The Penny Dreadful Story Hour: Stories for London Street Urchins!

015: The plunder of murdered men — could it have been a... a VAMPIRE? — the Highwayman's catacombs — the revenge of Spring-Heel'd Jack — a furtive midnight marriage — and more!

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FIRST — in Flash Academy, we'll learn what blowing the gab, drawing a cork, cat lap, "as right as a trivet," and Captain Flasham meant, in highwaymen's slang.

THEN — we hit five different story papers from the Golden Age of Penny Dreadfuls in old London!

IN SWEENEY TODD, Ch. 41-42 (starts at :06 mins.)—

  • Sir Richard Blunt and Mr. Crotchet find some very singular things in Sweeney Todd’s house, including what Crotchet proclaims “the toggery of the smugged ‘uns.” Crotchet decides to stay in the house and see what he can learn.
  • Meanwhile, the shoemaker next door and his wife, unable to get into the room they rented to Sir Richard, get the idea to go next door and ask Todd if they can go through his attic to get into the room!


IN VARNEY THE VAMPYRE Ch. 4 (starts at 0:32 mins.) —

  • Henry Bannerworth stands watch in poor Flora’s room until morning. Then Mr. Marchdale speaks, in dreadful tones, his fear that the midnight visitor may have been – A VAMPYRE! Henry is aghast; but it turns out everyone else has come to the same conclusion, and worse, the servants have spread the word all over town!


IN BLACK BESS Ch. 4 — (starts at :59 mins.)

  • Our hero, Highwayman Dick Turpin, explores the cellar beneath the strange hut in the woods, and they’re a regular set of catacombs ... complete with the dead!THEN — someone starts pounding on the door of the hut, upstairs ...


IN SPRING-HEEL'D JACK Ch. 4 (starts at 1hr. 10mins.) —

  • Jack leaves his two would-be captors in their underwear, trying to find a way to get out of the meadow through the thorny hedge. Then he finds a couple of overeager cops, tells them Spring Heel’d Jack is in the meadow, and kicks back to watch the fun as the cops arrest the two.


IN THE BLACK BAND Ch. 4 (starts at 1hr. 25mins.) —

  • Arch-bandit Colonel Bertrand starts ardently but secretly wooing the sweet and innocent Ellen Clavering, under the pseudonym “Philip Darcy.” He asks her to marry him, then sort of swindles her into marriage by pretending to be sick. Once they are married, off they go. But what will Ellen’s father think?

Answers to Flash Academy words appear at 1hr. 34mins.

Join Professor Flash, a.k.a. Finn J.D. John. for a 90-minute spree through the story papers of old London! Grab a flicker of blue ruin, unload your stumps, and let's go!

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The Penny Dreadful Story Hour: Stories for London Street Urchins!By Pulp-Lit Productions
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