Leap in the Dark – Jack Be Nimble: Pathways Through Paranormal Powers and Between the Roots of Magic and Glamour

Leap in the Dark, as I wrote in A Year In The Country: Lost Transmissions (2023), is a paranormal-orientated British television anthology series broadcast on the BBC for four series in 1973, 1975, 1977 and 1980. There were 24 episodes in total, with the first series being documentaries, while series two and three mixed documentary footage with dramatisations of real-life cases of paranormal events. Series four featured original dramas themed around the paranormal, and included episodes written by, amongst others, renowned writers Fay Weldon and Russell Hoban, alongside Alan Garner and David Rudkin, the latter two of whose work has since come to be associated with “wyrd” rural and folk or otherly pastoral culture. Jack Be Nimble is the first episode in series four of Leap in the Dark and is one of only two screenwriting credits for Peter Redgrove, who wrote thirty-plus poetry books, alongside writing and/or co-writing with his second wife, Penelope Shuttle, numerous novels, non-fiction…