50 Fun Facts About The Magnus Archives

Which city is home to the Magnus Institute, the paranormal research body in The Magnus Archives?

London is home to the Magnus Institute, whose neglected archive new Head Archivist Jonathan Sims sets out to record.

In The Magnus Archives, which medium captures the statements that resist digital recording?

Cassette tapes are the only way Jonathan Sims can record some statements while he tries to digitise the archive in season 1.

Which company produces The Magnus Archives, the horror podcast written by Jonathan Sims?

Rusty Quill makes the podcast, which has won more than 40 awards and led to live shows, books and games.

Which ghost-story writer's tale 'Count Magnus' gave the podcast The Magnus Archives its name?

M. R. James wrote the favourite story of Jonathan Sims, who grew up reading his collected ghost stories and credits them for his narrative style.

Which entity, one of the Dread Powers, does the Magnus Institute serve in The Magnus Archives?

The Eye is the fear the Magnus Institute serves, a truth Jonathan Sims only learns at the end of season 2.

Which former New Age shop assistant becomes a living hive of worms in The Magnus Archives?

Jane Prentiss became a hive after finding a wasps' nest in her attic, and she goes on to stalk the Magnus Institute for several weeks.

What is the name of the cat owned by fearless podcast host Georgie Barker in The Magnus Archives?

The Admiral lives with Georgie Barker, who dated Jonathan Sims when the two of them were at university.

On which social platform did The Magnus Archives build the substantial fan community noted in a 2018 BBC report?

Tumblr hosted the fan community that a 2018 BBC report on drama podcasts singled out, and the podcast ranked among the site's most talked-about web series for years.

Which crowdfunding site hosted the record-breaking 2022 campaign for a Magnus Archives sequel?

Kickstarter hosted the campaign, which asked for £15,000 and went on to raise more than any podcast had in crowdfunding before.

Which 2024 podcast co-written by Jonathan Sims follows civil servants Alice Dyer and Sam Khalid?

The Magnus Protocol is set in a separate timeline, one where the Magnus Institute burned to the ground in 1999.

Which director of The Magnus Archives also voices archival assistant Martin Blackwood?

Alexander J. Newall directs the podcast and also plays Jared Hopworth, the monstrous avatar known as the Boneturner.

Whose remains does Martin Blackwood find in secret tunnels beneath the Magnus Institute in season 1?

Gertrude Robinson, the previous Head Archivist, had been missing since March 2015 and turns out to have been shot.

Which archival assistant in The Magnus Archives is killed and replaced by the Not-Them?

Sasha James is replaced by a creature that wears her identity, and Melanie King, who had met the real one, later spots the change.

Which book collector in The Magnus Archives goes into hiding after monsters destroy his library?

Jurgen Leitner kept hundreds of supernatural books until 1994, then lived in the tunnels under the Magnus Institute.

What is the title of the first episode of The Magnus Archives, built on a statement by Nathan Watts?

Angler Fish launched the podcast on 24 March 2016, and three episodes a week followed during the launch period.

Which episode, numbered MAG 200, brings the five-season run of The Magnus Archives to an end?

Last Words was released on 25 March 2021, almost exactly five years after the podcast began.

Which captain of the Tundra takes over the Magnus Institute after Elias Bouchard's arrest?

Peter Lukas runs the Institute as interim head through season 4 and takes Martin Blackwood on as his personal assistant.

Into which entity's realm is Martin Blackwood banished before Jonathan Sims rescues him in season 4?

The Lonely swallows Martin Blackwood after he admits he only played along to keep attention away from Jonathan Sims, whom he loves.

Which degree does Martin Blackwood falsely claim to hold to land his job at the Magnus Institute?

Parapsychology is the subject Martin Blackwood lied about, and he later narrates the podcast briefly while Jonathan Sims lies in a coma.

Which archival assistant in The Magnus Archives dies in the explosion that closes season 3?

Tim Stoker had worked with Jonathan Sims in the research department, and grew bitter at being unable to leave the Institute.

What name is given to the ritual meant to let the Stranger fully manifest in The Magnus Archives?

The Unknowing is stopped at the end of season 3, when the archive team blows up the ritual site with C-4.

Which living mannequin leads the Stranger's forces and plans to use Jonathan Sims's skin?

Nikola Orsinov abducts the Archivist in season 3, and he escapes only because the Distortion suddenly decides to help him.

Whose form does the Distortion take in The Magnus Archives after it rejects its Michael persona?

Helen Richardson was one of the Distortion's earlier victims, and in her shape it helps Jonathan Sims escape instead of killing him.

Which servant of the End wakes Jonathan Sims from his six-month coma at the start of season 4?

Oliver Banks can see people's life force as black tendrils, and his statement in the episode Far Away opens season 4.

Which ghost does Jonathan Sims free by burning his page from the Catalogue of the Trapped Dead?

Gerard Keay died of a brain tumour in 2014, and as a ghost he explains to Jonathan Sims that the entities are fear itself.

Who speaks the closing line of The Magnus Archives, addressed to a recorder left running in rubble?

Basira Hussain ends the podcast after she, Georgie Barker and Melanie King search the rubble and find no trace of Jonathan Sims or Martin Blackwood.

Which YouTube series did Melanie King host before she came to work at the Magnus Institute?

Ghost Hunt UK took Melanie King to places like the abandoned Cambridge Military Hospital, the setting of her first statement.

What does Elias Bouchard release through the Magnus Institute's fire system to end the worm attack?

Carbon dioxide from the fire suppression system kills the worms and their host, whose body is cremated soon afterwards.

To which piece of furniture in artefact storage is the Not-Them bound in The Magnus Archives?

A table holds the Not-Them, and when Jonathan Sims smashes it hoping to kill the creature he sets it free instead.

Which emerging new entity does Martin Blackwood help research in season 4 of The Magnus Archives?

The Extinction is feared as a new power on the rise, and the plan is to learn all about it using the Panopticon hidden in the tunnels.

Which entity does Jude Perry of the Cult of the Lightless Flame serve in The Magnus Archives?

The Desolation is served by a cult dedicated to destruction and suffering, and Jude Perry maims Jonathan Sims after he draws her statement out.

Which part of his body does Jonathan Sims have the Boneturner remove before entering the coffin?

A rib stays outside as an anchor to find his way back, because the coffin belongs to the Buried and he means to bring Daisy Tonner out.

Which magical object does Mikaele Salesa use to shield his house from the entities in season 5?

A camera keeps the property hidden, until Annabelle Cane kills the black-market dealer and takes it for herself.

Where do Jonathan Sims and Martin Blackwood retreat to a safe house at the end of season 4?

Scotland is where the couple hide, and where a statement sent to the safe house tricks Jonathan Sims into reading a ritual aloud.

In The Magnus Archives, which city holds Hill Top Road, the house that marks the Gap in Reality?

Oxford is home to Hill Top Road, first heard of in the episode Burned Out, where a builder describes his time working on the house.

Which city is home to Old Fishmarket Close, where the first statement in The Magnus Archives is set?

Edinburgh is where Nathan Watts has the encounter he reports, which the new Head Archivist reads as his very first recording.

Which former prison's Panopticon lies preserved in the tunnels beneath the Magnus Institute?

Millbank Prison supplied the Panopticon that was the catalyst of a ritual centuries earlier, and the founder's remains are kept inside it.

Which form does detective Daisy Tonner sign to work 'weird' police cases in The Magnus Archives?

Section 31 is the form that marks officers out as 'sectioned', and it titles the episode in which a constable investigating a murder at the Institute gives her own statement.

Which Magnus Archives season opener has Jonathan Sims recount a childhood encounter with a book?

A Guest for Mr. Spider is episode 81, the first of season 3, recorded while he hides out at Georgie Barker's home.

Which season 2 finale of The Magnus Archives ends with Elias Bouchard killing a man with a pipe?

The Librarian is episode 80, and its killing sends Jonathan Sims on the run as the obvious suspect.

Which war poet appears in 'The Piper', a Magnus Archives statement by a soldier who served with him?

Wilfred Owen is recalled by Staff Sergeant Clarence Berry, whose statement about the Great War is the seventh episode.

Which creatures does Trevor Herbert claim to have spent his life hunting in The Magnus Archives?

Vampires are the quarry of Trevor Herbert, whose statement fills the tenth episode of the podcast.

On which service was The Magnus Archives among the first 100 podcasts to pass 100 million streams?

Spotify marked the feat with a bronze Creator Milestone Award, a prize it introduced in January 2025 with silver and gold tiers above it.

Which membership platform was rumoured to have crashed when season 5 of The Magnus Archives began?

Patreon never confirmed the rumour, though both the Sydney Morning Herald and Polygon reported it.

In which 2023 indie game does Magnus Archives writer Jonathan Sims voice the Narrator?

Slay the Princess cast him as the Narrator and the Voices in Your Head, a set of distinct characters, opposite Nichole Goodnight as the Princess.

Which storytelling cabaret band did Magnus Archives writer Jonathan Sims front as Jonny D'Ville?

The Mechanisms retold tales such as the Odyssey and King Arthur in steampunk and cyberpunk settings before disbanding in 2020.

Which publisher made the licensed Magnus Archives Roleplaying Game, crowdfunded in 2023?

Monte Cook Games built in rules for fear and stress, and each adventure starts with the players creating a witness statement.

Which ceremony named The Magnus Archives the winner of its Best Audio category in 2021?

The British Fantasy Awards win came in the same year that the podcast collected 11 Audio Verse Awards.

Which debut novel by Magnus Archives writer Jonathan Sims is set in a haunted block of flats?

Thirteen Storeys came out in 2020 and sets wealthy tenants at the front of the building against poorer ones who enter by a back door.

Which episode opens season 5 of The Magnus Archives, set after the world has become a hellscape?

Dwelling is episode 161, released in April 2020, by which point Jonathan Sims and Martin Blackwood are a couple.