RTÉjr Podcasts have never been short of a scare at Halloween. From spooky tales in Ireland's Unreal to the all out ghoulish takeover that is Spooky FM, we make shows with a lot of bite.
And we couldn’t let this Halloween go by without something suitably spectral. Because we’d all welcome the Chance of a Ghost, our spooky new comedy drama for the whole family.
Meet Amy and Dagobert, two 11-year-old paranormal podcasters on the hunt for evidence of things that go bump in the night.
Find Chance of a Ghost wherever you get your podcasts or like and subscribe here.
Enter the world of the weird and wonderful as our intrepid investigators and Dag’s mum Sylvia (because 11-year-olds don’t drive) follow spooky leads to the likes of St Michan’s Church, inspiration for Bram Stokers’s Dracula. Kilmainham Gaol, a tourist destination haunted by Ireland’s past. And all across ireland to answer the call of the great beyond. A word of warning: it’s not just the ghosts you need to watch out for in this series...
Written by Dara T Higgins, this is his first foray into writing work for children, and he has oodles of fun with the endless possibilities offered by the afterlife. Over to Dara...
"As a kid I was obsessed with ghost stories. I read books, and books, and books all about the phenomena. I believed every creak to be some kind of ghoul on its midnight wanderings. Back then we were surrounded by old, crumbling buildings, abandoned by all but the lonely spirits that wandered their mouldering halls. Ghosts were everywhere, I was sure of it! All the best stories had a ghost at their heart. Even the guys who were supposed to be really good at writing loved a ghost – Shakespeare was always chucking in the revenant of someone or other. Charles Dickens had a load of spirits in his Christmas Carol. If these guys were writing about ghoulies, then they must be true. Right?
As I got older I learned some things. Like old pipes like to contract in the night which leads to creaking, and a lot of those old photos of ghosts at Boreley rectory and other mega-haunted sites were doctored by enthusiasts who kinda got ahead of themselves. Science can explain almost everything we think could be a spook. Almost everything. But not quite everything. So why that sudden chill on the back of your neck? Is it science? Or perhaps the icy finger of some long dead messer? And if ghosts didn’t exist, then who ate all my fig rolls? And where are my keys, I’m sure I left them right here. And hold on, whose feet are those. Oh, they’re mine.
Anyhoo. Ghosts. They’re out there, if you look hard enough."
Amy is played by Francesca Europa and she is ably assisted by Giacomo Gastoldi in the role of Dagobert.
Dara himself plays multiple roles as does Cillian O’Donnachadha.
Each episode was lovingly crafted and sound designed by the RTÉjr Podcast team of Nicky Coghlan, Aoife O’Neill and Niamh McManus
Our amazing artwork was designed by Niamh McKeown.
