Owen Davies, Ceri Houlbrook and Folklore: a journey through the past and present

Series One digest

Now that our first ever series of Folklore Matters is out there, hosts and researchers, Diane Rodgers and Sophie Parkes-Nield, give a quick overview of their favourite moments.

Helen Wheatley and Spooky Television

Professor Helen Wheatley is a legendary television scholar who has published seminal books, such as Gothic Television, the award-winning Spectacular Television: Exploring Televisual Pleasure, and more recently Television/Death, a study of death, bereavement and dying on television. In this episode of Folklore Matters - the final episode of series one - Helen joins Diane Rodgers in the studio to talk about folk horror (especially when it wasn't really known as folk horror), gothic television, and why television makers in the late twentieth century scared children.

Lucy Wright and Creating Folklore

Folklore is massive on social media, and around May Day and Halloween, you may have seen films and photographs of people dancing on their own or in small groups to celebrate seasonal change. If so, it may have been at the instigation of artist and activist, Lucy Wright, our guest in this latest episode of Folklore Matters. Lucy is a prolific polymath: academic, musician, artist, and writer. In this episode, she discusses who gets to participate in folklore, and how and why creation matters.

Owen Davies, Ceri Houlbrook and Folklore: a journey through the past and present

This special episode of Folklore Matters is a recording of a live event at Off The Shelf 2025, at the Millennium Gallery in Sheffield [https://offtheshelf.org.uk/events/folklore-a-journey-through-the-past-and-present-owen-davies-and-ceri-houlbrook/]. Part of the National Folklore Survey for England team, Professor Owen Davies and Dr Ceri Houlbrook published a groundbreaking book in 2025, entitled Folklore: a journey through the past and present [https://manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526180384/]. This episode presents Owen and Ceri live in conversation with David Clarke, speaking about their book, the decision to write it and their introduction to folklore, but also their involvement in the Survey project. As some of the audience questions couldn't be heard very well in the recording, Diane Rodgers interprets so Owen and Ceri's answers can be contextualised.

Dominic Hardy and Children of The Wicker Man

Contemporary discussions of folklore soon arrive at cult film The Wicker Man. In this episode of Folklore Matters, David, Sophie and Diane meet Dominic Hardy, son of Robin Hardy, director of The Wicker Man, to learn about the film's lasting cultural legacy, but also the film's impact on Dominic's family. Dominic, with his brother, Justin, produced a film and recently published a book, both entitled Children of The Wicker Man, that interrogates their experiences.