The Blackpool Tower Dungeon, 30 days to go...

The chilling new attraction in the bowels of the Tower will unleash dramatic re-enactments of dark chapters from 1000 years of horrible Lancashire history on all those with the courage to cross the threshold.
Work on developing scary sets for everything from Cromwell's persecution of Royalists to gruesome torture and the infamous Pendle witch trials has been progressing steadily.
"With just 30 days to go we'll be stepping up a gear from here on to make sure we're finished on schedule," said Iain Hawkins, Merlin Entertainments' Blackpool chief.
The project has involved a team roughly 100-strong, from Project Manager James McLoughlin and colleagues to the theming team from Merlin's ‘Studios North' based at Alton Towers, to Blackpool-based main contractor Tyson Construction and Blackpool Council executives.
Auditions and interviews are already being planned to recruit 20 actors to bring the finished attraction to life.
Meanwhile settings which appear centuries older than the rest of the Tower are rapidly taking shape, and foundations will be finished soon to support the massive Extremis ride that will provide a heart-stopping finale to a Dungeon visit.
One of the most challenging aspects for Creative Director Ailsa Easton has been tracking down accurate records of some of the older events like the passage of Vikings through the area, the history of local smugglers and the impact of bubonic plague on Fylde villages in the 14th and 17th Centuries.
"Because Blackpool and many other surrounding towns have grown up in relatively recent times, records from centuries past – where they exist at all – are very thin on the ground," she said.
"Happily we have enough general knowledge about the episodes we are focussing on to be able to develop compelling, nerve-shredding storylines with a measure of theatrical license."
Visitors are likely to find themselves participants in many of the dark events that unfold.
"The Dungeon will be very much an interactive experience," said Ailsa. "It will transport visitors back in time and plunge them into a series of scary situations.
"They will enjoy a few laughs along the way, but it will definitely be nervous laughter."
The trademark Dungeon ‘torture chamber' is likely to be even more frightening at the Blackpool Tower Dungeon than at any of its sister attractions.
Ailsa has designed a unique circular chamber in which visitors will be unnerved not only by the devilish devices demonstrated… but by a deliberate disorientation leaving them struggling to find an exit route.
The Tower Dungeon is set to open on September 1st, at the same time as new observation attraction the Blackpool Tower Eye, both part of a £20m regeneration plan for the Tower and Promenade developed by Blackpool Council in partnership with Merlin.

The Blackpool Tower Dungeon is one the newest Blackpool attractions that features a variety of horror shows and rides about scary historical events