Name: Witches Of Essex
Released: 2025-10-14T00:00:00.000Z
Cast: Rylan Clark, Alice Roberts

TV Show · Documentary · History

Rylan Clark teams up with anthropologist Professor Alice Roberts to investigate one of the darkest and most harrowing chapters in British history: the murder of hundreds of women accused of witchcraft during the 16th and 17th centuries.

2025 · 43m

Starring Rylan Clark, Alice Roberts

Director Paul Olding

EPISODE 1

Hatfield Peverel

Rylan collaborates with Professor Alice Roberts to reopen the 1566 witch trials in Essex, where Agnes Waterhouse, her daughter and her sister face accusations of witchcraft and dark magic.
EPISODE 2

St Osyth

Rylan teams up with Prof Alice Roberts to investigate the St Osyth witch trial of 1582. A dispute between two friends escalates, leading to accusations of witchcraft, which were amplified by a magistrate eager to exert power.
EPISODE 3

Manningtree

`Witchfinder General' Matthew Hopkins' horrific crusade against innocent women started in the modest town of Manningtree in 1647. Little is known about Hopkins' early life. He was born around 1620 to John Hopkins, a Puritan clergyman, in Suffolk.