pan adds another level to that challenge, but we have an exciting cast that meets that challenge with contemporary relevance amid the melee of pantomime traditions.”

Joining Gemma in the principal cast will be Hannah King’s Peter Pan, Sophie Bullivant’s Smee, Claire Horsley, returning from a long hiatus, as Gloria, Sara Howlett’s Tinkerbell, Eva Howe’s Wendy and Neon Crypt theatre company trio Laura Castle as Tiger Lily, Michael Cornell as Nanny McFlea and Jamie McKeller as Captain Hook.

“Hook is the perfect panto villain and to have someone who’s wanted to play that role forever…that’s when serendipity kicks in with Jamie.”

 McKeller is a familiar face on York’s haunted streets as ghost-walk host Dr Dorian Deathly, promoter of Deathly Dark Tours, but he has taken to the dark side in Rowntree Players pantomimes too, whether as an Ugly Sister or the Sheriff of Nottingham.

“One of the things I’m most proud of this year is that he’s a real bad guy,” says Jamie. “There’s usually redemption at the end for the villain, a great epiphany, but Hook doesn’t get one –and he shouldn’t. He just says from the get-go, quite unreasonably, that he will kill this child [Peter Pan].”

What’s more, his Hook will have the gravitas of a Shakespearean bad egg. “My first entrance is two pages of what Howard calls ‘elegant prose’,” he says.

Howard rejoins: “Pantos are frivolous and fun on the surface, but there’s no reason to not have a deeper story behind it to add depth. It would be very easy to tell a simple panto story around Peter Pan, where most of it could just be a tale with fairy dust, but then you have to insert a dame and a comic.

“We haven’t gone down that path: rather than Nana the dog, we have Nanny McFlea, with some dog-like tendencies in human form,  and Gemma as her comical son Barkly.”

Jamie’s Hook will be attired in de rigueur red coat, hat, scarf, stripey trousers, big boots, hook…and “flamboyant hair”. “He’s wholly evil, but with show-stopping numbers, such as Don’t Rain On My Parade, the Barbra Streisand song from Funny Girl, One Day More and the Survivor/I Will Survive mash-up from Glee.

“As soon as I was told it was Peter Pan this year and that Captain Hook would require some strong singing, I went off and did six months of singing lessons at York Singing Academy in Marygate.  

“I’ve always been able to maul my way through a song as the bad guy in a ‘speak-sing’ style but I’d never learned the mechanics of singing, though I knew how to manipulate my voice because of all the voiceover work I’ve done. Sam Johnson tells me I’ve done a good job!”

Howard concurs: “When you end up with the baddie singing as the campest character in the show, then that’s my idea of what a panto should be!”

He is enjoying Michael Cornell’s progression in the dame’s role too (as Nanny McFlea this year). “You grow into this role because no two dames are the same, and you have to own your dame,” he says. “By building relationships, like working around the consistency of Gemma’s character, it all gets layered over the years.”

Jamie, who performed alongside Michael in Neon Crypt and the Deathly Dark Tours’ paranormal investigations of The Wetwang Hauntings – Live in November, says of his panto co-star: “He’s just very fearless, bringing so much to the rehearsal room. He’s not long 30, and look at how still he was on stage in our Wetwang show, his tweedy suit and moustache barely moving.”

Defining why he loves pantomime in the 21st century, Howard says: “Pantomime remains something that is multi-generational. Bringing generations together in any activity is a challenge, but I’m all for multi-generational entertainment that is safe yet challenging at the same time and doesn’t just make you laugh but cry and think as well.

“It’s a unique form of entertainment with audiences that you don’t get with other forms of theatre. And I love the tradition of it all, which is important in the right place. It’s one of the things that drove me to do what I do now, and why wouldn’t you want to pass it on to the next generation? It’s a joyous privilege.”

On the subject of tradition, Howard adds: “You’re fitting pantomime into a world that’s changing all the time, but tradition doesn’t mean unchanging and old-fashioned, but comfortable and recognisable.

“I’m still fond of having a traditional principal boy [played by a female], but it doesn’t mean you can’t sprinkle new things into the pantomime mix. That’s the joy of writing it each year.”

Jamie enthuses: “From an acting/performing point of view, pantomime is so mischievous. I’m not very disciplined, and you know you can do things in panto, like knowing looks or catching each other’s eye on stage, and the audience knows that you’re doing that.

“I always say that doing panto is like a fever dream. I take the week off from everything else, just going around coffee shops.”

Audiences can’t wait. “We’ve had our third successive year of record ticket sales, which is even harder to achieve in this current climate, but we’ve had a strong team for a long time,” says a delighted Howard.

“We laugh a lot in rehearsals and that energy carries through to the performances when you have a bunch of people who love doing these shows.”

Rowntree Players in The Pantomime Adventures Of Peter Pan, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, tomorrow, 2pm and 7.30pm, Sunday, 2pm and 6pm; December 9 to 12, 7.30pm; December 13, 2pm and 7.30pm. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.

Posted on

Halloween horrors and jump scares of the week: Neon Crypt & The Deathly Dark Tours present The Wetwang Hauntings – Live!

Jimmy Johnson, left, and Dr Dorian Deathly (Jamie McKeller) in The Wetwang Hauntings – Live at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York. Pictures: Emma Warley/Emma &Rich

BETWEEN 1986 and 1993, a series of often violent hauntings rocked the East Riding village of Wetwang. The cases went cold and all the records were lost…until now!

Join York ghost walk guide Dr Dorian Deathly as the Neon Crypt and the Deathly Dark Tours team digs into the history and horrors of these reawaken cases at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, from tonight to Saturday in The Wetwang Hauntings – Live. “This show is not for the faint of heart,” he forewarns.

Here Dorian (alias York actor Jamie McKeller) discusses the Wetwang hauntings, the podcast and live show, Neon Crypt, Deathly Dark ghost walks and future plans with CharlesHutchPress.

How did you learn of the Wetwang Hauntings?

“There are two answers to this. The first is the one that’s in the podcast and live show, that we were brought an old shoebox filled with tapes by a man who only wants to be known as Mr Whispers.

“Dorian listened to the tapes, hours and hours of paranormal investigations carried out by the long-since-vanished Mayor Dick Nightly. We didn’t know what to do with the tapes at first, and then we realised that we are men in our 30s and 40s with microphones and access to fast internet. Making a podcast was the only logical choice; turning it into a staged show was the second.

“The second answer is that Jamie (the other guy) was having afternoon tea with a friend in Wetwang, and he got chatting to someone in the tea room about my time spent telling ghost stories on the streets of York.

“They told me that all the staff felt that the tea room was haunted and that was that. My brain got excited and before long I was pitching the show to my co-writers on the project, Ben Rosenfield and Jimmy Johnson.” 

Laura McKeller (Dede Deathly) and Michael Cornell (Michael Nightly/Mayor Nick Nightly) in The Wetwang Hauntings – Live

Who or what is Neon Crypt?

“Neon Crypt are at the core a group of four actors and writers. Myself, my wife Laura McKeller, [York Mix presenter] Laura Castle and Michael Cornell. Laura Castle can’t be with us for this one; she’s very in demand but is very much missed and will be back for the next one!

“This is our third show. A Night Of Face Melting Horror was the first, then earlier this year we performed Le Navet Bete’s Dracula: The Bloody Truth. The Wetwang Hauntings is our first full-length, original play and we have two more planned for next year. In the future we’re looking to start touring one of these shows.”

Here is what AI says of the Wetwang Hauntings:  “The ‘Wetwang Hauntings’ refers to a series of violent and unsettling paranormal events that reportedly took place in the Yorkshire village of Wetwang between 1986 and 1993.

“These events are the subject of a modern horror-themed podcast and live show that investigates the history and folklore surrounding the cases. While the historical ‘hauntings’ are steeped in local legend, the area is also famous for a significant archaeological find of an Iron Age chariot burial from around the 3rd or 4th century BC.“

What would you like to add to that summary?

“I’m not sure I should argue or disagree with AI; it’s a terrifying thing. Our thoughts on it are presented in the show this week.”

Do you have any theories on why the cases went cold? How come all the records were lost?  Deliberately?

“As far as we can tell, something terrible happened to Mayor Nightly. We know that he was last seen in 1998, so we don’t know why the tapes have only surfaced now and we have no idea where they were kept. It’s all very strange, but I’m sure that it will all be fine. I think.”

Jimmy Johnson, left, Ben Rosenfield and Dr Dorian Deathly in The Wetwang Hauntings – Live

What has been the reaction to your podcasts?

“Just wonderful. We’ve had comparisons to The League Of Gentlemen, early Doctor Who, Uncanny and more, which is great as all of those things were heavy inspiration for us.”

More specifically, what has been Wetwang’s response? Has anyone from Wetwang or indeed the afterlife been in touch?

“One Wetwang resident has reached out to us and mostly said ‘yes, this all makes sense’. I’m not sure what that means, but she seems to be enjoying the show.”

How will The Wetwang Hauntings – Live! take the story further than the podcasts?

“The live show goes a little further into the tapes than where we are in the podcast. We’re looking at three hauntings chosen by the cast, with a fourth one to be chosen on the night by the audience.” 

What will happen in the live show?  Who will take part? 

“The show features three out of four of the Neon Crypt gang, plus we’ve drafted in a couple of the Deathly Dark Tours gang, Dafydd and Dalton, who are the alter egos of Jimmy [Johnson] and Ben [Rosenfield].

Laura McKeller’s Dede Deathly in The Wetwang Hauntings – Live

“Laura McKeller is playing Dede Deathly, who is in turn playing the roles of several characters featured in the retelling of the hauntings. Michael Cornell is playing actor Michael Nightly, who is in turn playing his father Mayor Dick Nightly. Layers on layers! Over the course of the night we will be exploring the events that occurred in Wetwang in the 1990s.”

How will you use the theatre space as opposed to York’s streets to set the atmosphere?

“It will be warmer, which is always nice. We have tech that isn’t usually available to us, even having the ability to play sound and music, to isolate certain areas of the space.

“Over the years, we have become very, very good at scaring people on the sometimes mean streets of York with nothing more than what nature provides, so you can only imagine how much terror we will be conjuring in the theatre.”

What’s next for the Deathly Dark Tours as the dark nights lengthen and the chills set in?

“I’m stepping back from the tours for a little while to focus on Neon Crypt. The ghost walk is in very good hands, and I have other ambitions I need to focus on for a while. I’ll be back now and again, but Dorian will be mostly behind the scenes of it all for a little while.

“We had an intense Halloween with almost 5,000 people joining the tour, of which we ran more than 120 in 30 days. Things do ease off a little over winter, but it’s still steady. Then it will be February half-term and full steam ahead again in no time!”

Dr Dorian Deathly on stage at Theatre@41, Monkgate

On a different note: will Jamie be in the Rowntree Players panto again this winter? If so, which role?

 “I certainly am. It’s Peter Pan this year, and I’ll be ticking off a big thing on my bucket list by playing the role of Captain Hook. He’s a proper big baddie this year. No eggs, no roads, he just wants to kill Peter Pan and he isn’t shy about it.

“Howard Ella and Gemma McDonald have written a fantastic script, and I have some absolutely preposterous songs this year. I’m straight back into rehearsal for it the day after The Wetwang Hauntings closes its first run!”

Neon Crypt & The Deathly Dark Tours present The Wetwang Hauntings – Live!, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, November 4 to 8, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Suitable for age 13 upwards. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

Jamie McKeller will play Captain Hook in Rowntree Players’ The Pantomime Adventures Of Peter Pan, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, December 6, 2pm and 7.30pm, December 7, 2pm and 6pm; December 9 to 13, 7.30pm plus 2pm Saturday matinee. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.

Wetwang in a nutshell

EAST Riding of Yorkshire village, in the Yorkshire Wolds, six miles west of Driffield. Known for Iron Age chariot burial site and black swans. Television presenter and Countdown host Richard  Whiteley served as honorary mayor from 1998 to 2005. Richard Whiteley, Dick Nightly…you can see where The Wetwang Hauntings is heading!

Michael Cornell bathed in red light in The Wetwang Hauntings –Live

Posted on

Ghosts After Dark bring supernatural glow to York Museum Gardens for four nights

Ghosts After Dark: Lighting up York Museum Gardens for four nights

EXPERIENCE Ghosts in the Garden like never before! So reads the York BID and York Museums Trust invitation to the first ever Ghosts After Dark at York Museum Gardens,

Showcasing York’s rich tapestry of historical figures with light, sound and storytellers for four nights only, this exclusive event runs from today (7/11/2024) to Sunday from 6.30pm to 9.30pm nightly with last entry at 8.30pm.

Tickets are selling out fast, so prompt booking is advised. Once booked, ticket holders will receive an information pack with a map to help them to plan their night. 

Ghost garden visitors can choose their own path to explore the ghostly sculptures, hidden around the gardens, each lit dynamically against an atmospheric background of smoke and sound. 

Ghosts After Dark will feature an exclusive new ghost sculpture, a medieval pig, “celebrating the city’s history that can still be felt today”. The sculpture is an homage to Finkle Street, once known colloquially as Mucky Pig Lane, on account of being used as a through passage to move pigs to the Thursday Market, held in St Sampson’s Square, and the Swinegate Markets. 

Mad Alice: Telling gruesome tales by the St Mary’s Abbey ruins in York Museum Gardens

York storytellers and ghost walkers will share a mix of much-loved classics and previously unheard stories every 15 minutes. For lovers of all things gruesome, Mad Alice, of the Bloody Tour of York, will share the grisly truth about the Archbishop, Executioner, Bear and Stone Mason at the Ruins.

Lady Brigante, of the Polite Tourist, will uncover the criminal past of the hidden stories of the Victorian Lady and Gentleman, Artist and Merchant at the Hideaway. The Wild Man of the Woods will explore the lore around the Cat, Fox, Pig and Falcon in the Woodland Clearing.

The York Dungeon’s Dick Turpin will recount how he met his infamous end at Palmer’s Corner while the Dungeon’s Guy Fawkes will share his ill-fated past at the Plot.

For those brave enough, Dr Dorian Deathly, of the Deathly Dark Tours, will lead visitors on a lantern-lit tour of St Olave’s Church, sharing a story made exclusively for Ghosts After Dark. “You will have to wear Bluetooth headphones for this one, with atmospheric music as he walks you through the churchyard with his spooky stories of monks and nuns,” says Carl.

Ghosts After Dark is the new companion piece to Ghosts In The Garden, which began four years ago with ten ghosts installations in York Museum Gardens. “It started  as a spooky offering for Halloween but we quickly decided it wasn’t really about that,” says York BID operations manager Carl Alsop. “Year two and three we spread our wings and now it gets more exciting and challenging each year, with 45 sculptures this year.

“Like acknowledging Yorkshire’s oldest working observatory being in the Museum Gardens. We thought, ’let’s put a Georgian astrologer in there’. Or the Bear, because there was a menagerie here in the late 1800s that used to escape and chase the gardener around. Or the Mill, which now stands outside the Castle Museum, that used to be a working mill on the Moors.

Dr Dorian Deathly: Leading visitors on a lantern-lit tour of St Olave’s Church

“There’s a ‘long duck’ too because we do have ducks in the Museum Gardens but people can interpret it as attribute to a certain Long Boi at the University of York.”

The wire mesh sculptures are created by York company Unconventional Designs. “We have used them since the start,” says Carl. “We give them a character and an idea about the character and they come back with the design.

“The low aperture wire mesh is the gift that keeps on giving after I had this crazy idea! People might say why would you use chicken wire but the way you look at each sculpture changes depending on the time of day. Some of them appear, some of them disappear, in the changing light, because of the way they are set up!”

The York Bid and York Museums Trust has been keen to “keep growing this event, not just increasing the number of sculptures and locations, from the rail signaller at the railway station to a female stonemason at Holy Trinity Church, a taylor at Merchant Taylors Hall to a beekeeper in St Olave’s Grove,” says Carl.

“Now we’ve added this ticketed event, Ghosts After Dark, for the first time as we want to bring business into the city in what can be a quieter time of the year, coming to the city not only for the ghost sculptures but also to enjoy York’s evening economy. The ghosts will be lit up with different colours after we did a dress rehearsal to trial colours with fog and background music.”

Ghosts After Dark, York Museum Gardens, Museum Street, York, tonight to Sunday. Box office: yorkmuseumstrust.org.uk. Tickets cost  £7.50 for adults and just £1 for under-16s.