Sarah Perry’s Melmoth, Spookiness and Fear.

Matthew Sweet talks to the author of The Essex Serpent, Sarah Perry, about her re-imagining of the Melmoth story, first published in 1920 by the Irish playwright, novelist and clergyman Charles Maturin. His Melmoth the Wanderer was a critique of Catholicism following a scholar who sells his soul to the devil in exchange for living 150 years longer. Sarah Perry's version begins in Prague with a female scholar who feels she's being watched. Plus, experts on the Gothic Roger Luckhurst and Helen Wheatley discuss the apparently perennial appeal of the Gothic in literature, cinema and on television. And, Matthew talks to Richard Maclean Smith, whose podcast and book UNEXPLAINED report on the odd, mysterious and uncanny.

Melmoth by Sarah Perry is out now. Professor Roger Luckhurst is the author of The Mummy's Curse: The true history of a dark fantasy, Helen Wheatley's publications include Gothic Television Rosemary's Baby (1968) was directed by Roman Polanski from the novel by Ira Levin. Night of the Living Dead is a 1968 American independent horror film written, directed, photographed and edited by George A. Romero

Producer: Luke Mulhall