She is often called Britain's last witch, but Helen Duncan was more of a show woman than a sorceress. In the 1940s, this Scottish medium became the talk of the town with her 'ectoplasm' séances, claiming to conjure spirits of the departed through a stringy white substance that she emitted from her mouth.

Duncan carved out a niche for herself, touring Britain with her séances, where spirits were said to appear and even interact with their living relatives. However, it turned out her ghostly apparitions were more 'cheesecloth and trickery' than 'beyond the veil.' Her exposure as a fraud led to her arrest in 1944, and Helen Duncan became the last person to be imprisoned under the British Witchcraft Act of 1735.