Back in December 2024, brilliant brilliant
@isysuttie and I spent a weird and wonderful few days in Derbyshire making a weird and wonderful documentary called The Horse At The Door about the Winster Guisers and their yearly festivities, bursting into pubs and putting on a Christmas show.
Somewhat out of season, The Horse At The Door is being repeated on BBC Radio 4 at 21:30 this evening.
Every year's end, as the days shorten and the nights grow darker, you might be fortunate enough to hear a distinctive knock at your door. Upon opening it, you'll be met with a group of Guisers - men in disguise - here to perform their mystery play, part of the ancient Mumming tradition. There's the Enterer In, Saint George, The Prince of Paradise, The King, The Old Woman, The Quack Doctor, Beelzebub, Little Johnny Jack with his wife on his back, Little Devilly Doubt, The Groom, and The Horse.
And it's the vision of The Horse At The Door that has stayed with Isy since childhood.
Isy hasn’t seen the Guisers for over 30 years, but that horse and the clack of its jaw frightened her so much, she thinks of it often.
In The Horse At The Door, Isy will see if she can come face to face with her fears and see whether that black painted skull still holds the same magic and power. She will speak to Colette Dewhurst from The Barley Mow pub about The Guisers habit of bursting in, to the folklorist Richard Bradley about the Derbyshire traditions of mumming and guising, to the psychotherapist Jane Watson about why we enjoy being scared, and to The Winster Guisers themselves about the traditions they are keeping alive – and the unsuspecting people they are scaring.
Do have a listen - even in Springtime this strange documentary is fun and eerie and odd and really quite beautiful.
/programmes/m00268v1
