Dr Balden Arthur Cross (bɔːldɛn ɑːθə krɒs) 02.04.1919 - 28.05.1982 was a 1970’s British television presenter known for his programmes exploring myths, legends and biblical mysteries, and for televised investigations into the paranormal. Founder of the PMRI whose production branch (PMRI-TV) produced The Midnight Hour and Worlds Beyond - shows which ran collectively from 1973 to 1980 and gained Cross equal measures of fame and notoriety. He famously told associates that he would get a message back from the grave, and in a live televised séance (Wessex TV, 4th August 1984) contact was attempted. There is some controversy as to whether or not he did get a message back, with no one being able to prove conclusively that events at the séance were real. The son of a Staffordshire Victoria Cross winner (Major Arthur Cross VC BEM 1883 - 1918) and a Cornish mother, Marjorie Trevithick; Balden Cross rose to prominence in the 1950’s as a student of antiquities and folklore, with his controversial PhD concerning occult legends of medieval Europe. That the thesis was never made publically available has spawned numerous conspiracy theories, the most obscure of which suggests that the man was himself - or at least believed himself to be - a wizard. Famously excommunicated by the Catholic Church, Cross is oft described as the last heretic in popular and tabloid stories. Unfortunately for Doctor Cross’s many fans, he got the chance to enter the void just four months after that interview when, in early May of 1982, he contracted a chest infection that turned to pneumonia and on the 28th May, Balden Cross died in Exeter Royal Infirmary.