What is Witches of Essex about?
Essex resident Rylan Clark teams up with Professor Alice Roberts to investigate one of the darkest, most harrowing chapters in British history: the state-sanctioned murder of hundreds of innocent women on charges of witchcraft.
The series focuses on three notorious witch trials which took place in Essex during the late 16th and early 17th centuries. In each episode our hosts re-open a cold case investigation to discover the reasons for the victimisation and persecution of these women.
Guided by original court documents plus a team of historians, psychologists, and medical experts, they visit the towns and villages in Essex where the women lived and died, with each story brought to life through scenes of premium scripted drama. Why were these women found guilty of witchcraft, and what - or whom - drove their persecution?
Part documentary, part reconstruction, the three-part series aims to lift the lid on this often-forgotten part of British History – and how it has shaped the country as we know it today.
Who stars in Witches of Essex?
Presenting the documentary series are:
Rylan Clark – First finding fame after auditioning for X Factor in 2012, Rylan later went on to win Celebrity Big Brother in 2013, using the show as a launchpad for his career as a TV presenter. He is now one of the most known faces on British TV, appearing on shows including This Morning, Big Brother’s Bit on The Side and Strictly Come Dancing: It Takes Two.
He has been a commentator for the Eurovision Song Contest since 2018 and hosted Ready Steady Cook and Supermarket Sweep. Most recently, he has been working with Rob Rinder on the travel series Rob and Rylan's Passage to India and Rob and Rylan's Grand Tour, and hosts Paramount+’s Dating Naked UK.
Professor Alice Roberts – Professor Alice Roberts is a British academic, author and TV broadcaster, focusing on history and anthropology. First seen on TV series Coast, she was part of the cast of Time Team back in 2001 as a bone specialist. From there, she has appeared in a string of TV shows, including The Incredible Human Journey, How to Build a Dinosaur, and The Big Dig.
Most recently, she led five-part Sky History documentary series, Curse of the Ancients with Alice Roberts, two series of Sky History’s Royal Autopsy, and multiple ‘...By Train’ series for Channel 4. The latest instalment Ancient Greece by Train was released in March 2025.
How many episodes of Witches of Essex are there?
Witches of Essex is three episodes long, with each episode seeing the pair jumping to a key moment in time during the Witch Trials that took place in Essex.
The pair’s investigations are accompanied by dramatised re-enactments of the key stories heard during the course of the episode.
Each episode runs for 45 minutes.
These are:
Episode One
The early years of the reign of Queen Elizabeth I was a time when people believed in magic and the supernatural. So much so that an Act of Parliament made witchcraft a felony punishable by death.
Rylan and Alice open a cold case investigation into the first Essex Witch Trial which took place in Chelmsford in 1566. Their investigation centres on a family of poor women from the nearby village of Hatfield Peveril. Agnes Waterhouse, her daughter Joan Waterhouse, and her sister Elizabeth face the Queen’s Attorney, in a test trial of the newly passed Witchcraft Act. The women are accused of having demonic animal spirits and causing death by dark magic.
As the trial unfolds, Alice and Rylan explore how Elizabeth helps fuel the allegations by cursing her abusive boyfriend, how Agnes’ Catholic faith is seen as witchery and how the fanciful testimony of a young neighbour, Agnes Browne against Joan eventually leads to her mother’s false confession and death.
Episode 2
Rylan and Alice open a cold case from 1582, where state sponsored violence against witchcraft sweeps through Elizabethan England. Rylan and Alice explore the village of St Osyth, where a petty feud between two peasant women grows to engulf an entire village.
Healer Ursley Kempe falls out with friend Grace Thurlowe over payment for her services. The disagreement is then whipped up by ambitious local magistrate Brian Darcey and the first mass witch hunt of the Elizabethan era takes hold. Accusations fly as neighbour turns against neighbour. Alice and Rylan discover how Ursley is accused of murder by witchcraft when Grace’s daughter dies in mysterious circumstances.
Ursley buckles under coercive questioning by the ruthless Darcey and starts deflecting blame onto others, while Grace helps whip up hysteria, turning on lesbian Elizabeth Bennet as having unnatural, devil-driven carnal desires.
Episode 3
80 years after the first Essex witch trial, England is in the midst of a bloody Civil War, and a resurgence of witchcraft hysteria.
Rylan and Alice open their investigation into the rise of the self-styled Witch Finder General Matthew Hopkins who in 1645, starts his reign of terror in the coastal town of Manningtree. Driven by his fanatical Puritanical beliefs and triggered by the death of his nephew, Hopkins starts targeting women on the fringes of society.
Disabled woman Bess Clarke (suffers abuse and torture along with her young friend Rebecca West as Matthew and his associates seek to rid Essex of witches by any means possible. Alice and Rylan explore Hopkins’ motivations and his anti-witch zealotry, the abusive techniques he used to extract confessions, and how these techniques were even exported out of Essex to the rest of the world.
How can I watch Witches of Essex?
Witches of Essex starts Tuesday, 14 October at 9pm on Sky HISTORY.
All episodes will be available to watch on demand on NOW and HISTORY Play from 14 October.
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