Mythos - Mythos

## Episode Guide • Transcript

Mythos - Mythos is the first episode of the audio drama Mythos, written by Julian Simpson. It was first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on 5 April 2017.

## Synopsis

Incidents of death from heart failure have spiked at seven times the national average in a small village in Essex. Agent Lairre investigates.

## Plot

Jonathan Hicks, a conspiracy theory podcaster, is brought into the Department of Works because he has been investigating Pleasant Green, an English village that has vanished inexplicably, and the numbers station there.

Hicks meets Agent Lairre, who explains why he is there. He has uncovered something that the Department would like to keep secret from the public: he came close to the truth on Pleasant Green. The Department has brought him in and put a message up on his podcast's website explaining that he is ill and will not be continuing with it. Lairre also explains that upper management wanted to kill him, but Lairre thought it would be better if Hicks worked for the Department. Hicks mansplains the legend of Marie Lairre, the ghost of a French nun who is haunting Borley Rectory, to Lairre. She is unimpressed.

Lairre and Hicks see Johnson. Lairre explains that she wants to go to Hadleigh in Essex, as there is an "accelerated fracture event" taking place there: unfortunate events have happened and Black Shuck has appeared. Lairre is worried that this is happening because someone found a specific book. Johnson approves their movement order and sends Hicks to the quartermaster to get equipped with a department phone with all John Dee grimoires and Enochian wards loaded onto it.

In Hadleigh, Lairre uses an old map to try to find the book. She explains that the book they are looking for has not been seen since it was lost in 1860 when its last known owner, James Murrell, died. Murrell was the last of the Cunning Men.

We cut to a flashback scene in a nursing home, where the wizard, Neboad, visits an 87-year-old man named Seth Taylor and gives him the book saying that it can restore everything he has lost.

Back in Hadleigh, Lairre and Hicks meet a division of Home Guard soldiers in front of the Murrell house. Lairre explains that the house shouldn't be there as it was demolished in 1960. She advises Hicks to load up the Enochian wards on his phone before going in.
Inside the house, they find Seth and Kate Taylor, a young couple with a small boy. Hicks looks Seth Taylor up on his phone and finds out that Seth Taylor is really 87 years old and supposed to be living in a nursing home.

While they are getting their bearings, Black Shuck appears. Lairre questions Seth about the dog and learns that the dog belongs to a man called Neboad, who also gave Seth a book. Lairre asks where they can find Neboad. Kate Taylor says he might be in the pub, which is called The Yew Tree. Lairre thinks this makes sense as yew trees have magical properties. She also thinks Neboad could have caused a fracture deliberately to give himself access to the Middle Ages. He gave the book to Seth Taylor because Kate Taylor is a descendant of James Murrell.

When Lairre and Hicks enter the pub, Lairre ends up in the time period of the Queen's Silver Jubilee in 1977. Hicks ends up in 1603, where there is a forest on the site of the pub, and an actual yew tree. Hicks encounters Neboad, who is attempting a ritual from the spell book. Lairre advises him to activate the wards on his phone again, but Hicks has dropped his phone, so he runs away.

Neboad puts himself and Lairre outside of time to talk. He tries to intimidate Lairre, but she is not fazed. He lets them go back to 1977, where Lairre explains that Hicks having dropped his phone in 1603 will have changed the folk memory of the place. The village pub now has a Wi-Fi password.

Hicks is back at the house of Seth and Kate Taylor. We find out that the house exists outside of time and in all time simultaneously.

Lairre finds Hicks' phone and the book in the yew tree and goes back to the house as well. She and Hicks are in different time periods. They communicate through Seth Taylor. Lairre gives Hicks' mobile phone to Taylor, who gives it to Hicks.

Lairre phones Johnson and asks for permission to invoke "special circumstances" in order to trap Neboad. After this has been granted, she asks for a death certificate for Seth Taylor. She speaks to Seth and Kate and learns that Kate knows that she is a ghost. She proposes Seth amend the spell in the book to seal the fracture and move the house out of time and out of memory so Seth and Kate can stay there forever.

Lairre then transforms into a folk memory of herself as Marie Lairre, the French nun who haunts Borley Rectory, and Hicks realises that Lairre isn't just named like the ghost, she *is* the ghost. That way, she can transcend time periods and go to 1603 to trap Neboad there and get Hicks out. She explains as much to Hicks at the end. The two are on their way to the pub for a well-deserved drink when they get a call from Johnson telling them they are going to Glamis Castle to investigate a secret room "that stopped being secret at 11:30 this morning when two American tourists stumbled onto it" and which, according to "the most accurate measurement, based on eyewitness reports, [...] seems to stretch for approximately 50 miles and encompasses extensive forests and a mountain range." As the incident has been classified at a fairly high level, Johnson will be involved in investigating it as well as Lairre and Hicks. Lairre groans but accepts the assignment.

## Cast, Characters, Crew

* Nicola Walker as Lairre
* Tim McInnerny as Johnson
* Jonathan Bailey as Jonathan Hicks
* David Calder as Seth Taylor
* Emma Fielding as Kate Taylor, Nurse, Seth’s mum, Female Occultist, Barmaid, Receptionist
* Steven Mackintosh as Neboad
* Hugh Ross as Aubrey Dawson, Man, Clive, Teacher, Farmer, Vicar, Friend, Doctor, Ted, Male Occultist

* Broadcast Assistant: Holly Slater
* Sound Engineer and Composer: David Thomas

## Notes and Trivia

* The year in which this story is set is somewhat unclear. Early in the story, when talking with Hicks, Lairre refers to the current events in Hadleigh as taking place in *2016*. However, on two occasions later in the story, Lairre specifically refers to the the present day as being *2017*. This contradiction is compounded when in "Glamis", which takes place immediately after this story, Libby Ward refers to the present day as being 2018 (see 'Notes and Trivia' for that episode).
* This story marks David Calder's first appearance in the Pleasant Green Universe.

## Music

* Flugufrelsarinn by Kronos Quartet
* We (Too) Shall Rest by Olafur Arnalds

## References

1. ↑ Sweet Talk Productions: Mythos - Mythos