1968 - the summer of love, youth unrest in Paris, London, Chicago, Falkirk… wait, Falkirk? Well, it was hardly major rioting but the letters page of the local paper was ablaze about underage sex and drugs - something had to be done! Dr Charlie Lynch of Glasgow University tells us about Falkirk’s moral panic as the permissive society reached the Forth Valley. But we’ve a stranger darker story to tell from the 1880s - when a ruthless manipulative conman and abuser turned up in Dundee. Brother Alphonse was a fake monk. Yes, that was indeed a way to make a living. But he also had a ghastly secret. Dr Hannah Telling of the Institute of Historical research uncovers an uncannily modern can of worms.

The predacious great diving beetle of Fife - a beastie the world is not yet ready for (or at least Susan Morrison isn’t ready for it) - we’ll be exploring its role in pointing to the Kingdom’s history of general sogginess and water bodies with entomologist Dr Jack Maclachlan of the University of Maine who’s in pursuit of Fife’s lost lochs. Then to Sierra Leone to find out what a Scottish qualified doctor made of the idea of ‘human leopards’ with Dr Christine Whyte of Glasgow University. Finally to one of the most vibrant courts in Scottish history where Dr Amy Blakeway of St Andrews University introduces us to James V and his menagerie of pets - including the plus-size parrot and the naughty dogs.

From the 17th century to the 1970s, sex and the single girl has always caused anxieties. Trouble brewed in the 1970s when unmarried women started to ask for the pill. Oral historian, Kristin Hay of Strathclyde University has been interviewing folk to find out what it was like. She’s on [email protected] if you want to join her project on contraception use in Scotland. But it was always the case that the guardians of morality worried about what all the single ladies were up to - especially when there were large number of young free and (at least pretending to be) single soldiers in town for them to get involved with. Dr Mikki Brock of W&L University takes Susan to 1650s Ayr when Oliver Cromwell’s Army came to town.

It took more than chutzpah to open a contraceptive clinic in 1920s Aberdeen. Family planning pioneer, Fenella Paton had money, connections and courage. Dr Alison McCall shows us why the clinic was needed and how it made a difference.

Susan Morrison finds out from Dr Valerie Wright of Glasgow University about how the city sought to house its single working women after WW2 - and did it in style in Crathie Court nicknamed ‘The Spinster Flats’. Moving to Ayrshire, witchcraft historians Dr Lizanne Henderson of Glasgow and Laura Moffat of Strathclyde University introduce us to the strange 16th century case of Bessie Dunlop who allegedly made friends with a ghost and chatted to fairies, and then it’s off to Enlightenment Edinburgh with Dr Kevin Sienna of Trent University in Ontario for a bad case of the pox - how did they treat syphilis back then?

Dr Michelle Brock on repentance in the face of the plague in Ayr. When the Bubonic Plague bore down on the town in the 17th century, the inhabitants looked not so much to the doctors, but to the minister for a plan to stop it. He had one - every occupational group in the town should get together, work out what their sins were that had angered God, and publicly confess to turn God's wrath away. Amazingly, they were spared - but we wouldn't recommend this nowadays!

Dr Tawny Paul on credit in 18th century Edinburgh. How your credit depended on your moral character if you were a woman.

Dr Allan Kennedy on Gilderoy the Highland bandit and the truth behind Highland outlaws, not the handsome bare-chested warriors of the covers of romance novels but actually more like Begbie from 'Trainspotting' in a kilt.

In winter when the nights were fair drawing in and the wind and rain howling outside, there was nothing Scots of yesteryear liked better than to gather round the fire with their pals and tell tales of devils and warlocks and ghosts and ghouls. We don't have a crackling fire for our spooky supernatural special, but we do have Susan Morrison's front room and a posse of historians on the couch to tell us tales of poltergeists, witches, devils and hellfire. Dr Martha McGill has stories about things that go bump in the night in Darkest Leith. Dr Mark Jardine has a tale from Galloway of Covenanting ministers, devils and a bold atheist beggar. Ciaran Jones of Edinburgh University tells us about the servant girl in Irvine who claimed to have raised the Devil and Dr Louise Yeoman revisits the ghastly tale of Major Thomas Weir 'the warlock' and his downfall.

Susan Morrison and Louise Welsh swap tales of Scotland's darker history in a spooky special, finding out who gets buried in a bog and getting up close and personal with an accused witch from the early 1700s - Lilias Adie. Susan heads to Dundee University to reconstruct Lilias’ face while Louise Welsh goes to visit what remains of a person who became a bog body, to look at the reality behind one of Scotland’s most famous Gothic novels The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner by James Hogg.

cott Carballo of Stirling University on the pirates of the late 16th century Irish Sea. You might think Port Royal and the Carribean when you think pirates, but maybe you should think Kirkcudbright and Ailsa Craig. Macdonald pirates were roaming the north channel of the Irish Sea using 'Lord of the Rings' style beacon chains to alert them to a fight, meanwhile the south west of Scotland contained towns which doubled as pirate markets.