Podcast / The Monster Hunters

"Take two elements. Any two elements. Say electricity and water. On their own, perfectly harmless. But when you mix them together, maybe in a bowl... dynamite!"

— Sir Maxwell House endorsing our heroes

The Monster Hunters is a British horror spoof in the form of a podcast serial. Set in London in the 1970s, it follows the adventures of Boisterous Bruiser Roy Steel and Badass Bookworm Lorrimer Chesterfield as they battle a string of supernatural threats. They are managed by eccentric millionaire Sir Maxwell House and his taciturn secretary Suki.

Since 2012, there have been three full seasons of six episodes each, plus lots of specials. In 2018 it was announced that the show would thenceforth be produced by Definitely Human (of MarsCorp et al).

---

This podcast contains examples of the following tropes:

A — H

• Action Girl: Lots and lots, in fact nearly every female character to some extent. Prominent examples include Suki, Griselda and Dr Ladyface.
• Adventurer Archaeologist: Lorrimer and his wife Margot, until she died in an encounter with a Mummy.
  Roy: So by day you were an academic, working for London's London University, and by night you were a treasure hunter, working on commission?
  Lorrimer: Well, yes, I suppose so.
  Roy: Dodging death at the hands of inescapable doom-traps and poisonous blowpipe-wielding natives?
  Lorrimer: Yes.
  Roy: Sounds a little implausible.
• Agent Scully: Dr Alison Wellbeloved (X: The Terror From Beneath) and PC Jenkins (The Whispering Fog) both pour scorn on the Monster Hunters for even considering paranormal explanations for the strange phenomena going on around them. See Extra-Strength Masquerade and Scully Syndrome.
• A.I. Is a Crapshoot: The titular robot gets out of control with fatal consequences in The Prey Of Mantis (S2E3).
• The Alcoholic: Roy, with moments of Functional Addict, Addled Addict and Drowning My Sorrows. Maybe also Sir Maxwell; see Never Gets Drunk.
• Ancient Astronauts: Explored briefly in X: The Terror From Beneath (S2E4) when the boys investigate the worship of an ancient horned god.
• And the Adventure Continues: The end of A Knife at the Museum. The villain has been defeated, the loose ends tied up, our heroes are preparing to enjoy some well-deserved downtime, when suddenly...
  Sir Maxwell: No, wait, I've changed my mind! I have a very important case here for you. You cats ever heard of a wereworm?
  Lorrimer: Ooh, I have!
  Roy: In that case, put Soho on ice. The Monster Hunters are back in business!
• Arbitrary Skepticism: Discussed in The Whispering Fog after Lorrimer speculates about a slightly convoluted supernatural solution to the mystery.
  Roy: That's seriously what you think?
  Lorrimer: Well, we did travel back in time after beating up some fish monsters, so I think it's preferable to keep an open mind.
• Audio Adaptation / Adaptation Expansion: From the original live show.
• Back from the Dead: Lord Greg Powers, the Big Bad of series one who dies very explicitly in the finale, returns — in a new body, with a new name and a new voice actor — for series two.
• Badass Bookworm: Lorrimer. He's not exactly enthusiastic about violence, but he can usually handle himself pretty well in a fight.
• Bad Boss: Count Orloff's snarky bullying of his human underling, Peter Card.
  • Subverted by Vipera the snake goddess. When her own human underling is having doubts, she takes the time to reassure him that she is "loyal to her own."
• Baddie Flattery: Lord Greg plays this card pretty hard with Roy, but it turns seamlessly into Evil Gloating.
• Battle Butler: Suki does quite a lot of hitting, for a secretary.
• Bears Are Bad News: Offscreen. After going off the rails in the late 1960s, Roy ended up fighting bears for money. He does the same when he hits rock bottom again at the end of S2.
• Big Fancy House
  • Sir Maxwell House's expansive townhouse is one of the most significant locations in the show. It boasts a wine cellar, a helipad and a roof garden.
  • Tony Hands' family home, Hands House, is a big fancy house full of gold in the countryside.
  • The house in The Haunting of Roy Steel, originally built and owned by Captain Old Jack Legs, is an "impressive pile" incorporating an old desanctified church. Virginia got it cheap, though, for obvious reasons.
• Bigfoot, Sasquatch, and Yeti: In Death on Hell Mountain, the boys investigate after two tourists are brutally attacked by a yeti.
• Bloodier and Gorier: While the show usually leans heavily to the comedy end of the Sliding Scale of Comedy and Horror, The Box of Desires introduces a genuinely frightening monster with a penchant for Flaying Alive. Simon Kane, who plays Sir Maxwell, calls it "particularly unsettling."
• Boisterous Bruiser: Roy Steel. 53% lover, 56% fighter, 109% man.
• Bondage Is Bad: While it's never quite addressed head-on in A Knife at the Museum, no attempt is made to suppress the sadomasochistic connotations of Genevieve's torture equipment. In this episode, evil definitely has a kinky subtext.
• Book Burning: To Lorrimer's horror, Roy suggests burning a library full of irreplaceable books to kill the monster in The Box of Desires.
• Borrowed Catchphrase: Count Orloff's impression of Sir Maxwell. The words are all there in the right order — it's just the voice he can't get right.
• Bottle Episode: Green Prison of Death, which sees our heroes trapped alone together in their flat for the whole episode, and in a cupboard for about half of that time.
• Brains and Brawn: Lorrimer and Roy. This seems to be a standard formula for a network of similar teams across the country.
  Sir Maxwell: I took those two elements and like some kind of scientific blacksmith, I forged them together. Forged them into a team that would look danger in the eye and bring it down with the knowledge of a man and the fist of a man. They are... The Monster Hunters.
• Brief Accent Imitation: Roy puts on a bad cockney accent when trying to talk to cabbies.
  • Count Orloff claims he can do a "perfect" impression of Sir Maxwell's voice. He really, really can't. By contrast, Sir Maxwell does Count Orloff flawlessly.
• Buffy Speak: Roy's interpretation of the Ancient Egyptian Scroll of Death.
  Roy: Right, let's see, what have we here. Well, the gist is, stop moving around... erm, let all your bits dry up and not have stuff in them, and, uh... just, basically stop jiggling around, really.
• …But He Sounds Handsome: The vital clue that exposes Hodley Blackscar as imitating his own son in The Whispering Fog. As Roy says, nobody speaks that well of their own father.
• Cannot Talk to Women: Lorrimer is suffering from this in the first episode, but he soon pulls himself together. This is also one of the reasons cited for sacking Mike Flavours in Bride of the Deep, since it makes him unsuited to fill Roy's shoes.
• Casual Kink
  Lorrimer: I shouldn't try to struggle, Suki. These handcuffs seem a lot stronger than the ones we're used to.
  Miss Pleasance: Did I hear you correctly?
  Lorrimer: Oh, n-no... Suki and I just practice for... potential emergency situations.
• Catchphrase
  Sir Maxwell: GET OUT OF MY HOUSE!!
• Changeling Fantasy: Humble Lucy Landless turns out to be the reincarnation of a supernatural monarch.
• Chivalrous Pervert: Roy, sometimes. At his peak he was apparently The Casanova; though that time has certainly passed, he still gets lucky on occasion, straying further into Handsome Lech territory.
• Classical Movie Vampire: The suave, sinister, non-specifically-European Count Orloff.
• Cliffhanger
  • The Powers of Lord Greg and Taste the Scars of Orloff each end in a tag that is largely unrelated to the plot, setting up the next episode with a shocking twist; as a result, the end of series one runs continuously through both the 2012 Halloween and Christmas specials.
  • The Beast Of Albion: Part One ends in a cliffhanger before all the action is finally resolved in Part Two.
  • Bride of the Deep also ends on a cliffhanger, although some time has passed when the story picks up again in The Whispering Fog.
• Conspicuous Consumption: In Heir of the Dog, Tony Hands spends good money kitting his place out with the finest computerised surveillance and security system in the world... and because he's England's richest man, he's had it done in gold. Almost everything he owns is solid bloody gold. He loves only gold.
• Couch Gag: Sandwiched between the two halves of Sir Maxwell's Opening Narration. In every episode he summarises the boys with a new quip.
  Roy Steel. Men love him, women want to be him.
  Lorrimer Chesterfield. If you prick him, does he not bleed brains?
• Creepy Housekeeper
  • The Haunting of Roy Steel has Mrs Brownlow, whose family has been in service at the Haunted House for generations before Virginia moved in.
  • The Box of Desires has Frau Gersler, seemingly the castle's only full-time resident besides her underling Klimt.
• Crusty Caretaker: Klimt is this to Gersler's Creepy Housekeeper.
• Dating Catwoman: Roy comes pretty close with Gwendoline in The Doll's House. Of course, he gets pretty serious with his arch-nemesis in series two, but that was under false pretences.
• Department of Redundancy Department: Professor Lorrimer Chesterfield of London's London University, and Roy Steel, the world's best big game hunter in the world.
  Roy: My Mayfair apartment is just around the corner... in Mayfair.
• Dissimile
  Roy: But this was no blind man's buff, unless that blind man could see and was keen on violence.

  Lorrimer: To a studier of the paranormal and the esoteric, this is like a goldmine, albeit one that's above ground and full of paper.
• Distaff Counterpart: Lauren Asher and Dr Martine Ladyface, though they don't map onto the Monster Hunters quite as accurately as the Creature Finders do (see Similar Squad). Ladyface is a brilliant scientist, yet she's the one who fills Roy's role of punching things and making jokes; Lauren Asher is the more reserved Lorrimer type who guides their investigations using her powerful psychic abilities.
• Divorce Assets Conflict: Averted; Roy has no choice but to roll over and let Virginia take everything.
• Doorstop Baby: Lucy Landless was found washed up on the beach as a baby.
• Double Entendre
  Lorrimer: You gave her one in Cambridge?
  Sir Maxwell: A — a tiepin, yes...
• Dumb Muscle: Lorrimer is inclined to view Roy as "all fist and no brain."
• Egomaniac Hunter: Lord Greg Powers, nominally the best big game hunter in the world, is ruthlessly obsessed with killing ever more impressive prey. May also apply to Roy to some extent, though he escapes into Great White Hunter territory largely by virtue of being a protagonist.
• Enemy Mine: The heroes team up with their long-time nemesis Count Orloff to defeat a greater evil in the season three finale.
• Establishing Character Moment: Notably, Griselda's very first moments on the show see her saving the protagonists' lives, wielding an axe and a self-congratulatory wisecrack.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Colonel Dolby wants to know exactly what the Monster Hunters are doing at all times. Unless it's toilet stuff. That's just below the belt.
  • Although she is quite literally heartless, Vipera does not lash out at her human sidekick when he makes mistakes; see Bad Boss.
• Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": The bursar, and both the Queen and the Regent of Atlantia.
• Extra-Strength Masquerade: A bit of a grey area. The mere fact that anyone takes Lorrimer seriously as an academic suggests that in this world, the supernatural is widely acknowledged to be real, and indeed it ought to be impossible to ignore. Yet many characters are remarkably sceptical about the constant weirdness taking place in broad daylight, and there seems to be a Weirdness Censor in effect around the second series finale.
• Falling Chandelier of Doom: When things start to get serious in The Haunting of Roy Steel.
• Fantasy Kitchen Sink: Vampires, werewolves, witches, mummies, voodoo zombies, aliens, ghosts, curses, fish people...
• Flat "What": As a Lame Pun Reaction in A Knife At The Museum:
  Lorrimer: So much blood! It's like being in a slaughterhouse!
  Roy: I know. It's... offal.
  Lorrimer: What.
• Flaying Alive: Mysterious flayings are the leading cause of death in The Box of Desires.
• Fluffy the Terrible: Minty the Bog Monster.
• Foe Romance Subtext: Between Roy and Lord Greg Powers; see Homoerotic Subtext.
• Gargle Blaster: Sir Maxwell's "Brandscotchdka" and Roy's "Steel Sunrise" — you mix one part whiskey with two parts whiskey, then draw a picture of a sun on the glass.
• Geek Physiques: Lorrimer Chesterfield: basically just a massive head on some very thin legs.
• Get A Hold Of Yourself Man: In Bride of the Deep, Lorrimer finds Roy Drowning His Sorrows and far too depressed to fight monsters. One friendly punch in the face later, He's Back!.
• Ghost Pirate: Maybe Captain Old Jack Legs wasn't technically a pirate, but he wasn't far off.
• Glory Days: This is how Roy describes his former life, before the events of 1968.
• Got Me Doing It: Lorrimer seems to find himself punning when separated from Roy.
• Great White Hunter: We don't actually see much of Roy's hunting career, so while it's not exactly glorified, he's not demonised for it either. Unlike Lord Greg, who is more of an Egomaniac Hunter.
• The Grovel: When Roy tries to reconcile with Virginia, she demands a detailed grovel in the form of a letter.
• Haunted Castle: Central European Castle Karnstadt in The Powers of Lord Greg and the unnamed castle in The Box of Desires are both modelled on this trope, complete with lurking horrors and wary locals.
  Lorrimer: It's the middle of the night; we're in a Swiss castle at the height of winter; got a roaring fire — what better conditions to tell a ghost story?
• Haunted House: Virginia's country house, site of many a sinister and unexplained occurrence. The villagers say it's cursed.
• Haunted House Historian: Creepy Housekeepers Mrs Brownlow and Frau Gersler both fill this role in their respective episodes. The former especially is an enthusiastic fount of exposition about Captain Old Jack Legs... until it comes to the really useful stuff, of course.
• Heroic Sacrifice: By Sir Maxwell and, later, Miss Pleasance in The Beast Of Albion: Part 2.
• He's Back!: After Lorrimer punches Roy in Bride of the Deep; see Get A Hold Of Yourself Man.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: Especially after Roy moves into Lorrimer's flat at the start of S2.
• Hidden Depths: Suki isn't just a silent secretary; over time she develops into a resourceful, ass-kicking Omniglot who can fly a helicopter, study alongside Lorrimer, and physically intimidate Roy Steel as well as her boss.
• Holding Both Sides of the Conversation: Hodley Blackscar trying to imitate his young son from behind a screen in The Whispering Fog.
• Homoerotic Subtext
  Lord Greg: I can read you like a book, Roy. And not a very good book. But one that nonetheless I want to open up and look inside. No, wait, don't like where that's going. I'm going to stop. [Beat] Ahahahaha!
  • Possibly Foreshadowing. Lord Greg later takes on the body of a woman and the two of them are quite happy together, for a while.
  • Inevitably, Lorrimer and Roy also have to address this occasionally.
  • In The Hell-Shaped Room, it's hinted that Dr Ladyface and Lauren Asher might be romantically involved.
• How the Mighty Have Fallen: Roy was going through a period of this when Sir Maxwell initially found him and invited him to become a monster hunter. We get to see another episode "on-screen" in Bride of the Deep when Roy has sunk back into depression and drunkenness.
• Hunter of Monsters: Obviously.
• Hypocritical Humour: See the quote under Scully Syndrome. Blink and you'll miss this example of the pot calling the kettle black in Voodoo Zombies of the Snake Woman:
  Roy: You're an idiot.

I — R

• Identical Grandson: Lorrimer has the same voice, same calling and apparently more or less the same face as his great great great great great great great great grandfather, Ignatius Chesterfield.
• Idiot Ball: Roy and Sir Maxwell are fairly consistent in their idiotic behaviour, but when Lorrimer catches the Idiot Ball — in the first episode, and again in the flashback to Margot's death — it's very noticeable.
• I Know Kung-Faux: Roy claims to be a practitioner of "Steel-kido," which seems to consist of just shouting a Kiai while he goes about his regular business of punching things.
  Lorrimer: Bashing it against a table until it breaks is not Steel-kido, Roy.
• I Need a Freaking Drink: Lorrimer, after meeting Virginia for the first time.
  • Inverted by Roy in The Box Of Desires; see O.O.C. Is Serious Business.
• Insistent Terminology: It's not a helicopter, it's a chopper.
• It's All My Fault: Downplayed; Lorrimer accepts that his obsessive hunger for knowledge was a major factor in Margot's death, but he doesn't spend much time beating himself up about it, at least not out loud.
• Island Base: Griselda lures the heroes to one of these in The Funeral of Roy Steel.
• Ladykiller in Love: Roy with Griselda. He and Lorrimer both agree that it's unusual for him to commit to one woman for so long (this only a couple of weeks into the relationship).
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall
  • In X: The Terror From Beneath:
  Roy: We're bound to find the Beast in about twenty minutes — that's how this normally works — leaving me enough time to unleash a gag, you to groan a bit...
  • Roy calls out Lorrimer for his unnecessary running commentary in Green Prison of Death; Lorrimer himself has moments of self-awareness in Taste the Scars of Orloff and Destroy All Monster Hunters!:
  Lorrimer: Hmm, that won't hold for long. Why am I talking to myself? It's almost like I've got to clarify my predicament to someone.
  • The Rapping on The Mirror acknowledges that the show is getting darker, Bloodier and Gorier than it used to be:
  Roy: This is getting needlessly grotesque. Usually we just gloss over the nasty bits and go straight for a cheap laugh.
• The Lost Lenore: A year after her death, Lorrimer is still mourning his wife throughout the first series.
• Mad Scientist / Herr Doktor: Hans Grind, the infamous backstreet butcher of Berlin.
  Lorrimer: I heard you removed a man's feet and replaced them with a pair of hands... the hands of a murderer!
• Mayfly–December Romance: Played with in The Doll's House, when Roy flirts with the immortal Gwendoline, trying to exploit her loneliness to gain a tactical advantage.
• Meaningful Name: Who would have guessed that Sir Princely Mothman would turn out to be a giant moth man?
• Medium Awareness: In The Discoteque of Nights (S1E1), the boys can hear Count Orloff's dramatic entrance music. It's not entirely clear whether this is Medium Awareness or literally just Source Music that Count Orloff plays for himself.
• Mix-and-Match Critters: Hans Grind and Lord Greg Powers both have a fondness for building these, with similarly disastrous results.
• Money Fetish: Sir Maxwell loves cash. Sometimes he gets Suki to wheel him about in a wheelbarrow full of the stuff.
• Monster Mash: In Destroy All Monster Hunters!, Sir Princely Mothman assembles a cabal including vampires, werewolves and a colossal squid named Jonti.
• Monster Misogyny: Played fairly straight in the first four episodes, but since then monsters (and even human serial killers) have actually been far more likely to target men than women.
• Monster of the Week: Every week.
• Mr. Exposition: This is technically Sir Maxwell's role, since he often briefs the Monster Hunters at the start of the episode, but his colourful imagination and tendency to get distracted mean that plot-relevant detail makes up only a small portion of his dialogue. Lorrimer handles most of the exposition during the cases, with Roy serving as The Watson.
  Lorrimer: Don't you see, Roy?
• Never Found the Body: The page image for this trope describes the end of series two to a tee. Griselda/Greg has already come Back from the Dead once, and that time he was ripped apart before our heroes' very eyes - this time s/he just fell off a cliff, leaving no trace.
  • An unusual and very unsettling example is the monster from The Box of Desires. Its body didn't simply go missing; it disappeared from under the boys' noses, along with any trace of its presence in the snow or the memories of bystanders.
• Never Gets Drunk: Sir Maxwell shouts at Suki to bring him an absurdly strong "cocktail" several times a minute, but it doesn't seem to affect him. On the one occasion we see him drink hard enough to get drunk, he starts having good, sensible ideas (relative to the silly universe of the show, that is). As he sobers up, he starts talking nonsense again.
• New Old Flame: Roy's estranged wife, Virginia, asks the Monster Hunters to deal with a ghost for her in The Haunting of Roy Steel (although her first appearance is actually the Cliffhanger ending of Taste the Scars of Orloff). Their relationship is pretty complicated.
  • In A Knife at the Museum, rekindling is in the air for Sir Maxwell and Genevieve, a lady he used to "know" in Cambridge.
• Non-Mammal Mammaries: Averted by Vipera, much to Roy's disappointment.
  Roy: I was just wondering what the midsection is. Is she all snakey, or does she have some lady parts?
  Lorrimer: Roy Steel, you have a one track mind! And that track is filthy and could do with a scrub!
  Roy: What, it's a perfectly valid question! I need to know what we're dealing with here!
  Travers: He's got a point, Chesterfield. We could do with knowing what we're up against.
  Lorrimer: Yes, all right, good point. Well, she has a human head, as you've seen, but her neck broadens into a thick trunk and she's pretty much all tail from there.
  Roy: Damn.
• Noodle Incident: In Bride of the Deep, fish repeatedly jump out of the sea and hit Roy in the face, which reminds him of... something.
  Roy: I haven't had problems like this since Caroline and the salmon smoking incident.
• Not Enough to Bury: In A Knife at the Museum, Genevieve presents all that was left of Professor Slenderweave: a pair of hands in a box.
• Old-Fashioned Copper: DI Grabber, introduced in Hour of the Witch, is so wrapped up in embodying this trope that he struggles to hold a normal conversation. Although it is 1971, so perhaps he doesn't see himself as particularly old-fashioned.
  Grabber: Don't give me any of that human rights or police brutality rubbish, or I'll have you lot duffed up and thrown in a cell with no charge.
• Only Sane Man: Lorrimer sometimes slips into this role. Especially in The Prey Of Mantis, which sees him trapped with Inspector Grabber, Sir Maxwell, and Maxie's eccentric mother.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: In The Box of Desires, on being told that Lorrimer is dead, Roy refuses a drink - despite grousing about wanting a scotch, as is his wont, just moments earlier.
• Oops! I Forgot I Was Married: Or forgot to mention it, at least. Roy manages to keep his wife a secret from Lorrimer throughout the first series, which only makes things extra awkward when she shows up out of the blue.
• Opening Narration: By Sir Maxwell; see the page quote for a sample.
• Our Werewolves Are Different: Features both an ordinary man who involuntarily and unwittingly transforms under a full moon (The Heir of the Dog) and a pack of "lifestyle werewolves" who can transform at will and retain wolflike sensibilities even in human form (The Parliament of Wolves).
  Lorrimer: There are many ways a lycanthrope can change: sorcery; convening with the devil; wearing a belt...
  Roy: Wearing a belt?
  Lorrimer: Yes, you slip on a belt made of the skin of the animal you wish to change into —
  Roy: Sorry, Lorrimer, this is going on too long. They've got teeth. I can hit them. End of.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: Lorrimer and Grabber's attempt to infiltrate the coven in Hour of the Witch (S1E4) is surprisingly successful, given they hardly remember to alter their voices. However, they have nothing on the colossal squid who manages to get into an exclusive gentlemen's club:
  Jonti: I've drawn wee faces on the end of my suckers. As far as the staff are concerned, I'm a group of wealthy oil barons.
• Past Experience Nightmare: Implied in Bride of the Deep when Roy wakes up yelling "Griselda!" He may have been reliving his traumatic last moments with her, or dreaming something even worse, or perhaps he simply thought of her the first moment he regained consciousness. Either way, it's a pretty miserable moment.
• Peek-a-Boo Corpse: Running from a vampire, the boys hide in the bathroom, only to find the drained body of her last victim in the bathtub.
• Resurrection Sickness: If Griselda suffered from this after being 'reborn,' it's worn off enough in the interim that you can't tell. The only hint is the intense discomfort she is unable to fully disguise when Roy talks about her death.
• Rich Bitch: Virginia, though the limits of both her richness and her bitchiness come under scrutiny.
• Rich in Dollars, Poor in Sense: Sir Maxwell.
  Max: Suki was going to fly me to the shops!
  Lorrimer: Fly you to the shops?
  Max: Yes, in the chopper!
  Lorrimer: Why can't you drive yourself?
  Max: (laughing) Because I've got a chopper!
• Rocky Roll Call: In Hour of the Witch:
  Lorrimer: Octavia!
  Octavia: Uncle Lorrimer!
  Lorrimer: Roy!
  Roy: Uncle Lorrimer?
  Octavia: Roy?

S — Z

• Save the Villain: Twice so far, both by Roy: he cries out to warn Lord Greg at the last second before Minty rips him apart; he also tries very hard to save Griselda from falling off a cliff, right after discovering that she's actually Lord Greg in a new body. On both occasions Greg has just tried to kill him and on both occasions Roy has to watch Greg die.
  • In The Funeral of Roy Steel, they live out this scenario again (though Griselda's fate is left even more ambiguous this time). By now Griselda believes that this is how it's meant to be, and begs Roy to repeat the cycle with her forever.
• Say My Name: Extra useful in a podcast, since the audience can't see who's just entered the room, been killed etc. In The Beast of Albion: Part One (S2E5), after Roy discovers Griselda's true identity, he goes back and forth between both names. It doesn't help that Griselda/Lord Greg says his name in almost every sentence.
  Griselda: Roy!
  Roy: Griselda!
  Griselda: Rooooy!
  Roy: Lord Greg! Griselda! NOOO!
• Scully Syndrome: PC Jenkins is very resistant to any suggestion of ghosts in The Whispering Fog.
  Jenkins: Maybe it was a tiny killer. You know, just a little man.
  Roy: A tiny man? Dressed as some fog? You need to lay off the scotch, feller.
• Shout-Out: Besides the specific films being parodied, there are plenty of subtle allusions (and some not so subtle) to influences such as Doctor Who and Hellraiser.
• Significant Anagram: Lorrimer is the only one to figure out that Griselda Promogrew is an anagram of "I am Lord Greg Powers."
• Signing Off Catchphrase: Sir Maxwell's "get out of my house" (or one of its occasional variants) usually signals the end of the scene.
• Similar Squad: The Creature Finders: like the Monster Hunters, but Northern.
  Sir Maxwell: Steve Justice, international chef and playboy; the fusty one is their Lorrimer.
  Lorrimer: Now, hang on.
  Sir Maxwell: Dr Aloysius Coburg of the Ancient Myths Department of Leeds Polytechnic.
• Single Line of Descent: Lorrimer is described as the "last of the Chesterfield line." Never mind that he has a niece who even shares his surname.
• Smoky Gentlemen's Club: Sir Maxwell disappears into these sometimes, especially White's. In Destroy All Monster Hunters!, Sir Princely hires a private room to hold his monster meeting.
• Snake People: Vipera the snake goddess has a human head, but she's all tail from the neck down. She has no limbs or other human traits.
• Sssssnaketalk: Vipera again. She's voiced by Peter Davis (who plays Lorrimer) with some effects and a lot of extra ssssss.
• Source Music: Often found setting the mood in nightclubs, on record players, and once in the form of ghostly melodeon.
• Spider-Sense: Roy sometimes asserts that his "Steel Sense is tingling." What this actually means tends to vary.
  Lorrimer: The last time your Steel Sense started tingling, we got banned from that sauna.
• Take My Hand!: The climax of The Beast of Albion: Part One is Roy trying to Save the Villain this way. She slips and plunges to her 'death.'
  • A less dramatic example in Green Prison of Death when Lorrimer, being dragged through a trapdoor into the basement, orders Roy to take his hand and pull him free. Even in this moment of mortal peril, it seems they are both awake to the potential Ho Yay of the situation.
• Talking in Your Sleep
  Roy: Hand me that hammer, Mabel, I'll knock its beak off.
  Crisp: No, Margery, I don't have any butter.
  Lorrimer: I'm sorry, I forgot to carry the two. Please don't make me do any more equations.
• Temporary Love Interest: Roy has several, including Doctor Ladyface and Griselda Promogrew. Lorrimer also came close with Madeline Lockhart in Heir of the Dog.
• Theme Initials: A Knife At The Museum introduces a tiepin with a Significant Monogram - the letters MH, which also happen to form the show's logo. But it doesn't stand for Monster Hunters...
• Title Drop: Obviously "The Monster Hunters" doesn't qualify, but some individual episodes do, including Destroy All Monster Hunters!
• Too Clever by Half: Lorrimer. He may be a genius, but when he overreaches himself, his wife gets killed. Then he does it again and The Box of Desires happens.
  • Then he does it again and The Rapping on the Mirror happens.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Roy's is branded instant soup. Hodley Blackscar is weirdly obsessed with oats.
• Troubled Backstory Flashback: At the start of The Hand of Anubis to explain how Lorrimer became a widower.
  • In The Funeral of Roy Steel, Roy flashes back to a conversation with Greg that effectively marked the beginning of his first big downward spiral.
• Understatement: Occasionally Lorrimer comes out with a real gem, possibly because he doesn't swear. Drained corpse in a bathtub? Oh dear. Flayed corpse in the snow? Gosh. Sir Maxwell suspected of being a satanic serial killer? The consequences will be... quite irritating.
• Unsettling Gender-Reveal: Well, sort of. Turns out Roy's girlfriend of six months, Griselda, was actually the mind of Lord Greg Powers transplanted into the body of a woman.
  Hairy Annie: I ain't no madam. I'm as much a feller as you are.
  Roy: Oh, not again.
• Verbal Tic: Lord Greg Powers repeats people's names far too often. Griselda is prone to the same thing, especially with Roy.
• Victorian London: The boys find themselves temporarily stranded here after some emergency time travel.
• Villainesses Want Heroes: Griselda really, really wants Roy.
• The Voiceless: Suki, who speaks sixteen languages but has never uttered a word on the podcast.
• The Watson: Despite his protestations to the contrary, it's definitely Roy.
  Flavours: What?
  Lorrimer: Ah, now you sound more like Roy.
• Wax Museum Morgue: Gwendoline keeps a very impressive one in The Doll's House.
• We Can Rule Together: Completely independently, each Monster Hunter receives an offer during The Beast of Albion: Roy during Part One, Lorrimer during Part Two.
• Weirdness Censor: Discussed in relation to the massive dragon exploding over London in The Beast of Albion: Part Two. It's implied that Sir Maxwell may have helped to orchestrate a cover-up. See Extra-Strength Masquerade.
• What Year Is This?: When the Monster Hunters materialise in Victorian London, the first thing Lorrimer wants to know is the date (but not before Roy establishes the contents of their startled host's drinks cabinet).
• Who Wants to Live Forever?: In The Doll's House, it turns out Gwendoline is Really 700 Years Old... because she's made of wax and therefore doesn't age. It's not clear where she came from, or how she gained sentience/her strange wax powers, but the loneliness of immortality and guarding her secret has driven her a bit peculiar.
• The Wonka: Arguably, Sir Maxwell. He does somehow manage to run things fairly effectively, after all, and overall is more of a help than hindrance.
• World of Ham
  • Ham-to-Ham Combat: Sir Maxwell and Crisp have a "shout off" in Death on Hell Mountain as they compete to do the exposition.
• World of Pun
  • Pungeon Master: Everyone is guilty to some degree, but Roy is the most dedicated to his bad one-liners, leading to a...
  • Hurricane of Puns: Whenever possible.
  Roy: He's certainly out for the count. [beat] We can count on never seeing him again. [beat] We've... closed his ac-count?
  Lorrimer: Please, stop it.
  • Lame Pun Reaction: Usually from Lorrimer, usually in response to Roy.
  Lorrimer: Shut up, Roy.
• You, Get Me Coffee: Sir Maxwell to Suki, all the time. Generally for booze or some menial administrative chore.
  Sir Max: Suki, take a memo. "Find Roy Steel and Professor Lorrimer Chesterfield ASAP as possible." Now, give yourself the memo and carry out the instructions written on it.
• Your Little Dismissive Diminutive: Sir Maxwell uses these occasionally, especially towards his "boys" (i.e. the Monster Hunters). When Roy temporarily becomes Maxwell's secretary in The Box of Desires, his humiliation is heightened by several dismissive diminutives in quick succession:
  Sir Max: And if you could just type all that up sharpish, you'd be a dolly little darling. [...] Roy Steel, hold your little hands right there! [...] Oh, my little Roy Steel.
  • Effective even with fish people:
  Roy: Don't you worry your pretty little gills or whatever about that.

---

Now, get out of my wiki.

---