Laura McKeller – charleshutchpress

November 4, 2025November 4, 2025

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 Nick 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.

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

December 9, 2024May 22, 2025

REVIEW: Rowntree Players in Mother Goose, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, until Saturday ****

*Michael Cornell’s dame, Gertrude Gander, making her point to Gemma McDonald’s Jack in Rowntree Players’ Mother Goose. Picture: Howard Ella*

IN the words of director Howard Ella, Mother Goose is “the dame’s pantomime”. Boldly, he casts Michael Cornell in the role of Gertrude Gander in his dame debut after his Ugly Sister double act as Miranda to Jamie McKeller’s Cassandra in last winter’s Cinderella.

These are big boots to fill after the years of Graham Smith and, before that Barry Benson, father of Josh, comedy turn Muddles alongside Su Pollard’s Carabosse and Lee Mead’s Prince Lee in Darlington Hippodrome’s Sleeping Beauty this winter, should you be wondering.

Cornell’s dame is taller, younger, more elegant on initial impression, than his more rumbustious predecessors, his dame style still finding its feet and tone and his voice its pitch. Whether singing or talking, he shows off a wide vocal range, spectacularly so with his singing, full of operatic drama to go with his natural stage presence. He can carry a dress with aplomb too.

Ella likes an eggy pun and a political jab, also parading a meta-theatre awareness that Mother Goose is not exactly thick with plot by mentioning it brazenly, instead building his pantomime around set-pieces, bright-coloured characterisation and songs aplenty, both familiar and less so.

*For those about to rock: Jamie McKeller’s guitar-wielding Demon Blackheart and Laura McKeller’s Bob Bingalong in Mother Goose. Picture: Howard Ella*

A topical thread runs through the show’s core as Gertie comes to realise the folly of pursuing fame and fortune, after swapping scratching a living from her Wolds farm’s hen pens for the bright lights of Doncaster’s club scene. Doncaster?!

Meanwhile, co-writer and comic turn Gemma McDonald loves the sound of breaking wind, letting rip at every mention of dishy farmer Kev (principal boy Sara Howlett) being the King of Kale. Her daft lad Jack, with his Billy Bremner hair, strawberry cheeks and looning clown face, is as irrepressible as ever, bonding delightfully with Cornell’s Gertie, Jack mucking about at every opportunity when the dame is seeking to assert motherly authority.

Howlett’s farmer Kev is a classic principal boy, each slapping of a thigh being met with Kev being framed in a spotlight and breaking into a toothpaste-perfect smile. There is a pleasing self-awareness to this handsome performance, coupled with chemistry with Laura Castle’s ever-enthusiastic, humorous Jill, recalling their performance in John Godber’s Teechers Leavers ’22 at the JoRo in 2023.

Partnerships abound in Ella’s production, always a good resource for engendering humour, and key to this show are two such double acts: Cornell’s Gertie with American Abbey Follansbee’s Priscilla the Goose and Jamie and Laura McKeller, from the Deathly Dark Tour ghost walks, teaming up as the villainous Demon Darkheart and his deadpan sidekick Bob Bingalong.

*Whisking up egg puns: Gemma McDonald’s Jack with Laura Castle’s Jill in Mother Goose*

Follansbee has graduated from the Cinderella chorus line to being the golden egg-laying goose on the loose, American accent, big bustle, orange leggings et al, and she brings a song-and-dance flourish to Priscilla in tandem with Cornell.

The McKellers spend time aplenty on the dark side in their nocturnal version of a Deathly day job, but always delivered with more than a dash of humour, and that sense of dark comedy infuses both Jamie’s thespian, shock-haired Darkheart, debt collector and purveyor of the dark arts, and Laura’s dogsbody Bob, a Yorkshire spin on Tony Robinson’s Baldrick in Blackaddder, and no less full of dim suggestions. Laura reveals rather a fine singing voice too.

The principal cast is completed by Holly Smith’s Fairy Frittata with her flow of rhyming couplets and perennially perky interjections. Throughout, choreographer Ami Carter keeps principal dancers, senior chorus and junior teams busy with ensemble routines that fill the stage with more buzz than a beehive, while the animated James Robert Ball is a highly watchable, always engaged musical director.

He extracts fantastic musicianship from his players, who include fellow keyboardist Sam Johnson, whose outstanding musical arrangements are surely worthy of a professional production.

Holly Smith’s Fairy Frittata, left, Sara Howlett’s Kev, the King of Kale, Laura Castle’s Jill, Michael Cornell’s Gertrude Gander, Gemma McDonald’s Jack, Laura McKeller’s Bob Bingalong and Jamie McKeller’s Demon Darkheart in Rowntree Players’ Mother Goose

Out of view but deserving a sustained round of applause are Katie Maloney on reeds, James Lolley on trumpet, James Stockdale on trombone, Micky Moran on guitar, Georgia Johnson on bass and Joel Fergusson on drums. Lena Ella and her costume team deliver the goods as ever.

A quick mention too for a welcome innovation: last Saturday’s matinee was the first interpreted and captioned performance of a panto at the JoRo, presented with interpreter Dave Wycherley and captioner Margaret Hansard in collaboration with York charity Lollipop, Stage Text and ToylikeMe.

Likewise, touch tours for blind and visually impaired theatregoers were provided on Sunday and will be again tomorrow night (10/12/2024). Always a community show, these new additions make it all the more so.

Rowntree Players present Mother Goose at Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, until Saturday, 7.30pm nightly, Tuesday to Saturday, plus 2pm Saturday matinee. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.

December 7, 2024May 22, 2025

Mother Goose on the loose as Rowntree Players get cracking with eggstremely eggy jokes at Joseph Rowntree Theatre

*Michael Cornell’s Gertrude Gander and Gemma McDonald’s Jack in Rowntree Players’ Mother Goose*

LET the egg puns get cracking when Rowntree Players launch their rollicking romp of a 2024 pantomime, Mother Goose, at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, tonight.

The plot? Meet Jack (Gemma McDonald), head of hens at Chucklepatch Farm, with its newest addition to the coop, Priscilla the goose (American Abbey Follansbee). Joined by mum Gertrude Gander (alias Mother Goose, Michael Cornell) and his sister Jill (Laura Castle), they head out on their panto adventure.

Desperate for the showbiz life, Gertrude gives up the Wolds for the bright lights of Doncaster. However, ever-nasty landlord Demon Darkheart (Jamie McKeller, alias Deathly Dark Tour ghost walk host Dr Dorian Deathly) and his assistant Bob (Laura McKeller) will stop at nothing to collect rent, but dishy farmer Kev, the King of Kale (Sarah Howlett) and Fairy Frittata (Holly Smith) will not let the dark side rule.

Traditional casting, still with a female principal boy, combines with modernity in the Players’ panto. “We’ve gone down the fame and fortune route with Mother Goose; less judgemental on the look, more judgemental on the pursuit of fame and fortune, which is so much part of the modern age,” says director and co-writer Howard Ella.

“Pantomime keeps evolving as the national outlook changes and the politics change, ” says director and co-writer Howard Ella. “It’s that constant dynamic tension between tradition and relevance, and if you get it right, you have a very happy audience – but if you get it wrong, you can upset people.

“It’s not about being right-on; it’s about accessing each particular audience. You have to reach the broadest audience, and that constant challenge is what keeps our show fresh.”

After playing Ugly Sister Miranda to Jamie McKeller’s Cassandra in Cinderella last year, Michael Cornell steps into the dame’s boots vacated by long-serving Graham Smith, who chose not to audition this year.

*On the dark side: Jamie McKeller’s Demon Darkheart and Laura McKeller’s Bob Bingalong in Mother Goose*

“It’s a different set-up from Ugly Sister, doing it on his own as the dame,” says Howard. “The joy, the challenge, is that it’s Mother Goose; it’s the dame’s show, whereas Cinderella, for example, is essentially Buttons’ show.

“The fact that Michael is a triple threat – singer, actor, dancer, well, almost dancer! – means it’s a completely different take to Graham’s dame or Barry Benson’s dame before that. He knows it’s the dame’s show and that energy is a real buzz.

“There’s a point where the dame is out there for 30 pages, so she’s the glue, the engine behind the show.”

Abbey Follansbee graduates from the chorus line in Cinderella to play Priscilla the goose. That name? “She’s from the USA,” says Howard. “I don’t want to give too much away, other than to say she’s a tour de force as the goose.

“Mother Goose is fairly light on plot, so the challenge is how do you tell the story and how do you do the goose? “The plot takes you down a line and you just follow it; Abbey’s goose, Priscilla, just becomes livelier and livelier, and cheekier too, and yes, the goose will have an American accent!

“Leni [Ella] and Jackie [Holmes] have been working on the goose’s costume and they’ve created an amazing combo of dress and costume, with a big bustle, flying hat and goggles, so it’s impressionistic.”

Howard is joined for a third year in the writing team by the show’s regular clown-faced comic character, Gemma McDonald. “Gemma is as full of daftness and energy as ever. Where does she get all that energy from?! How she has this unbounding energy, as I get older and older by comparison, is unfathomable.

*Laura Castle’s Jill, Michael Cornell’s Gertrude Gander and Gemma McDonald’s Jack in Mother Goose*

“Each writing partnership is different, though I can’t let go of the steering wheel, but you need a bright mind to bounce ideas off, because there’s so much riffing in panto comedy,” he says. “Gemma’s enjoyment of the puerile absolutely counters my more sophisticated comic taste!

“I like a good pun; she likes a ripping fart gag, and you need both. The battle is keeping it fresh, and so much of that comes from the cast because our show has gradually revolved and resolved.”

The 2024 cast features not only Jamie McKeller, alias ghost tour host Dr Dorian Deathly, as the villainous Demon Darkheart, but also his partner in Deathly Dark Tours, Laura McKeller, as his deadpan assistant, Bob Bingalong.

“Playing the villain is Jamie’s natural space but he constantly works on freshening it up and bringing new things to it, developing it in rehearsals. Having Laura there by his side has brought another dynamic to it: a push-and-pull partnership.”

Howard draws attention to the bond of York Mix radio presenter Laura Castle’s Jill and Sara Howlett’s Kev, the King of Kale. “Laura is really good at what she does, with proper comedy bones. She and Sara really bonded in the John Godber play they did together [Teechers in March 2023], and you can feel that on stage, so we milk that chemistry of them knowing each other so well,” he says.

“Holly Smith, who plays Fairy Frittata, was in Shakers with Laura, so it’s like having all the alumni from Jamie McKeller’s Godber productions in this year’s panto. The cast are a real company with no ego, so rehearsals have been an absolute dream.”

The musical director is James Robert Ball, sparking up Sam Johnson’s arrangements to the max. “Sam’s arrangements are phenomenal,” says Howard. “When I find a song that I think will work in panto, I can say to him, ‘Can you ‘panto-fy it with cow bells or whatever?’.

*Sara Howlett’s farmer Kev, the King of Kale, and Laura Castle’s Jill in Rowntree Players’ Mother Goose. “We milk the chemistry of them knowing each other so well,” says director Howard Ella*

“James’s great talent is to get the ‘noise’ out of people when they perform. It’s amazing to watch. He’s one of the most gifted musicians I’ve met.”

Ami Carter provides the choreography once more. “Or ‘the long-suffering choreographer Ami Carter’, I should say, putting up with me interfering left, right and centre!” says Howard.

“Look at the strength of the team we’ve built up over the past 15 years. I might be the Pied Piper at the front, but this pantomime is the sum of all its parts.

“We also remain lucky that we have a workshop and prop store, and we’re very conscious that for a modern am-dram company to have those properties is really rare, enabling us to put on a pantomime as near to professional standards as possible, but, boy, does it rely on teamwork.”

Saturday’s opening matinee marks the launch of a new initiative by the Rowntree Players. “It will be our first-ever captioned and signed performance, spearheaded by Gemma [McDonald] and Abbey [Follansbee], with captions and signing on stage, all being done in conjunction with Lollipop [the York charity that offers opportunities for children and young people with any degree of deafness from mild to profound and their families to meet and build friendships with others].

“We will also have touch tours for blind and visually impaired theatregoers, with an audio introduction to give them a description of the sets and costumes, on Sunday and Tuesday. This is a big step for us and for the Joseph Rowntree Theatre too, and we’re delighted to be doing it.”

Rowntree Players in Mother Goose, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, December 7 to 14. Performances: today, 2pm (limited ticket availability) and 7.30pm (limited); Sunday, 2pm (last few tickets) and 6pm (limited); December 10, 7.30pm (limited); December 11, 7.30pm (limited), December 12 (last few tickets); December 13, 7.30pm (limited); December 14, 2pm (sold out) and 7.30pm (last few tickets). Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.