STORIES of ghosts and spooky goings on have haunted humanity for thousands of years. And they show no sign of going away.

Tales of encounters with spectral beings are a shared experience of people of every culture and country from around the world. And despite advances in science and technology, reports of sightings and unsettling confrontations continue apace.

The question of whether ghosts exist and, if not, why we keep seeing them – is one which fascinates Danny Robins.

A successful stand-up comedian, writer and broadcaster, Danny’s curiosity on all matters supernatural has seen him propelled to fame as the country’s go-to ghost guy.

A series of radio programmes delving into the world of the supernatural only strengthened his interest in spooks, spectres and restless spirits. His search for real life experiences and possible answers has been embraced by curious minds with his Uncanny radio show and podcast proving a huge hit and even crossing over to television.

The show tackles real life reports of hauntings and other unexplained phenomena, examining cases with a forensic eye for detail, talking to witnesses, experts, believers and sceptics. Its eerie tales of often horrifying goings-on have captivated audiences, so much so that Danny has taken it on the road with an ‘Uncanny: I Know What I Saw’ tour of theatres.

Danny Robins in his Uncanny - I Know What I Saw live show. Pictures by Piers Foley

A visit to the Oxford Playhouse last year, at which local audience members shared their own ghostly experiences, proved so popular that Danny is back again, this time for two dates, today and Monday, July 14-15.

“Uncanny is all about ordinary real people telling me their ghost stories,” Danny tells me.

“It has really gripped people and become a super hit – and as a result I found myself doing a live show.”

The shows, like the programmes, see Danny examining real world hauntings and, with the help of contributions from his experts – one a believer and the other a sceptic – inviting the audience to make up their own minds. He also invites us to recount our own unexplained encounters, safe in the knowledge they will not be ridiculed.

He says: “It has become a safe space for people to talk about their own experiences of the paranormal. As a society we have slipped out of being respectable and kind, but this gives people a space to open up.”

Uncanny follows his successful series The Battersea Poltergeist – a paranormal cold case-style investigation of a notorious 1950s haunting which was part documentary and part drama, staring Toby Jones.

Highlights of his radio show include an investigation into an unsettling haunting in South Oxford in which a household of theology students were terrorised by a poltergeist. The exact property concerned is not revealed to protect the current householders – who, we hope, are being spared the sheer horror suffered by their predecessors.

While his work has undoubtedly sparked fresh interest in the supernatural, Danny is keen to distance his work from the charlatan ‘ghost hunter’ TV programmes which he accuses of dealing in “paranormal entertainment”.

The live shows follow a similar format to his Uncanny shows but involve audiences in each case in what he calls “interactive sleuthing”.

“My roots as a performer are in stand-up comedy, which I did from the age of 16 in Newcastle,” he says. “And once on stage I channel my inner stand-up.

“I love working with the audience and telling these stories. But the bits I enjoy the most are the unscripted moments and hearing people’s own ghost stories. I love that interaction.”

One might expect the shows to attract only firm believers in the paranormal, bur Danny insists that is not the case. “The audience is divided between believers and sceptics, but a lot of people are in the middle and don’t know what they think. And to have both sides of a case stated equally is so important.

“Others have had experiences themselves but may not have been brave enough to share their stories in public before.”

The shows do seem to create a palpable community.

He says: “It may sound crazy but there’s a serious religious quality.

“And it is not always scary; it can also mean communication with someone you miss from beyond the grave.

“Whether you think the experience of the dead coming back to life is unscientific does not change the fact that people have experienced that – and we have got to research that and allow people to tell their own stories.”

Danny admits to being a sceptic but says he is repeatedly baffled, and frequently shocked, by the stories he is told by rational people – such as those straight-laced Oxford University theology students who were so comprehensively spooked while here in the city.

He says: “I have never had an experience myself that has tipped me over the edge nor have a story to tell, but I feel I am on a journey. And while I am a sceptic, there have been things I cannot explain.”

He adds: “I want to believe; I’d love it to be true and for people to have the optimism and hope of being able to communicate with those who have left us.”

And it is the sheer range of people who have shared their own ghost stories with him which has made the biggest impression.

“If there’s one thing that’s for sure, it is that there is no ‘type’ of person that sees them. And the ones that get my own pulse racing are those people who say ‘ I don’t believe in ghosts but I saw a ghost!’”.

  • Uncanny: I Know What I Saw is at the Oxford Playhouse today, Sunday July 14, at 4pm and Monday, July 15, at 7.30pm
  • Tickets from oxfordplayhouse.com or the theatre box office