The Callander woman, who was the last woman in Britain to be tried for witchcraft, is to be the subject of a new feature film.
Helen Duncan was a spiritual medium from the town, who was tried and jailed for witchcraft in April 1944.
Now, a book about her is to be turned into a film by production companies Studiocanal and The Picture Company after they bought up the rights to a script based on it.
The book, ‘Hellish Nell: Last of Britain’s Witches’, by historian Malcolm Gaskill was released in 2001 and will now be adapted for the big screen.
Author Gaskill took to his social media to share the news, posting: ‘Delighted that my book Hellish Nell, the story of troubled spiritualist medium Helen Duncan, imprisoned under the Witchcraft Act in 1944, looks set to become a major feature film. And it’s only taken twenty years!’
Mrs Duncan was born in Callander in 1897, but later moved to Dundee and then Edinburgh.
By 1926 she was a spiritual medium, conducting seances in which she claimed to summon the spirits of recently deceased people by emitting ectoplasm from her mouth.
During World War II, in November 1941, she held a seance in Portsmouth at which she claimed the spirit of a sailor told her that the HMS Barham had been sunk.
Because the sinking of HMS Barham was revealed, in strict confidence, only to the relatives of casualties, and not announced to the public until late January 1942, the Navy started to take an interest in her activities.
Two lieutenants were among her audience at a seance on January 14, 1944. One of these was a Lieutenant Worth who was not impressed as a white cloth figure had appeared behind the curtains claiming to be his aunt – but he had no deceased aunt.
In the same sitting another figure appeared claiming to be his sister but Worth replied his sister was alive and well. Worth was disgusted by the seance and reported it to the police.
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Undercover policemen arrested her following another seance at which a white-shrouded figure appeared which turned out to be Duncan herself.
It later emerged that the information about HMS Barham’s sinking had come from another source. However, Duncan was found to be in possession of a mocked-up hatband reputedly linked to the spirit of a dead sailor on HMS Barham.
She was initially arrested under Section 4 of the Vagrancy Act 1824, a minor offence tried by magistrates. The authorities regarded the case as more serious, and eventually charged under Section 4 of the Witchcraft Act 1735, covering fraudulent ‘spiritual’ activity, for which accused persons could face trial before a jury.
She was released in 1945 and promised to stop conducting seances, but she was arrested during another one in 1956.
She died at her home in Edinburgh a short time later.
Gaskill did years of research into Duncan’s life and is a leading expert in the history of witchcraft and the supernatural.
An announcement for the film said the script by US-based screenwriter Chris Basler will centre on “Duncan’s family drama with her husband and young children as she explored her supernatural faculties throughout her life”.
Basler discovered the book after listening to a podcast about it and wrote the script on spec before sharing it with The Picture Company. He will serve as executive producer on the film.
Author Malcom Gaskill this week told the Observer: “Various people have been interested in buying the rights to it over the last 20 years.I had almost given up hope, but it’s finally happening.”
A director and cast have yet to be appointed, but Malcolm suggested that a big name actor could be enticed by the role.
“I always wanted to see the stoty turned into film and I’m delighted it now will be.”
In October 2019, the Stirling Observer told how plans were afoot to name a street in a new Callander housing development after Mrs Duncan.
