York Dungeon's performance manager, Olivia Mortimer, has shared chilling insights into the venue's Halloween preparations.

Ms Mortimer has spent nearly a decade bringing the city's dark history to life, and Halloween is apparently her favourite time of the year.

She joined the Dungeons team ten years ago, and after eight consecutive years at the York Dungeon, has become adept at delivering spine-tingling experiences for visitors.

She said: "Halloween is when the York Dungeon truly comes alive.

"It’s a time when people embrace the eerie, and we immerse them in the scariest parts of York’s past.

"We spend around a week's worth of work on research and scriptwriting.

"We’re lucky here in York.

"There’s always a new chilling tale to tell."

The Halloween season is the Dungeon’s busiest time of the year, with visitor numbers increasing by 98 per cent.

Ms Mortimer estimated that the Dungeon will perform more than 1,000 Halloween shows this year.

She added: "Visitors love the atmosphere here during Halloween.

"There’s something about the combination of York’s history and the spooky spirit that keeps people coming back year after year."

The morning group warm-up, in which Dungeon performers participate daily to get into character, undergoes a twist during the Halloween season, with actors having only 15 minutes to get into full makeup and costume before their first performance of the day.

'The Black Widow' will take place at the York Dungeon from October 12 to November 3 as part of the Halloween season.

The show's central character is Mary Ann Cotton, who is described as "Britain's most notorious female serial killer" - and whose methods apparently included lacing her teapot with arsenic to murder her victims.

Pre-booking, and further information, are available at https://www.thedungeons.com/york/