''Punt PI'' is a fact-based comedy radio series on
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of Talk radio, spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history fro ...
in which
Steve Punt
Stephen Mark Punt (born 15 September 1962)[Mr Stephen Mark Punt](_blank)
company-director-c ...
investigates mysteries in Britain.
Format
Each episode is 30 minutes long and there are three or four episodes in each series.
Starting with series two, every episode starts with a ringing phone and then the answering machine of "Punt's Private Eye". A mysterious individual identified only as 'Tracy' then speaks into the answering machine and asks Punt to investigate a mystery he has heard about.
All episodes follow a similar format of Steve Punt introducing the mystery, before heading off to speak to witnesses and experts, and investigating different theories and leads.
Episodes
Series 1 (May 2008)
#A couple who found 400 false legs hidden under their floorboards
#Britain's
Strategic steam reserve
#Numerous aeroplane crashes at
Dark Peak
The Dark Peak is the higher and wilder part of the Peak District in England, mostly forming the northern section but also extending south into its eastern and western margins. It is mainly in Derbyshire but parts are in Staffordshire, Cheshire, ...
in the
Peak District
The Peak District is an upland area in England at the southern end of the Pennines. Mostly in Derbyshire, it extends into Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Staffordshire, West Yorkshire and South Yorkshire. It includes the Dark Peak, where moorl ...
Series 2 (June 2009)
#
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...
's plans for a headquarters in
Balham
Balham () is an area in south London, England, mostly within the London Borough of Wandsworth with small parts within the neighbouring London Borough of Lambeth. The area has been settled since Saxon times and appears in the Domesday Book as ...
, South West London, possibly at
Du Cane Court
#
Television licence
A television licence or broadcast receiving licence is a payment required in many countries for the reception of television broadcasts, or the possession of a television set where some broadcasts are funded in full or in part by the licence ...
detector vans
#The possibility of a real
Manchurian Candidate
Series 3 (September and October 2010)
#The phantom settlement of
Argleton
Argleton was a phantom settlement that appeared on Google Maps and Google Earth but was later removed by Google. The supposed location of Argleton was between the A59 road and Town Green railway station within the civil parish of Aughton in We ...
#
Nazi UFOs
In ufology, conspiracy theory, science fiction, and comic book stories, claims or stories have circulated linking UFOs to Nazi Germany. The German UFO theories describe supposedly successful attempts to develop advanced aircraft or spacecraft pri ...
#A possible recording of
Queen Victoria
Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 216 days was longer than that of any previ ...
's voice
#The curse of
The Crying Boy
''The Crying Boy'' is a mass-produced print of a painting by Italian painter Giovanni BragolinPolidoro, Massimo (November/December 2012), "Curse That Painting!", ''Skeptical Inquirer'' 36 (6): 17–19 (1911–1981). This was the pen-name of the ...
Series 4 (September and December 2011)
#The murder of
Hubert Chevis by poisoned partridge
#A death ray allegedly made by
Harry Grindell Matthews
Harry Grindell Matthews (17 March 1880 – 11 September 1941) was an English inventor who claimed to have invented a death ray in the 1920s.
Earlier life and inventions
Harry Grindell Matthews was born on 17 March 1880 in Winterbourne, Glouc ...
#A missing film about
David Lloyd George
David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor, (17 January 1863 – 26 March 1945) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1916 to 1922. He was a Liberal Party politician from Wales, known for leading the United Kingdom during ...
#The
Battle of Watling Street
The Boudican revolt was an armed uprising by native Celtic tribes against the Roman Empire. It took place c. 60–61 AD in the Roman province of Britain, and was led by Boudica, the Queen of the Iceni. The uprising was motivated by the Romans' ...
Series 5 (September 2012)
#The arsenal of Kris Ruddjers
#The
Charfield railway disaster
The Charfield railway disaster was a fatal train crash which occurred on 13 October 1928 in the village of Charfield in the English county of Gloucestershire. The Leeds to Bristol London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) night mail train faile ...
#The lost
Roanoke Colony
Series 6 (August 2013)
#The disappearance of
William Cantelo
#The
Hollinwell incident
#The murder of
Charles Walton
#The killing of
two bears in the Forest of Dean
Series 7 (July and August 2014)
#The Mysterious Death of Flying Millionaire
Alfred Loewenstein
#The 1971
Baker Street Bank Robbery
#The Case of the MP (
Victor Grayson) Who Vanished
#
Who put Bella in the Wych Elm?
Series 8 (August 2015)
#The Murder of Hollywood director
William Desmond Taylor
William Desmond Taylor (born William Cunningham Deane-Tanner, 26 April 1872 – 1 February 1922) was an Anglo-Irish-American film director and actor. A popular figure in the growing Cinema of the United States, Hollywood motion picture colony o ...
#The Case of the Missing
Cezanne
#
The Great Mull Air Mystery looking at mysterious death of hotel guest Peter Gibbs
Series 9 (July and August 2016)
#The Suspicious Death of
Emile Zola
Emil or Emile may refer to:
Literature
*''Emile, or On Education'' (1762), a treatise on education by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
* ''Émile'' (novel) (1827), an autobiographical novel based on Émile de Girardin's early life
*''Emil and the Detective ...
#The Reclusive Skeleton of
Fingringhoe
Fingringhoe is a village and civil parish in Essex, England, located five miles south-east of Colchester. The centre of the village is classified as a conservation area, featuring a traditional village pond and red telephone box. The ''Roman Ri ...
, exploring the disappearance of actress Constance Kent
#There's a Kind of
Hum
Series 10 (September 2017)
#Lost Nukes
#Treasure in the Piano
#Missing
Priest
A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particu ...
#Taking the Pissoir?
{{BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 programmes