Everyone Dies In Sunderland: A podcast about growing up terrified in the eighties and nineties

On November 26th 1980 John Welch checked into room 101 of the Swallow Hotel in Newcastle – but he would never check out.

Welch was found murdered in his room the same evening. Nothing had been taken, no weapon ever found. Half a cup of tea and a half-eaten sandwich next to his body.

After 40 years, the murder is still unsolved .

We also take a look at the Rendlesham Forest Incident, where aliens briefly invaded Suffolk, and the Southern Television Broadcast Interruption when Vrillon from Galactic Command commandeered children’s cartoons to warn viewers of a coming apocalypse. We’re genuinely surprised you don’t remember.

Along the way, we remember punk rock provocateur GG Allin and his unlikely role in “He’s All That”, Clarks Hardware and inflatable armchairs and Gareth is attacked with a melon.

You remember the 1993 sitcom The Lion and the Unicorn, right? You must do.

You can reach us on email [email protected], on Twitter at @everyonediespod, on Facebook and Instagram.

Everyone Dies in Sunderland explores some of the darkest moments of North East history, and includes jokes. These jokes will never be at the expense of victims or their families and will always be at the expense of people who deserve to be mocked, robbed of their power and shown up for the idiots they really are. If you’re easily offended or personally connected to the events we’re discussing though,you probably shouldn’t listen.

If anyone does have information that could help this or any other historic investigation then they can call police on 101 or report it anonymously through Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

Our theme music is the song “Steady Away” by Pete Dilley and can be found on his album Half-truths and Hearsay which you can/should buy/stream here:

https://petedilley.bandcamp.com/album/half-truths-and-hearsay

“I didn’t pour my heart out, for you to fancy me”

In today’s show we revisit the time in 1999 when a Northumberland doctor casually admitted to killing 300 people in a local TV interview.

I’m genuinely surprised you don’t remember.

Doctor David Moor was a much loved GP who would often appear in the regional media as a local medical expert. But one such appearance would lead to him facing a murder charge for helping an apparently terminally ill patient to die. But was Britain’s approach to end-of-life care what was really on trial? And if this was murder, does that mean the Queen’s Granddad got murdered too?

40 years earlier another doctor – John Bodkin Adams – had found himself in a similar position. Was Adams a pioneering doctor who changed the face of palliative care? Or was he lethally useless and more of a danger to his patients than their medical conditions? Or he was he, in fact, literally Britain’s most prolific serial killer?

Along the way, there’s an establishment cover-up, clandestine sexual relationships, clay pigeon shooting fatalities and a welcome(ish) return of Gareth reading poetry.

We also revisit 1999. Rod Hull dies. Whizzer and Chips is nowhere to be found. Kiwi-flavoured 20/20 is consumed. Everyone talking about epigenomics apparently. Nothing like Prince described it.

Trigger warning: This show discusses issues surrounding end of life care and assisted suicide throughout.

You can reach us on email [email protected], on Twitter at @everyonediespod, on Facebook and Instagram.

Our theme music is usually the song “Steady Away” by Pete Dilley and can be found on his album Half-truths and Hearsay which you can/should buy/stream here:

ttps://petedilley.bandcamp.com/album/half-truths-and-hearsay

But for a third show in a row it isn’t. Pete’s getting married though. Congratulations Pete!

“SO DAMN EASY TO CAVE IN, MAN KILLS EVERYTHING”

In the mid 1990s Britain carried out an interesting social experiment to see if taking a children from a chaotic and poverty-ridden childhood in some of most deprived parts of the North, giving them a dehumanising nickname, making them some kind of weird celebrity, and repeatedly publicly condemning in the hope that would stop their offending behaviour.

Rat boy. Spider boy. Worm boy. Boomerang boy. Balaclava boy. The singing defective. Who were they? And what became of them? Did widespread national condemnation work?

Spoiler alert: It didn’t work.

But this is a time when the government literally wanted the justice system to, and this is a quote from the Prime Minister “understand less and condemn more”

And it’s the story of a region too, and by that I mean, this is what they thought of us back then.

DID SOMEONE SAY LISTENER OFFER! LISTEN TO FIND OUT HOW YOU CAN GET 20% OF A SPIRIT SEEKERS GHOST HUNT NEAR YOU!*

It’s 1996! Jarvis Cocker wiggles his bum and then gets beaten up by a man dressed as Buddha! Chas Chandler dies – but not before he’d helped Jimi Hendrix busk near Byker (but not near Byker Grove)! Babylon Zoo spend more time at number one than Liz Truss did at number 10 (or did they?)

John creatively fills that fiscal black hole we’ve heard so much about. Gareth introduces Claire to Mr Pinkwhistle. Roy of the Rovers gets seriously weird.

Who are your bewildering local heroes? People like Lord Latif or the guy from Durham who looks like Mario? Is he a lecturer at the university or did John dream that?

You can reach us on email [email protected], on Twitter at @everyonediespod, on Facebook and Instagram.

Our theme music is performed and written by The Way Out, was it not? Usually though, it’s “Steady Away” by Pete Dilley and can be found on his album Half-truths and Hearsay which you can/should buy/stream here because he’s got a kid on the way and kids need shoes.

https://petedilley.bandcamp.com/album/half-truths-and-hearsay

It’s me. Hi. I’m the problem, it’s me.

*As long as you live in Sunderland.

On May 23rd 1986 Julie Perigo told a friend that she was meeting a man named “Old Geoff”. A week later she was found murdered in her home. Police have never traced “Old Geoff” and 35 years on, her killing remains Sunderland’s longest unsolved murder – despite a list of 6000 suspects.

But could Margaret from the chip shop hold the key to solving this case?

1986 was also the year the bloody and brutal 300 year war between Britain and the Netherlands finally came to an end – we’re surprised you don’t remember it.

Along the way, a baby is stolen – but don’t worry, it’s just one of Janet and Allan Ahlberg’s odder children’s books.

Gareth explains were all the humans have gone in Pixar’s Cars. Claire’s Christmas present is decided. John is bewildered by aspects of his wife’s romantic past. Berwick declares war on Russia.

Everyone Dies in Sunderland explores some of the darkest moments of North East history, and includes jokes. These jokes will never be at the expense of victims or their families and will always be at the expense of people who deserve to be mocked, robbed of their power and shown up for the idiots they really are. If you’re easily offended or personally connected to the events we’re discussing though,you probably shouldn’t listen.

For all our snark, there could be someone still out there with a murderous hatred of women who has never been brought to justice. If anyone does have information that could help this or any other historic investigation then they can call police on 101 or report it anonymously through Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

Our theme music is the song “Steady Away” by Pete Dilley and can be found on his album Half-truths and Hearsay which you can/should buy/stream here:

https://petedilley.bandcamp.com/album/half-truths-and-hearsay

This is the inspiration for the Oh Hai, in case it made no sense at all https://youtu.be/pieK7b4KLL4

Genius steals https://youtu.be/4LOj0T0sm_0

“Sexting you at the mental health talk seems counterproductive”

In the spring of 1988, Britain lost its mind. Public executions. Lynching. A gunfight at a funeral. Four million chickens dying in the aftermath of an interview on regional TV. We’re genuinely surprised you don’t remember.

In the second of a three part series we examine the aftermath of the SAS’ very public killing of three IRA members in Gibraltar, as an establishment ties itself in knots trying to explain how three terrorists so determined to avoid casualties that they will go to extraordinary lengths to ensure their bomb only goes off at a specific time on a Tuesday afternoon are such a threat they have to be shot in the street on the preceding Sunday.

We also take a look at Edwina Curries egg-ceptional efforts to make eggs terrifying! YES! EVEN OMLETTES WERE SCARY IN THE EIGHTIES.

Along the way, Nazi saplings! Pork scratching fatalities! Claire improves her snatch. Gareth doesn’t like egg puns. John has a business proposition for former England goalkeeper David Seaman. Edwina Currie is surprisingly vindicated.

You can reach us on email [email protected], on Twitter at @everyonediespod, on Facebook and Instagram.

Our theme music is the song “Steady Away” by Pete Dilley and can be found on his album Half-truths and Hearsay which you can/should buy/stream here:

https://petedilley.bandcamp.com/album/half-truths-and-hearsay

Hello this week to @theJaMcastpod and @The80sand90s.com and of course @yeoldecrimepod and @oklahomicide. Always those guys.

People might laugh at your tattoos, when they do get new ones in completely garish hues