Podcast / The Springheel Saga

"It's the story of a legend... the legend of Springheel'd Jack!" – James M. Rymer

"The Devil doesn't walk the streets of London... and he never has."

— Jonah Smith.

The Springheel Saga is a fantasy-adventure audio series which follows the exploits of Victorian policeman, Jonah Smith, in his lifelong quest to capture the infamous bogeyman, Spring-Heeled Jack. Released between 2011 and 2016, it was written by Jack Bowman and Robert Valentine, and produced by The Wireless Theatre Company.

The first three-part series, The Strange Case of Springheel'd Jack (2011), is set during the Winter of 1837 and concerns Constable Jonah Smith's investigation into the mysterious phantom attacker.

The second series, The Legend of Springheel'd Jack (2013), is set in 1845 and sees Smith – now a Detective Inspector with Scotland Yard – pursuing Spring-Heeled Jack through the demi-monde of Victorian showbusiness.

The third and final series, The Secret of Springheel'd Jack (released over 2015 and 2016), follows Smith – by now a retired and reclusive alcoholic – as he's dragged by Her Majesty's Government into a final, deadly hunt for the legendary monster.

The entire nine-episode saga can be found here: http://www.wirelesstheatrecompany.co.uk/product-category/the-springheel-saga/

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The Springheel Saga contains examples of:

A — F

• Absurdly Spacious Sewer: The sewers beneath Scratch Row even include a risky jump over the subterranean River Effra.
• Accent Relapse: Hopcraft, who affects an RP accent for most of the story, briefly slips back into a South London accent not unlike Smith's.
• Action Girl: Aristocratic adventuress, Charlotte Fitzrandolph; criminal gang-leader and magician's assistant, Lizzie Coombe; and Prussian spymistress, the Countess de Sadesky.
• Action Prologue: Series 1 opens with Young Jonah getting rescued by his father from a huge tenement fire. Series 3 kicks off with Springheel Jack making a daring raid on Aldershot Barracks.
• Affably Evil: Hopcraft... at least where Smith is concerned. He's Faux Affably Evil with absolutely everyone else.
• Age Cut: The opening Flashback Nightmare cuts from Young Jonah crying out for his lost parents to the adult Jonah waking up.
• The Alcoholic: Mr Peewit is an unhelpful witness until a glass or two of sherry loosens his tongue. By Series 3, Smith has developed a serious drinking problem.
• Almost Dead Guy: Charlotte. She lives just long enough to give Smith a Dying Clue.
• Anyone Can Die: Hooks in Series 1. Charlotte's murder is the Cliffhanger at the end of the first episode of Series 2.
• Aristocrats Are Evil: Lord Wayland and the Countess de Sadesky are both prime examples. Averted in the case of The Duke of Wellington, who's just a silly old blowhard.
• The Atoner: Hopcraft becomes this in the final episode of Series 3 as a direct result of his transformative encounter with Springheel Jack, the previously psychopathic Hopcraft develops empathy and a conscience. Wracked with remorse, he waits twenty-seven years for Smith to return in Springheel Jack's spaceship.
• Auction of Evil: Sadesky and Jaeger's primary scheme is to hold one of these between Russia, Germany and Britain.
• Bad Guy Bar: The Morgan Arms public house is at the centre of Wayland's frame-up job on Thomas Millbank, and the Fighting Cocks Inn is an extremely rough dive where a Bar Brawl breaks out.
• The Baroness: The Countess de Sadesky.
• Bar Brawl: Lizzie instigates one in the Fighting Cocks Inn by punching an unruly patron when he interrupts the magic act.
• Battle Butler: Wayland's manservant, Blackaby.
• Big Bad: Lord Wayland in Series 1, Hopcraft in Series 2, and the Countess de Sadesky in Series 3.
• Bookcase Passage: Smith, Charlotte and Hooks discover a variant of this trope in the Scratch Row church. By pressing the eye of a stone grotesque, a Secret Underground Passage is revealed, leading to the crypt.
• The Brute: D'Urberville.
• Bullet Catch: Cuthbert and Lizzie perform the bullet-catch trick at Bartholomew Fair. Oscar later attempts to use Lizzie's pistol against Springheel Jack, only to realise it's loaded with blanks.
• By-the-Book Cop: Jonah Smith starts out as an idealistic, straight-arrow Police Constable who doesn't drink on duty. By Series 2 he's swigging from a hip-flask at crime scenes.
• The Call Knows Where You Live: Smith turns down spymaster Anstruther's request for help, and promptly gets kidnapped by the Prussians. Ironically, Anstruther did warn him he was probably already a target whether he liked it or not.
• The Cameo:
  • Queen Victoria briefly appears, played by former Doctor Who companion, Katy Manning.
  • The distinctive voice of 'Mission Control' in the 1977 epilogue belongs to Shane Rimmer, who is most famous for voicing Scott Tracy in Thunderbirds, playing B-52 co-pilot, Capt. Ace Owens, in Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove and appearing in several early James Bond films, most notably The Spy Who Loved Me.
• Cargo Cult: Hopcraft directly invokes this trope when discussing the Box of Emet:
  Hopcraft: When a ship's compass washes up on the shore of a tropical island, a primitive savage – not understanding its guiding principles – will assume that the object is magic. An intelligent savage, however, will go in search of the object's owner... and ask him how it works.
• Character Development: Over the course of the three series, Smith evolves from an idealistic 25-year-old PC to an obsessed, hard-drinking DI in his mid-thirties, to a despondent and tubercular 65-year-old man given one last shot at redemption. His greatest single moment of character development occurs in Series 2 when he is confronted by Springheel Jack in his attic lair and realises that the strange being is friendly and frightened rather than hostile. From that moment, Smith becomes his ally instead of his hunter.
• Clear My Name: Smith's primary goal for most of Series 2.
• Cliffhanger: The Springheel Saga boasts multiple examples:
  • Series 1, Episode 1: D'Urberville chokes Smith with his garrote.
  • Series 1, Episode 2: A huge stone door blocks off the heroes' escape from the crypt, seemingly crushing Smith.
  • Series 2, Episode 1: Shot by a mystery assailant, Charlotte dies in Smith's arms and he is mistaken for her killer.
  • Series 2, Episode 2: Cornered by the police on London Bridge, Smith leaps over the edge and plunges into the Thames.
  • Series 3, Episode 1: Captured by the Prussians and tied to a chair, Vecht bids Smith goodbye and someone gets stabbed.
  • Series 3, Episode 2: Trapped underground, surrounded by enemies, and with only one bullet left in his pistol, Smith causes a cave-in that buries them all together.
• Cliffhanger Copout: The resolution to the Series 1, Episode 2 cliffhanger is something of a cheat. Although the cliffhanger makes it sound like Smith is crushed by the giant stone door right before their eyes, the resolution has Hooks and Charlotte pull him clear in time.
• Code Name: Anstruther is fond of issuing Lewis Carroll-themed code-names: Hopcraft is 'Cheshire Cat', Sadesky is 'The Queen of Hearts' and Springheel Jack is 'The Jabberwock'. Smith, however, refuses to answer to his given code-name of 'Dormhouse'.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Smith and Hopcraft share one but Hopcraft is too deranged from the experience to realise that there's anything dark or troubled about it.
• Dime Novel: The young Rymer is the author of penny dreadfuls Ada the Betrayed, The Black Monk and Varney the Vampire (which Smith has heard of but not actually read). During the events of Series 2, he tells Smith he's working on a new book, The Leaping Shadow, or The Adventures of Spring-Heeled Jack, but decides to abandons it after the experience of their real-life adventure. However, Rymer doesn't leave the story empty-handed: while taking shelter with the other good guys in a nearby pub, he's inspired to write the tale which the Old Rymer says would finally make his fortune: The String of Pearls, or the tale of Sweeney Todd, the demon barber of Fleet Street.
• Doomy Doomsof Doom: The final episode of Series 2 is The Engine of Doom.
• The Dragon: Jaeger.
• The Dreaded: The memory of seeing Springheel Jack as a child haunts Jonah Smith's dreams, with Jack being indirectly responsible for Smith's parents deaths in the Scratch Row fire. Smith's realisation that Springheel Jack is more than a mere figment of his imagination is what drives his obsession to capture him.
• Drowning My Sorrows: Smith is quite deliberately drinking himself to death at the start of Series 3.
• Dying Clue: Charlotte's final words to Smith are a particularly cryptic clue to the mystery.
• The End... Or Is It?: In a post-credits epilogue set on Barnes Common in 1977, Springheel Jack (or another member of the same alien species) attacks a pair of hapless Spies In a Van.
• Enemy Mine: Smith reluctantly joins forces with a decidedly enthusiastic Hopcraft, purely because the Countess de Sadesky presents a far greater threat. Nevertheless, it does lead to him gaining a better understanding of – and even generate some sympathy for – his bitterest enemy.
• Evil Counterpart: Hopcraft frequently takes great delight in telling Smith how alike they are. Also, the fire-breathing, spring-booted Copycat Jack is an insane and homicidal mockery of Springheel Jack.
• Evil Plan: The Countess de Sadesky's plan to weaponize Springheel Jack's technology threatens the entire world.
• Faux Affably Evil: Lord Wayland. He's initially charming to Smith on their first meeting, and a fine host to his guests at the masquerade ball, but as soon as he's alone the facade drops and he's revealed to be a cruel and heartless monster, more than happy to frame, intimidate or eliminate anyone who gets in his way. On top of that, he's the high priest of a Satanic cult that ritually decimates its new intake of acolytes to give the Devil his due.
• Flashback Nightmare: The Action Prologue of Series 1.
• Framed Clue: The framed group painting of the Harlequin Players leads Lizzie to realise that the Copycat Jack who murdered Maria must be one of the troupe.
• Framing Device: Series 2 begins and ends (and is occasionally interrupted by) the old James M. Rymer, recalling the events of his 'one true story' from the cosy fireside of a London pub.

G — R

• Giant Mook: D'Urberville, aka "The Bermondsey Lurker" is a garrote-wielding mook of giant proportions.
• God Guise: The devil-worshipping Lord Wayland believes Springheel Jack to be Lucifer himself.
• Hanging Judge: Mr. Hardwick, the magistrate at Lambeth Street Court, threatens to have Tom Millbank hanged for contempt of court.
• The Hero: Jonah Smith.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Cuthbert in Series 2.
• High-Dive Escape:
  • Smith's plunge from London Bridge into the Thames.
  • Hopcraft's leap from the Runaway Train into Slough Weir.
• Historical Domain Character: Numerous instances appear in The Springheel Saga. Some are extremely well-known personages, including The Duke of Wellington, Benjamin Disraeli and Queen Victoria, while others are more obscure figures who were all involved in the actual Spring-Heeled Jack case, including victims Lucy Scales, Jane Alsop and Mary Stevens, main suspect Thomas Millbank and magistrate, Mr. Hardwick. Series 2's Unreliable Narrator and Sidekick, James Malcolm Rymer, was the real-life creator of Varney the Vampire and Sweeney Todd.
• Historical Fantasy: The Springheel Saga takes place largely between 1837 and 1904 (spanning the entire Victorian era) and deals with the real-life Spring-Heeled Jack phenomenon, as well as the apocryphal reports and speculative theories associated with his urban legend.
• Hostage for MacGuffin: Lord Wayland makes Charlotte an offer to trade the captive Smith for the Burning Truth.
• Human Sacrifice: In this case, the willing self-sacrifice of an acolyte at a Satanic black mass.
• The Illuminati: The Countess de Sadesky and Jaeger reveal themselves to be the leaders of a secret society called the Order of Perfectibilists – better known as the Bavarian Illuminati.
• Innocent Aliens: Springheel Jack turns out to be just that.
• Karmic Death: The Countess de Sadesky is disintegrated by a Death Ray aboard Springheel Jack's spaceship, a victim of the very technology she hoped to weaponize.
• Living MacGuffin: Springheel Jack himself.
• Lovely Assistant: "Lovely Lizzie" Coombe is magical assistant to The Great Majesto, but as magical assistants go she's more pugnaciously pugilistic than most.
• MacGuffin: The Burning Truth (a mystical pendant) and the Box of Emet (a box with magical properties), which both also happen to be misidentified pieces of alien technology.
• MacGuffin Melee: At Bartholomew Fair, both Springheel Jack and the fire-breathing Copycat are drawn to the Box of Emet at the same moment, and chaos ensues.
• Meaningful Name:
  • Jonah Smith is a stand-in for real-life Victorian detective and former Bow Street Runner, James Lea. Lea's name in some sources is erroneously recorded as Jonas Lea, hence Jonah S(mith).
  • The war-loving Countess de Sadesky shares her name with the Soviet ambassador Alexei de Sadesky in Cold War black comedy, Dr. Strangelove.
• A Minor Kidroduction: We're first introduced to Jonah Smith as a child on the night he first encountered Springheel Jack.
• Mistaken for Murderer: This happens to Smith in Series 2, sending him on a mission to Clear My Name.
• Mugged for Disguise. Hopcraft does this to the Train Guard in Series 2 in order to hijack to locomotive. Considering Smith refuses to explain to Rymer why he himself is dressed like a docker, it's likely Smith has done the same thing.
• The Münchausen: Rymer. He's made his career as a spinner of tall tales, but he claims that The Legend of Springheel'd Jack is his "one true story". Despite this, some of the events that take place are at odds with his narration of them.
• New Era Speech: The Countess de Sadesky and Jaeger give one of these between them.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed:
  • Lord Wayland is an Evil Counterpart of the real-life 'Mad' Marquis of Waterford. In-universe, Waterford makes a brief appearance at Wayland's masquerade ball where it's acknowledged that he is Wayland's distant cousin, "several times removed".
  • Jeremey Stockwell, who plays theatre impresario Oscar Snitterfield, based his vocal performance on cult actor/writer/director Ken Campbell.
• Nostalgic Narrator: Rymer is a prime example of this trope.
• Occult Detective: Jonah Smith. Charlotte and Hopcraft also qualify.
• Odd Couple: Smith and Hopcraft when they join forces.
• Old-Fashioned Copper: As the Metropolitan Police Force was a new invention when Smith and all his colleagues become officers, they are all unavoidably examples of this trope. Smith is the most competent but he's nevertheless fits the profile.
• Ominous Latin Chanting: During Wayland's black mass, although the chant of "Ave Satana!" is certainly both ominous and Latin (meaning 'Hail Satan'), the rest of the incantation - "B'mal elttil a'dah y'ram!" - is actually just 'Mary had a little lamb' intoned backwards.
• Plot-Triggering Death: The murder of Maria Davis at Folly Ditch.
• Psycho for Hire: Hopcraft, in his role as British secret agent 'Cheshire Cat', claims that Her Majesty's Goverment employ him because "a talent for languages and a healthy disregard for the law are qualities they look for, apparently".
• Religion of Evil: Lord Wayland and his Satanic followers are a blatantly evil cult, fully aware of their own wickedness.
• Retired Badass: Smith at the start of Series 3.
• Runaway Train: The climax of Series 2 takes place aboard one.

S — Z

• Sacrificial Lamb: Hooks and Charlotte.
• Sapient Ship: Springheel Jack's spaceship seems to be able to communicate telepathically with Smith.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: When they realise the game is up at the end of Series 1, Chough and D'Urberville flee the scene and never return to the story again.
• Secret Circle of Secrets: The Satanists in Series 1, and the Bavarian Illuminati in Series 3.
• Secret Government Warehouse: The Box of Emet is commandeered by the military and taken to Aldershot barracks where it's locked away forever... until Springheel Jack smashes his way inside to reclaim it.
• Secret Identity: As well as being a magician's assistant, Lizzie is also 'Dreadful Penny', the leader of London's most infamous gang of pickpockets.
• Shadow Archetype: Hopcraft not only fits this archetype perfectly in relation to Smith, but he's Genre Savvy enough to be fully aware of the fact.
• Shout-Out:
  • The opening scene of Series 3, where sentries Private Bernard and Private Francis await a visitation by the ghostly 'Night Terror', is directly lifted from Act 1, Scene 1 of Hamlet.
  • Wayland's black mass incantation name-checks Lucifer's 'dark angels' Mocata (the villain in The Devil Rides Out) and Azal (the ancient alien menace in Doctor Who S8E5 "The Dæmons").
• Shrouded in Myth: No two descriptions of Springheel Jack are alike, and all the characters have their own theories and beliefs about his true nature and the veracity of his exploits. Smith becomes mythologised by association with him, leading Anstruther to remark:
  Anstruther: It's not every former police officer whose file gets stored in the Black Museum.
• Sidekick: Toby Hooks in Series 1, James Malcolm Rymer in Series 2, Hopcraft in Series 3.
• Sinister Subway: The abandoned Scratch Row tube station is a particularly sinister section of The London Underground.
• The Sociopath: Hopcraft, although he describes himself as a 'principled amoralist'. Whatever the hell his principles are he never actually explains.
• Spring-Heeled Jack: The focus of the series details the exploits of Jonah Smith, a Victorian policeman, hunting for the creature over the course of his career. Some of the events in the series are in fact based on "real" historical sightings of Spring-heeled Jack.
• Stage Magician: Cuthbert Leach, aka "The Great Majesto" is the Harlequin Players' doddery illusionist.
• Sufficiently Advanced Alien: Springheel Jack is sufficiently advanced to cure Hopcraft of his psychopathy with a single touch.
• Sword Cane: Hopcraft wields a sword-cane in Series 3, and in Series 2 he carries one that's actually a high-powered air-gun.
• Sympathetic Inspector Antagonist: Although Inspector Garrick is determined to capture Smith, he takes absolutely no pleasure in the task whatsoever.
• Time Dilation: Hopcraft waits 27 years for Smith to return in Springheel Jack's spaceship, and when he does he hasn't aged, having only been gone for a month from his point of view. Smith then does his best to explain the concept of space-time to Hopcraft:
  Smith: Think of it like whisky and women; you spend more on one, you get less of the other.
• Title Drop: Rymer drops the title of Series 2 in the very final moments of his closing narration:
  Rymer: The world moves ever onward, and every day there's less and less wonder in it – so revel in its mysteries while you can. That's why, for me at least, when all is said and done, the important thing is not the truth... but the legend of Springheel'd Jack!
• Torture Technician: For a diplomat, Vecht is highly confident that with a little knife-work he will extract all the information the villains need from Smith 'in a matter of minutes'.
• Tunnel Network: Smith and Hopcraft brave one of these in the middle episode of Series 3, The Tunnels of Death.
• Unreliable Narrator: Although Rymer assures us that his story is true, he is not present during many of the events he relays, and even when he is he often exaggerates his own importance and/or bravery in the proceedings.
• Very Loosely Based on a True Story: Although highly fictionalised and given a science-fantasy twist, most of the key events of the story are based on historical fact.
• Victorian London: The Springheel Saga takes place earlier in the 19th century than we're used to seeing it in many comparable works, making it closer in tone to Oliver Twist than 'Sherlock Holmes'' or Jack the Ripper.
• Villainous Breakdown: Lord Wayland suffers one of these after he's tempted to use the Burning Truth against Springheel Jack, his supposed 'master'. When the ploy fails, the usually coolly authoritative villain is so overcome with shame that he ignites his vat of boiling oil, causing the entire place to explode.
• War for Fun and Profit: Sadesky and Jaeger's scheme is entirely this trope. They plan to weaponize Springheel Jack's extraterrestrial technology and hold an Auction of Evil to the highest bidder. If the Great Powers don't cooperate they will arm all sides equally and allow them to destroy each other, creating a One World Order out of the ashes.
• Wicked Cultured: Lord Wayland is an aristocratic example, fond of quoting mystical English poet William Blake. Hopcraft is a working-class, auto-didactic variant who favours quoting Montaigne and showing off to Smith how far he has travelled in his quest for knowledge.
• Wilhelm Scream: In the carriage chase following Smith's rescue from the German embassy, Hopcraft causes the pursuing carriage of German mooks to crash into the Serpentine River. The crash is accompanied by two variants of the Wilhelm Scream.
• Worthy Opponent: Jaeger and Sadesky both expect Smith to be a worthy opponent but are highly disappointed when they finally meet him. He quickly proves himself to be one, however, and both villains relish the challenge... at first.
• Wrongly Accused. Smith in Series 2.
• The X of Y: Not only do each of the three series titles employ variants of the 'X of Y' structure, but so do all nine episode titles as well.