Seasonal paranormal media roundup - December releases worth your time

Right, it's that time of year when paranormal documentaries start dropping for the festive season viewing. I've been working through a few and thought I'd share what's worth your time and what's absolute nonsense.

Worth watching:

Solstice Phenomena: Ancient Sites and Modern Mysteries (available on BritBox, £4.99 per episode or full series £19.99) - genuinely decent production, well-researched, interviews actual archaeologists and paranormal researchers. Bit slow in places but respectable. Specifically decent on the solstice-UAP connection without being too speculative.

Absolute dreck:

Haunted Halloween Special (some reality TV nonsense) - fake jump scares, manufactured drama, clearly staged encounters. Avoid unless you enjoy cringe-comedy.

Podcasts: "The Quirk Hour" is genuinely excellent for winter listening. New series started November, focuses on UK-specific cases. Episodes are about 45 minutes, realistic approach, no sensationalism.

Anyone else got recommendations? Would be good to have a proper list of quality paranormal media that isn't complete tosh.

Been watching the BritBox series - it's surprisingly good. The Stonehenge episode is particularly compelling, especially the footage they got of unusual luminescence during the solstice. Not conclusive, but definitely worth discussing. The historian they bring in is balanced, which is refreshing.

The Quirk Hour podcast is good but I found the latest episode about Spring-heeled Jack a bit thin on evidence. They kind of hand-waved the whole thing as Victorian hysteria without properly examining some of the stranger reports. Still worth listening to though, and the host is likeable.

Bit of a tangent, but has anyone read the new book about Borley Rectory? "Ghosts of Essex: The Borley Mystery Revisited" by Helen Barker (£16.99, Titan Books). Just finished it and it's remarkably thorough. Goes into the hoaxes but also the genuinely unexplained elements. Solid work, worth the money if you're into haunted locations.

The BritBox series is nicely produced but it's doing what a lot of paranormal media does - presenting speculation as fact and treating correlations as causation. That said, it's entertainment value is high and it doesn't make wild claims. Better than most of what's out there.