GENERAL INTERVIEW

Mysteries at Midnight: Doze off to murder and intrigue

Published on March 28, 2024

Christopher Fitton’s Sleep Cove podcast has been helping people drift off to sleep for nearly five years with specially designed content including relaxing meditations, hypnosis and stories. As one of the best podcasts to help you doze off, it’s even spawned a number of spinoff shows, including Mysteries at Midnight – the perfect sleep podcast for fans of classic mystery stories. We asked Christopher to tell us more…

Tell us more about Mysteries at Midnight – where did the idea come from?

I’ve hosted the world’s number-one sleep podcast, Sleep Cove, for a few years. We help listeners fall asleep with Sleep Meditations, Hypnosis, and bedtime stories. I’ve read a few mysteries on the show, including detective stories featuring Father Brown, Sherlock Holmes, and famous stories from Edgar Allen Poe and HG Wells.

These stories were very popular, and I realised that people who liked the mysteries wanted to hear more of them and I kept getting requests for more mystery short stories, However, the show’s content is more focused on meditation, hypnosis and traditional bedtime stories like myths and fairytales so there is not much room on the podcast to run lots more mysteries than we usually do. Also, I have to be careful about what mysteries to run on Sleep Cove, as if they are too “upsetting,” they may cause stress to listeners rather than relaxing them, especially if I am introducing the story to the listener.

So the idea was to launch a podcast focused solely on these stories where we could do a range of stories, where people can get their murder and intrigue fix. So Mysteries at Midnight was born.

Does your work as a clinical hypnotherapist influence the show?

I use a “calm” voice when recording, which I have used for hypnotherapy. I tell new listeners that I read the stories in the style of a bedtime story, which is very similar to the calm, deep voice I use in hypnotherapy.

What’s been your favourite story to read so far in this series?

My favourite story so far was reading the complete novella of Dr. Jerkle and Mr. Hyde for Halloween. Like many, I knew the book’s premise but never read the entire story, so reading this classic was a joy. It’s surprising how well-written and impactful the “twists/reveals” are at the end of the story, even though you know what is coming next.

I’ve also narrated a really good story recently that is worth a mention. It’s called Father Brown and The Secret Garden. It’s a locked-room-style diner party scenario, along with a garden, of course. I did not predict the murderer at all, and I think people will enjoy that one as it’s pretty shocking.

For listeners coming into the series for the first time, where should they start?

You can not beat a Sherlock Holmes or a Father Brown story. Some seminal stories from Sherlock Holmes are part of literary culture and are so interesting to hear for the first time as they have influenced many other stories and media throughout the years.

Lastly – how does it feel to know that your voice sends people to sleep??

I am honoured that so many listen to my podcast at bedtime, even though I’m still not used to how popular the podcasts have become.

Helping people sleep was always the goal, but I never predicted my voice would have been played 90 million times across all media. To visualise tens of thousands of people every night listening to me is still hard to do!