Podcast Corner: Hoaxed is a gripping portrayal of a terrible situation
The Hoaxed podcast is presented by Alexi Mostrous.
Sweet Bobby, the six-part series about a catfishing story in the UK, was one of the best shows of 2021. (For those not aware of this very 21st-century term, 'catfishing' involves luring someone into a relationship using a fictional online persona.)
Made by the reliable Tortoise Media and hosted by Alexi Mostrous, the same team are back for a new show a year on - and Hoaxed will have you similarly hooked. Like its predecessor, the story depicts an awful situation, and you’re not sure you should even be listening to it, but it’s so compelling.
The podcast begins with children being interviewed by some police officers, Mostrous coming in to tell us that “if it were up to me, this story would never have been made public”.
The children proceed to make claims of sex abuse related to their father, their teachers, and other parents, that a satanic, paedophile ring was in operation in the leafy area of Hampstead in London.
“Something inside me still recoils when I hear these children speak,” Mostrous says. That’s instantly how the listener feels too.
The children’s allegations are not true. They had been coached on what to say by their mother’s new partner on a trip to Morocco. Their mother is in on it too - everything she says is a lie, Mostrous tells us early on, while playing his interview with her.
But a list of some 175 names, numbers, and addresses allegedly involved in the cult has been compiled. And once these claims of a paedophile ring make it onto the internet, along with that list, all hell breaks loose.
Reminiscent of QAnon-focused shows like The Coming Storm and Jon Ronson’s Things Fell Apart, as well as Serial Productions’ Trojan Horse Affair, Hoaxed is shudder-inducing. Only halfway through its run, the third episode ends with an incarceration, as people fight back against the conspiracy.
Meanwhile, Can I Tell You a Secret? treads in similar areas of online dark deeds. The new six-parter from the Guardian is about cyberstalking and how one man ruined the lives of multiple women. By the third episode, it might feel a bit repetitive - another young woman gets an anonymous message on Instagram - but that was how Matthew Hardy operated. The podcast wants to find out how he was arrested multiple times, stretching back years, but always let go, free to go back online and harass again.
Is there a difference between stalking and cyberstalking, journalist and host Sirin Kale ponders? In 2022, with our lives ever-more online, it really doesn’t seem like there is.
All episodes of Can I Tell You a Secret? are available now.
