CW: We Know None deals with the investigation into a missing person. The show notes for each episode contain specific content warnings; and this post includes mentions of paranormal activities – especially hauntings, rotting food, and the police.
(Note: I appear briefly in We Know None as Helen, in both episode four and six.)
We Know None is a paranormal horror/mystery from Calliopic Productions, who are based in South Wales. Frankie Griffiths has mysteriously disappeared, and her girlfriend Gwen is trying to find her. Gwen goes through recordings made by Frankie in the hope of finding some clues as to why she disappeared, and where she could be.
When we meet Gwen in episode one, Frankie has been missing for two weeks. Gwen has no idea why Frankie would go missing, and she goes through tapes Frankie made to try and look for clues as to her disappearance. She makes backups of these tapes, before taking the originals to the police. Gwen understands Frankie and her interests much better than anyone else, and she believes that she’ll find her before the police or anyone else does.
Frankie and Gwen have been together since they were 16, but in recent years, distance had separated them, with Gwen deciding to study psychology at Cardiff, and Frankie going to Exeter to study journalism – before she then dropped out. Frankie then found a job at a newspaper in Swansea, writing an article titled Into the Unknown: an exploration of South Wales’ paranormal and otherworldly areas.
Frankie loved all things paranormal, and the recordings Gwen plays are from explorations Frankie makes for her article. She goes on expeditions to haunted or abandoned places to gather material, and to investigate what’s really going on there. In the first episode of the season, we hear a tape from the time Frankie went to investigate a bakery in the Mumbles, on the Gower Peninsula. She found a post on Facebook, by the owner of the bakery, claiming that the building was haunted. The owner explains that the food she makes and sells goes rotten after only a short amount of time. On visiting the bakery Frankie experiences this for herself, but she discovers that it isn’t ghosts who are behind this.
Over the course of the season, we hear Frankie investigate a hotel that’s been abandoned for around 45 years, an abandoned shopping centre with some disturbing history, and the less creepy Brecon Beacons – but less creepy doesn’t necessarily mean that there are no strange discoveries to be made. We also follow Gwen’s frustrating dealings with the local police, who, as she predicted, aren’t making any progress in their search for Frankie. Gwen also clashes with Frankie’s mum, Jean, who blames her for her daughter’s disappearance.
Being Welsh myself I was very excited to see a show based in South Wales, and it features areas and landmarks I’m familiar with. Right from the first episode, with Frankie’s investigation in the Mumbles, I could clearly picture the small seaside town, I knew how to get there, I knew the vibe of the place. I also really loved the representation of the Welsh language in the podcast, and I really appreciated Gwen’s comments about Frankie continuing to mispronounce Welsh words and place names, and how ridiculous it was that she still did that, after having lived in Wales for so long. There’s still a lot of prejudice towards the Welsh language, even in 2020, so I really enjoyed Gwen’s digs at someone who wasn’t trying to learn how to pronounce words correctly. And it was so refreshing to just have a genuine representation of Wales and Welsh people in a piece of media that wasn’t just tired and negative stereotypes!
We Know None wasn’t Calliopic Productions’ first podcast, as they released sci-fi show Voidless in June. Megan Gwen Davies, the writer of We Know None, also released a solo show titled Waiting in March.
RSS: https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/we-know-none
Status: Season one complete.
Episodes: 10, and one trailer.
Episode length: Between 11-20 minutes each.
Transcripts: Yes; linked in the show notes of each episode and on Calliopic Productions’ Twitter.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/CalliopicProd
Ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/calliopicproductions
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