The Followers
5.0/5
Critic Rating
<<Great Pods Note: The RSS Feed for The Followers is on the same feed for Hunting Ghislaine. Not sure why. >> Shelagh Fogarty began her LBC career as a guest presenter in 2014, and her balanced and calm presenting style soon earned her a permanent role. Heartbreakingly, it was this calm approach which led to the most harrowing ordeal of Shelagh's life, when a man stalked her for nearly 2 years. In 2017, Shelagh began to notice the same face appearing in crowds, on the tube, outside her work. She dismissed it at first, but then the appearances became more and more frequent and noticeable - he was there when she met friends, when she travelled across London, at her local train station, and even when he followed her home.??The Followers is a 5-part LBC podcast series where Shelagh talks about the disturbing stages she went through during her stalking: dismissing it, fearing it, and feeling powerless as she was forced to live a limited life. The podcast also included conversations with experts and victims, looking at how societal views, misogyny and popular media tropes may be enabling stalkers to commit crimes without intervention.? Shelagh wanted to tell her story and to speak with various experts to understand more about obsessive and controlling behaviour, to deal with what happened to her on a personal level and to help others identify the behaviour that can lead to stalking.
Critic Reviews
Score: 5
Ximena Smith • Stuff NZ • Aug 6, 2022
"LBC broadcaster Shelagh Fogarty tells the disturbing story...which results in some spine-chilling reconstructions of some of her encounters with the stalker... a sobering reminder that what Fogarty went through is sadly far from rare."
Score: 5
Gerard O'Donovan • Telegraph UK • Jul 13, 2022
"...more shocking, in many ways, is Shelagh Fogarty’s exemplary and deeply disturbing five-part The Followers (Global). In it the LBC (and former BBC) radio presenter shares her distressing experience of being stalked and explores, in depth, the wider repercussions of this insidious crime...The power of this series is in how it creeps up on you incrementally, just as the impact of Fogarty’s stalker did on her. It is also full of pragmatic advice (from lawyers, police, psychologists and survivors) for anyone undergoing a similar ordeal. It is a podcast that demands to be listened to – and demands change."
Score: 4.9
Fiona Sturges • Financial Times • Jul 11, 2022
"In her eye-opening new LBC podcast The Followers, Fogarty reveals her experience of dealing with a stalker. Fogarty’s account of her experiences and her broader understanding of stalking is enlightening, though the picture she paints is dispiriting."
Score: 5
Miranda Sawyer • The Guardian • Jul 9, 2022
"It lasted for almost two years, and her telling of it is riveting, especially at the start, when she’s confused as to whether the stalking is actually happening. Fogarty’s story, which mercifully ends pretty well, is interspersed with her interviews with experts..."
