Cleverly staged entertainment scares the living crap out of viewers
Halloween 1992: BBC1 scares the living crap out of those viewers who fail to understand that the PTSD-inducing Screen One billed drama presentation GHOSTWATCH was not an actual investigation of paranormal activity, but a cleverly staged entertainment, despite some pretty obvious acting by a cast of real-life presenters (including talk show legend Michael Parkinson) and jobbing thespians.
A million phone calls to the BBC
Scripted by Stephen Volk (The Awakening) and directed by Lesley Manning (who also provided the voice of the ghoul), the show was part of the BBC anthology drama series Screen One. Recorded weeks in advance, the programme was presented as live. On the night of GHOSTWATCH’s only UK transmission, there were a million phone calls to the BBC, a combination of terrified complaints and some praise from the less gullible. The number of calls was so heavy that the BBC recorded message saying the show was a drama, was blocked by the sheer volume.
Briefly, the story (inspired by the ‘real-life’ Enfield Poltergeist Haunting of 1977-79)
A suburban London house in the fictional ‘Foxhill Drive’. Pam Early and her daughters Kim and Suzanne are hounded by a spectre that Kim named ‘Mr Pipes’ because the disturbances were thought by Pam to be simply rumbling heating pipes. The sinister basement-dwelling Pipes possesses and tortures young Suzanne.
Chat show giant Michael Parkinson presides over the show with Dr Lin Pascoe, as kids TV presenter Sarah Greene and TV crew spend Halloween night with the Earlys, whilst outside, comedian/DJ/actor Craig Charles investigates the street's history and talks to the locals.
As the show progresses, increasingly strange phenomena occur in the house. Suzanne is first exposed for making up some of the past events, but speaks in an unearthly voice as scratches appear on her face. The house is revealed to possess a sinister history, previously home to Victorian child-killing ‘baby-farmer’ ‘Mother’ Seddons, who at first was thought to be Pipes, but is later believed to be infant molester-murderer ‘Raymond Tunstall’, a previous occupant at Foxhill Drive, now suspected of being an ancient evil who has dwelt in the spot for millennia, undergoing numerous evil incarnations.
Events become increasingly unhinged, as Suzanne disappears and Pipes takes supernatural hold of the broadcast. Greene attempts to rescue Suzanne from the basement, but she is dragged through the door to a demonic realm. Back in the studio, Pipes’ hold increases, causing Parkie to attempt flight, but he is possessed by the entity, and addresses the watching masses, saying "Fee-fo-fum", the implication being that Mr Pipes is now present in every TV tuned to GHOSTWATCH.
The Fall Out
11 million people tuned in to see GHOSTWATCH, a very decent audience for the time.
The full BBC1 BARB rankings in millions of viewers for the week of 26th October - 1st November 1992:
1. EastEnders(Tue/Sun) (21.34)
2. Neighbours(Mon) (17.97)
3. Casualty (14.74)
4. Noel's House Party (13.39)
5. Birds of a Feather (12.41)
6. Last of the Summer Wine (11.32)
7. Waiting for God (11.20)
8. GHOSTWATCH (11.07)
9. Big Break (10.95)
10. A Question of Sport (10.92)
The Broadcasting Standards Commission concluded that the BBC had made a mistake by not making it clearer that GHOSTWATCH was entirely fictional, but to me personally it was abundantly clear that the show was a Halloween leg-pull, admittedly one conducted with pitch-black humour and seriousness (aside from the jokey contributions of Craig Charles that is).
GHOSTWATCH was the first television programme claimed to have caused post traumatic stress disorder. In the March 12, 1994 issue of the British Medical Journal reported that two 10-year old boys were left traumatized by the show. Wimps, if you ask me.
Father holds BBC completely responsible for his son’s death
Much more seriously, GHOSTWATCH was linked to suicide five days after transmission of Martin Denham, an 18-year-old man with learning difficulties. Denham's home, where he lived with his mum and stepfather, had defective central heating, the noise from the pipes making him believe the show’s poltergeist had now taken up residence there.
April and Percy Denham, his mother and stepfather claimed Martin had become obsessed with GHOSTWATCH, directly leading to his death. Britain's High Court compelled a reluctant BSC to listen to the Denham's complaint and thirty-four others affected by the show.
April Denham: “I blame the BBC - it is all their fault. They said it was based on a true story but it was all a hoax.”
Percy Denham: 'He was a very nervous lad. He was really into it - he was just gone. I had to keep asking him if he was all right, He thought there were ghosts in our home. In my own mind I hold the BBC completely responsible for his death. But I won't be suing them - I can't afford it.'
Martin, who had a mental age of 13, hanged himself in a local park with a length of plastic hosepipe. Heartbreakingly, his farewell note read, “Please don't worry - if there are ghosts I will be a ghost, and I will be with you always as a ghost.”
Was there ever a sequel to GHOSTWATCH?
Yes, indeed there was - Stephen Volk later wrote a short story called 31/10 aka GHOSTWATCH 2: Return to Studio One, using the same (surviving) characters and set 10 years after the original programme.
The ‘National Séance’
On the show’s 18th anniversary, in 2010, a live event took place where fans were asked to simultaneously play their personal recordings at 9:25pm (when GHOSTWATCH was originally broadcast) and then tweet about the experience as it played; it has since become a yearly tradition.
The Enfield Poltergeist concerned alleged ghostly activity at 284 Green Street, an Enfield council house in outer London. Between 1977 and 1979, the supposed presence preyed on sisters Janet (11) and Margaret Hodgson (13).
From the time:
And an earlier mockumentary - Anglia’s ALTERNATIVE 3 (June 1977)
An investigation into the UK's brain drain reveals a plot to make the Moon and Mars habitable for selected human beings in the event of nuclear war, climate change, and environmental collapse on Earth. Presenter/Tory MP Tim Brinton was the only non-actor in the put-on. All other characters were played by actors. Richard (‘Allo, ‘Allo!) Marner, who played Dr. Carl Gerstein, said he deliberately did not learn his lines, making his delivery as natural as possible. Alternative 3 was made with film stock, making it appear as a ‘normal’ documentary of the era.
The Stone Tape
And if the particular spooky vibe of GHOSTWATCH appeals to you, check out Nigel Kneale’s terrifying THE STONE TAPE (1972), if you have never before, that is. A scientific team move into their new research facility, a renovated Victorian mansion rumoured to be haunted. Their investigations try to determine if the building’s stones have recorded past happenings there (the ‘stone tape’), but instead unleash a terrible malign force.
The League of Gentlemen/Inside No 9’s Jeremy Dyson said The Stone Tape, "strikes a note that it just circumnavigates your intellect and gets you on a much deeper level; it just has this impact on you, rather like being in the room itself. Extraordinary piece of work."
Before GHOSTWATCH was even a gleam in writer Stephen Volk’s eye, Orson Welles’ original War of the Worlds 1938 Radio Broadcast:
The 1957 live presentation on Studio One that dramatized the broadcast and its aftermath.
Welles talks to War of the Worlds author H.G. Wells:
The BBC appear to have rediscovered their taste for paranormal TV, as no less than four shows in the genre have appeared in recent months:
Prior to this, paranormal TV was mainly the preserve of the Most Haunted series of shows, which played on cable channels: Living, from 2002-10 and Really, across 2014-19. Incidentally, co-creator and host Yvette Fielding (1987-1992) was, like Sarah Greene (1980-83), a former presenter of BBC children’s show Blue Peter. The Most Haunted brand now resides on YouTube:
Stephen Arnell’s novel THE GREAT ONE, is available on Amazon Kindle:
An excerpt:
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