BONUS: In Search of the Eyeless Man: The Real Sharon Lockenby by Graham Skipper

October 19, 2020·44 min·3 clips

Police arrive at a cemetery to find two identical Sharons arguing — one attacks the other with a knife, and the survivor cannot be identified by DNA because both share the exact same genetic profile.

The episode is a bonus story from the Video Palace universe, part of the companion anthology In Search of the Eyeless Man. Writer Graham Skipper introduces the story via a letter to Professor Wills explaining that he heard it from an Edinburgh Fringe actress named Katrina, whose friend Sharon Lockenby experienced the events described. In 2016, Sharon, a woman living in Margate, attends a loud monthly dinner with friends at a seaside restaurant. During the meal, she performs a grotesque impression of a rude woman that results in a stranger photographing her at her most contorted. The photo is published on a clickbait site, goes viral, and becomes a widely shared meme. Sharon enjoys her brief internet fame until the consequences begin to mount: she is fired from her job because clients find the photo disturbing, her friendships become strained, and her friends confront her at a follow-up dinner in London, triggering a public argument that generates more viral content. On the late-night train home from London, Sharon encounters a hunched man in the corner who may or may not be a reflection, and notices that two teenage boys who were harassing her suddenly stop and retreat in apparent pain after seeming to see the man. Sharon receives a call from her mother accusing her of showing up at their Scottish home and saying hateful things, but Sharon has not left Margate and cannot explain the visit. Sharon travels to Scotland to confront her parents and finds them murdered. She is arrested, but CCTV footage places her on a train 400 miles away at the time of both the police visit and the murders. A Sharon double — who looks identical to her, shares her DNA, and wears the same dinosaur sweatshirt — is identified as the likely perpetrator. The double calls Sharon from her hotel, directing her to meet in a cemetery. Sharon alerts police, who arrive to find two identical women arguing. One attacks the other with a knife, is shot by police, and the survivor is taken into custody with grave wounds. DNA matches confirm they are identical twins, but there is no record of Sharon having been born a twin. After the double is in custody, three more murders occur internationally, each matching Sharon's description. A blurry figure barely visible in BBC footage of the cemetery incident appears to skip even on a single frozen frame, which a film expert attributes to corrupted data. The narrator connects this figure to the Eyeless Man mythology of the larger anthology.

As heard by us

A train ride, a meme, and a figure at the edge of sight turn embarrassment into dread.

Graham Skipper's "The Real Sharon Lockenby" turns a chance meeting at the Edinburgh Fringe into a story about becoming a meme, and it keeps returning to the cost of that joke when everyone keeps looking.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

You want a ghost story that starts with a meme and ends in the Eyeless Man mystery.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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