Witchfinder

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The BBC have just released a new comedy series set in East Anglia and Essex in the 1640s. The story follows a failing witchfinder taking a prisoner to court in order to impress Matthew Hopkins, the Witchfinder General. 

An impressive cast, the series was written and produced by the team behind Alan Partridge. 

 More details here

Publicity still ©BBC

The witchcraft stuff is fairly accurate, apart from continuing the myth of witches being burned alive (they weren't, they were hung). The series looks wonderful, and is well written and researched: not exactly laugh out loud funny, but this is well worth a watch.  

This is gentle smile to yourself humour rather than clutch your sides funny - it took until the very end of episode 4 for me to actually laugh out loud.

Plus there is the bonus of hearing some Beirut over the closing credits on the first and last episodes.

The first episode aired on Tuesday 8th March, 10pm BBC 2, all episodes are now available on BBC iPlayer. 

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