Punt Pi

Steve Punt turns private investigator, examining little mysteries that amuse and beguile

He explores the case of the missing steam trains supposedly hidden away ready to keep the country running in case of nuclear war. Steve tracks down former railwaymen, combs through declassified government documents and even visits the secret government bunker where it has been claimed the so-called Strategic Steam Reserve was kept.

Steve probes the case of the missing steam trains stashed away in case of nuclear war.

Steve Punt turns private investigator, examining little mysteries that amuse and beguile

Steve Punt turns private investigator, examining little mysteries that amuse and beguile

Steve examines persistent rumours that Hitler was intending to set up his command headquarters in the most unlikely of places - the south London suburb of Balham.

For years, the corridors of the large residential block Du Cane Court have echoed to whispered claims of dubious links. At first glance, it all seems to stack up - not only was the building spared bombing by the Luftwaffe, but many say it was a hotbed of German spies who were busily laying the groundwork for Hitler's triumphant arrival. But the picture soon becomes confused as Steve discovers that Balham is not alone in claiming a Nazi pedigree.

Steve speaks to Balham locals, including Radio 4 favourite Arthur Smith, and tracks down experts. He explores the reality behind the Nazis' spy operation and their plans for invasion, gaining privileged access to the original documentation detailing the Third Reich's designs on Britain.

Steve examines rumours that Hitler was intending to set up his command HQ in Balham.

Steve Punt turns private investigator, examining little mysteries that amuse and beguile

Steve goes on the trail of TV detector vans, investigating rumours that the vehicles are little more than a myth. Some people are utterly convinced that the vans are empty and that it is simply not possible to detect a television set.

Faced with a wall of official silence, Steve travels hundreds of miles to track down one of the vehicles for himself. He searches out those who were once involved in the TV licensing business and wades through the post office archives to get the lowdown on the history of this very British phenomenon.

And he turns to the scientific boffins to establish once and for all whether the technology really does exist, mounting a controlled experiment to find out if it is possible to see into the living rooms of TV licence evaders.

But just when Steve thinks that the case is closed, a witness comes forward who throws the entire investigation into confusion.

Steve goes on the trail of TV detector vans.

Steve Punt turns private investigator, examining little mysteries that amuse and beguile

Steve turns the spotlight on mind control. Thanks to works of fiction, the idea that government agencies have the ability to brianwash people to commit dastardly acts has firmly lodged itself in the public imagination.

Punt is assigned to sort fact from fiction, entering a murky work of government intelligence, military secrecy and wild speculation. From hypnosis to narcotics and now microwave technology, Punt calls in expert witnesses to ascertain whether it really is possible to get people to act against their free will. Can our wily PI track down the real Manchurian Candidate?

Steve Punt goes in search of the real Manchurian Candidate.

Steve Punt turns private investigator, examining little mysteries that amuse and beguile

In the first programme, Punt looks into the phantom settlement of Argleton. Search the web for this quintessentially English placename and internet maps show that it lies just outside the town of Ormskirk in Lancashire. But when our super sleuth travels to locate it on the ground, all he finds is an empty field. It turns out that Argleton doesn't actually exist.

Punt sets out to crack the mystery of how a non-existent place can appear in online maps. From the Domesday Book to Google Headquarters, Punt's quest takes him through a thousand years of history and into the murky world of plagiarism. He questions all the key players - and as he zeroes in on the truth discovers that in the cartographic realm nothing is quite as it seems.

Also in this series, Punt travels to the Polish-Czech border to investigate one man's theory that the Nazis had developed flying saucer technology. And he scrutinises a wax cylinder which is reputed to carry the only recording of Queen Victoria's voice.

Producer: Laurence Grissell.

Steve Punt examines the curious case of Argleton, a place only existing on internet maps.

Steve Punt turns private investigator, examining little mysteries that amuse and beguile

Today, Punt probes the curious claim that the Nazis developed flying saucers. This initially bizarre theory starts to carry a ring of truth as our gumshoe delves deeper into the evidence. Punt assesses sightings of strange lights in wartime skies - so-called foo fighters - and pores through CIA dossiers and old newspaper cuttings in search of the facts.

Following the paper trail across Europe, Punt is led to Poland and to a mysterious site dubbed The Henge where his contact, Igor, promises to spill the beans on top secret Nazi research apparently conducted there.

Producer: Laurence Grissell.

Did the Nazis develop flying saucer technology?

Steve Punt turns private investigator, examining little mysteries that amuse and beguile

Steve Punt goes in search of a recording of Queen Victoria's voice.

Steve Punt turns private investigator, examining little mysteries that amuse and beguile

Steve Punt turns private investigator, examining little mysteries that amuse and beguile

Steve embarks on a historical whodunit, examining the bizarre death in Deepcut, Surrey of an army lieutenant, Hubert Chevis, who died after eating a partridge laced with strychnine. 80 years on, the Chevis case remains unsolved and nobody was ever been charged with his murder.

To add to the mystery, Chevis' father received a sinister telegram which read 'Hooray, hooray, hooray' and a follow-up postcard from the same unknown sender which stated 'it is a mystery they will never solve'.

Steve marshals the facts, reopens the coroner's file and locates a relative with important evidence to share. Was it the wife, her ex-husband, the batman or the cook?

Producer: Laurence Grissell.

Steve Punt turns gumshoe, investigating a case of murder by poisoned partridge in 1931.

Steve Punt turns private investigator, examining little mysteries that amuse and beguile

has to get to the bottom of whether the British inventor of a 'Death Ray' was really science fact or science fiction. His leads take him via the valleys of South Wales, the control tower of Croydon Airport, the banks of the River Severn and the strong rooms of records offices piecing together the remarkable story of Harry Grindell Matthews.

Grindell Matthews, maverick scientist and showman entrepreneur, earned many friends and was celebrated for inventions which included mobile phones, talking pictures and remote control craft; yet all of these were overshadowed once he unveiled his 'Death Ray'. Designed to shoot down enemy aircraft in the 1920's, his lastest creation earned headlines around the world but also stirred controversy. He fell foul of the establishment and withdrew to a mountain laboratory, closely monitored by the government. As an inter-war arms and technology race developed what was to happen to Grindell Matthews and his secret weapon: the infamous death ray?

Producer: Neil McCarthy.

The Life Story of David Lloyd George was the first ever biopic of a living Prime Minister. A lavishly filmed silent movie, it charted the rise of the wartime leader from the Welsh Valleys. Just after the close of the Great War - as the film was destined for the big screen - lawyers paid £20,000 to cancel the movie's release. To this day, nobody knows why.

Steve examines the evidence and asks whether it's a case of political shenanigans or personal peccadilloes. Among those called in for questioning are biographer of Lloyd George, Lord Hattersley, and Ffion Hague, who's studied the war leader's affair with Frances Stevenson.

Producer: Laurence Grissell.

Steve Punt probes the mysterious disappearance of a film about Lloyd George after WWI.

Steve Punt turns private investigator, examining little mysteries that amuse and beguile

Producer: Neil McCarthy.

Steve Punt searches for the site of the epic Battle of Watling Street.

Steve Punt turns private investigator, examining little mysteries that amuse and beguile

1. A Very Strange Stash. Punt is called on to investigate a dead pensioner's secret stash of arms.

When 74 year old Kris Ruddjers died in 2010, he left behind a very bizarre legacy. The retired nurse anaesthetist had placed 13 trunks in storage supposedly containing household effects. But when the owners of the removals firm prised them open they discovered handguns, surveillance equipment and bomb making materials.

Ruddjers seemed to all intents and purposes just your average pensioner - but what was the reason behind his strange stash? For starters, Ruddjers was an alias... Punt embarks on a quest to find out more about an intriguing senior citizen.

Also in this series: the mysteries of the 1928 Charfield Rail Crash and the lost American colony of Roanoke.

Producer: Laurence Grissell.

Steve Punt is called on to investigate a dead pensioner's secret stash of arms.

Steve Punt turns private investigator, examining little mysteries that amuse and beguile

2. The Woman in Black. For 25 years following the 1928 Charfield rail crash in Gloucestershire, a woman in black laid flowers at the memorial to the accident. Arriving in a chauffeur driven car, she never revealed her identity but locals have assumed she was in some way related to two young unknown victims of the accident.

The means of this rich woman's arrival has led to feverish speculation - most notably that the was a member of royalty and the children were illegitimate offspring. Add to that questions over the cause of the crash and you have a field day for conspiracy theorists.

Punt sets to work sorting fact from fiction, calling in the experts and cross-examining locals. He gets to grips to with the cause of the crash and gets tantalisingly close to the the possible identity of the woman in black and the two unknown victims.

Producer: Laurence Grissell.

Steve Punt looks into the 1928 Charfield rail crash and the woman who visited the memorial

Steve Punt turns private investigator, examining little mysteries that amuse and beguile

The Lost Colonists. Punt is called on to examine a map which may hold clues to the mystery of the first English colonists to America who disappeared without trace.

In 1587, Sir Walter Raleigh assembled a group of 118 men women and children to establish a settlement in modern day North Carolina. One of them, John White, shortly came back to England for supplies and when he returned to the island of Roanoke where he'd left them, they had completely vanished. A mysterious sign on a tree offered a clue to their whereabouts but they were never found. John White was also the map draughtsman for the expedition and an intriguing patch has recently been discovered on the map close to Roanoke. Could they be under the patch? Or could this be a very Elizabethan cover-up? Punt sheds gabardine and dons ruff and codpiece to get to the bottom of this 400 year old missing persons case.

Steve searches for new clues on an old map to solve a 400-year-old missing persons case.

Steve Punt turns private investigator, examining little mysteries that amuse and beguile

His methods may be unconventional but this time Steve is hot on the trail of two gun makers, William Cantelo and Hirum Maxim, and the story begins in Southampton.

Late in the 19th century strange noises could be heard from a cellar beneath a pub near the Southampton docks. It was rumoured that gun maker William Cantelo was inventing a rapid firing gun, capable of destroying the enemy and certain to make its inventor very rich.

Eventually William Cantelo emerged from his cellar with the news that his invention was complete and that he was going to take a much needed holiday, which he did, taking his new invention with him. But that was the last his family saw of him, 'he simply vanished into the void.

Eventually his two sons began a search to find out what had happened to their father. When they saw a picture of the American inventor Hirum Maxim in a national paper with his new invention, a rapid firing machine gun, they were shocked; he was the spitting image of their own father William Cantelo. The sons both tried in vain to talk to Maxim, on one occasion at Victoria station as Maxim was catching a train, but to no avail. They were convinced that this Maxim was their father and that gun was the same gun that Cantelo had invented but they were never able to prove it.

Maxim died a very rich man having made millions from the invention which slaughtered millions in the Great War. Cantelo's last movements were traced to America, how and where he died is a mystery.

Clearly this story throws up more questions than answers: What happened to William Cantelo? Was Cantelo impersonating Maxim, if so why? Did Maxim steal Cantelo's invention and pay Cantelo to go away? Did one man murder the other, if so who murdered who?

Producer Neil George.

Steve Punt investigates the vanishing machine gun inventor, William Cantelo.

Steve Punt turns private investigator, examining little mysteries that amuse and beguile

One summer's day in 1980, at a junior jazz band festival in Nottinghamshire, hundreds of children were suddenly taken ill and fainted. They fell like dominoes; the showground was littered with bodies, the arena like a battlefield.

Many of the children feel they never got answers as to what really happened that morning.

Steve investigates, to find out if it was food poisoning or something a little more sinister.

Producer: Sarah Bowen.

Steve Punt turns private investigator, examining little mysteries that amuse and beguile

Various suspects came into the frame: a boot maker, a Nazi, a 'swarthy' Italian prisoner of War, and a local farmer .

None of the motives seem credible: a stolen watch, a small amount of money, or could it have been because of witchcraft?

But why had the farmer deliberately left his finger prints on the murder weapon when he discovered the body in front of witnesses? Why was the Italian POW covered in blood? Why had Walton been murdered with a pitchfork, could it have been a copycat witchcraft murder? Even the famous detective Fabian of Scotland Yard was baffled, so will Steve Punt PI do any better?

With the help of Betty Smith, Warwickshire's answer to Miss Marple, Steve unpicks one clue after another and believes he may have an answer.

Steve Punt PI investigates the gruesome death, in 1945, of farm labourer Charles Walton.

Steve Punt turns private investigator, examining little mysteries that amuse and beguile

For years, the people of Ruardean took the blame for the brutal slaying of the bears but always protested their innocence. Punt examines the evidence, asking if those convicted were victims of a miscarriage of justice.

Punt explores the documents, questions the locals and calls in the experts - aiming to establish the truth once and for all.

Producer: Laurence Grissell.

Steve Punt investigates the killing of two performing bears in the Forest of Dean in 1889.

Steve Punt turns private investigator, examining little mysteries that amuse and beguile

The suspicious death of this fabulously wealthy Belgian tycoon - then reportedly the world's third richest man - may well be Punt's most baffling investigation yet.

During that fateful flight across the English Channel, Loewenstein got up to go the loo - but somehow ended up falling out of the plane. What exactly happened to him remains a mystery to this day.

Was it just an accident, did Loewenstein jump - or was it murder? Punt reopens the case.

Producer: Laurence Grissell.

Steve Punt examines the case of Alfred Loewenstein, who fell out of his own plane in 1928.

Steve Punt turns private investigator, examining little mysteries that amuse and beguile

Quite possibly the most audacious heist in British history, the robbers tunnelled into the bank's vault from the basement of a shop two doors down. They escaped with a haul worth an estimated £30 million today.

Though four robbers were convicted, intriguing claims persist - most notably that the security services mounted the heist to secure compromising photographs of a senior public figure.

Punt sifts the evidence, calls in the experts and attempts to establish fact from fiction.

Producer: Laurence Grissell.

Steve Punt examines curious rumours surrounding the 1971 Baker Street bank heist.

Steve Punt turns private investigator, examining little mysteries that amuse and beguile

Firebrand politician, champion of the mill workers, scion of the establishment, fancy dresser, hard drinker, man about town. Victor Grayson was many things when he erupted onto the public stage in 1907 as the first and last independent socialist MP, aged 26. However this shooting star disappeared from sight in 1920, under mysterious circumstances, with no confirmed sightings after that.

Punt P.I. sets out on a trail through Yorkshire valleys, dusty archives and seedy Soho to pick up clues to Victor's disappearance.

Producer Neil McCarthy.

Steve Punt PI examines the curious case of Victor Grayson, the MP who vanished.

Steve Punt turns private investigator, examining little mysteries that amuse and beguile

In 1943, in a small wood in the village of Hagley, the body a woman was found inside a Wych elm tree. She had been put in feet first, alive or just recently dead. The police issued a good photo fit but, despite extensive enquiries, a match could not be found and no one reported her missing.

Punt hunts first for the files and then for the body. But things are not where they should be. He heads into those unsettling woods, rustles up tangled leads, and ends up barking up the occasional wrong tree.

He tracks down the 101-year-old forensic biologist on the case and investigates witchcraft and spying in his attempt to separate conspiracy from the truth.

And Professor Norman Fenton, expert witness in major criminal trails, subjects Punt's findings to analysis, building a unique model especially for the programme.

Producer: Sarah Bowen.

Steve Punt examines the mysterious case of a woman found dead inside a tree.

Steve Punt turns private investigator, examining little mysteries that amuse and beguile

Taylor was one of Tinseltown's biggest names - until he was shot dead in his bungalow in February 1922. Despite a multitude of suspects, Taylor's killer was never caught.

It's a bizarre case with a multitude of suspects. Was the murderer former child star Mary Miles Minter or her controlling mother Charlotte Shelby? Or was it Taylor's rather shady private secretary Edwards Sands?

Steve casts a fresh eye over the evidence and returns to Taylor's native Ireland where he makes some surprising discoveries about the murdered movie director's past.

Producer: Laurence Grissell

Steve Punt probes the unsolved murder of Hollywood director William Desmond Taylor in 1922

Steve Punt turns private investigator, examining little mysteries that amuse and beguile

The painting was stolen from the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford whilst the city celebrated the millennium, and has not been seen since.

His search takes him from the crime scene to the Mayfair art world, via leads at Scotland Yard and sightings on a pub wall in Coventry.

With a watchful eye for any Mr Big who may be behind a painting reportedly 'stolen to order', Punt PI enters the murky world of stolen art. But how close can he get to the stolen C退zanne?

Producer Neil McCarthy

Steve Punt searches for the Cezanne masterpiece, stolen during the millennium celebrations

Steve Punt turns private investigator, examining little mysteries that amuse and beguile

It was a moonless night and having just finished dinner with his girlfriend at the Glenforsa Hotel, it seemed a bizarre and impetuous act.

Then Gibbs' body was discovered on a hillside, but the plane was nowhere to be seen and the story began to get stranger.

Punt heads to the Mull to investigate, but with every piece of evidence the mystery deepens.

Was Gibbs attempting an illicit flight to Northern Ireland, was he trying to fake his own death, or was it something in creepy Room 14 that was to blame?

As he tries to disentangle myth from reality, Punt hears fishy tales from a suspicious local diver, unearths the original pathologist and scrutinises the man who watched Gibbs vanish into the night.

Producer: Sarah Bowen

Steve Punt investigates how Peter Gibbs vanishes into the night on Christmas Eve 1975.

Steve Punt turns private investigator, examining little mysteries that amuse and beguile

Punt travels to Paris to investigate the suspicious death of celebrated writer ɀmile Zola. Zola died in 1902 from carbon monoxide poisoning caused by a blocked chimney. At the time, the authorities reached a verdict of accidental death. Subsequently, evidence has emerged that Zola's death may have been murder.

Certainly Zola's role in France's notorious Dreyfus Affair made him many enemies. But as Punt discovers, the case is far from clear cut. For one thing, carbon monoxide is a very unusual way of murdering someone. Punt summons the experts and weighs up the evidence.

Producer: Laurence Grissell.

Steve Punt travels to Paris to investigate the death of celebrated writer Emile Zola.

Steve Punt turns private investigator, examining little mysteries that amuse and beguile

In 1939, just before the outbreak of World War II, the reclusive actress Ada Constance Kent disappeared from the village of Fingringhoe in rural Essex. Despite her cottage being searched on several occasions in the intervening years, her skeleton was only discovered in the bedroom in 1949. Was it her... where had she been in the intervening years... and was she really the person everyone thought she was?

Steve Punt interrogates the witnesses and assesses the evidence.

Producer: Paul Kobrak.

Steve Punt visits rural Essex to explore the disappearance of actress Constance Kent.

Steve Punt turns private investigator, examining little mysteries that amuse and beguile

The sounds generated by mating fish? The US government? Or even the evolution of humans to hear electromagnetic waves... Steve Punt, BBC Radio 4's Mulder and Scully combined, turns his analytical ears to The Hum - heard by people, all over the world, tonight.

For some of those who hear it, it's unpleasant, even distressing, for others simply mysterious.

The Hum has been reported as far back as the 1960's, when people in Bristol first brought it to the attention of the local council. They never found out what caused it.

Many have tried to work out the source of the Hum... so there is no real reason to expect Radio 4's gumshoe to solve it in half an hour... but Punt PI will investigate some intriguing possibilities.

From Surrey to the ionosphere, he examines afresh some of the most common theories - with leading experts: is it the sounds created by fish, as recorded by neurobiologist Dr Andrew Bass; or the noise of seismic waves as discussed with expert Dr Lucia Gualtieri of Columbia University, New York; might it be a whole range of potential ear problems as suggested by Mark Williams at the Tinnitus Clinic; tall buildings - given short shrift by South Leeds Life editor, Jeremy Morton; electromagnetism - considered by science expert Roland Pease; and last, but definitely most 'X-files' of all, HAARP, a US military research station, now run by Bob McCoy of the University of Alaska - a theory poo-pooed by national security journalist Sharon Weinberger.

He also touches base with the creator of the World Hum website, Dr Glen MacPherson, who is trying to keep an online record of this phenomenon - most commonly described as a diesel engine in the distance.

Producer: Sara Jane Hall

Music sourcing: Danny Webb.

Steve Punt puts his ear to the ground in a search for the mysterious so-called World Hum.

Steve Punt turns private investigator, examining little mysteries that amuse and beguile

In this tenth anniversary edition, Steve's called in to investigate the unlikely disappearance of American and Russian nuclear weapons - with assistance from best-selling thriller writer Frederick Forsyth.

At first, Steve's sceptical - surely no nuclear power could actually lose possession of weapons capable of causing Armageddon. But as his investigation gathers pace, the story starts to becomes rather disturbing.

From an H-bomb lost over Savannah, Georgia to a cache of so-called 'suitcase nukes' which rumours suggest could still be stashed in modern day Moldova, Punt weighs up the evidence - with a little detour via Dorking...

Producer: Laurence Grissell.

Steve Punt goes in search of missing American and Russian nuclear weapons.

Steve Punt turns private investigator, examining little mysteries that amuse and beguile

Producer Neil McCarthy.

A hoard of gold coins in a piano. Who put them there, a mystery. Steve Punt investigates.

Steve Punt turns private investigator, examining little mysteries that amuse and beguile

Many Poles fled to the United Kingdom during World War II and settled in Bradford. With the onset of the Cold War they became exiles, unable to return to Poland. In his sermons, Father Borynski was an outspoken critic of the Soviet system and many believed he could have been a victim of communist agents operating in England.

Steve Punt investigates, following leads and opening Secret Service files, to find out what might have happened to Father Borynski.

Producer Neil McCarthy.

Steve Punt investigates the story of the Polish priest who disappeared in Bradford in 1953

Steve Punt turns private investigator, examining little mysteries that amuse and beguile

The original Fountain has long been lost, and for many decades forgotten, but in the 1950's became such a talking point again that Duchamp decided to manufacture up to a possible 17 copies - one of which stands proud, under glass, in the Tate Modern.

Earlier this century a poll of 500 art historians voted it the most significant art work of the 20th century, for the questions it raises about art and the artist, but although the importance of 'Fountain' in the history of art is undisputed, is it certain the artist was, in fact, Duchamp?

And if it wasn't him, then who was it?

Join the dots, and the paint brush of history seems to point at the Baroness Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven - a truly free spirit and radical artist, who Duchamp called 'the future'. The smoking gun is a letter written in 1917 by Duchamp to his sister Suzanne, stating 'One of my female friends' had submitted the urinal as a sculpture to the exhibition, 'the pseudonym Richard Mutt'.

True, false, or just a fascinating theory... its one that throws an interesting light over one of the most significant works of the 20th century.

Steve Punt dons galoshes and heads for the nearest convenience.

Producer: Sara Jane Hall.

Why would anyone submit a urinal as a work of art to a gallery, and then lie about it?

Steve Punt turns private investigator, examining little mysteries that amuse and beguile