The highs and lows of spookiness on the TV and live stage

Back in the late 90s when my friends Dave and Adrian and I were setting up our paranormal investigation group TIP we were encouraged by the amount of coverage our favourite subject was getting in the media.
Not only were there many magazines and newspapers devoted to it, but it was also getting a fair bit of airtime on TV.
There was the fictionalised version, with our good friends Mulder and Scully whose cases were loosely based on known stories or theories from back in the day, but more essential viewing for students of the unexplained was Strange But True?, hosted by Michael Aspel, a face we remembered from our childhoods, the voice of reason on Crackerjack and Ask Aspel, someone we respected who wouldn’t sell us any rubbish when it came to tales of the weird and wonderful, a good choice by the producers of the show.
We had already been treated to the infamous Ghostwatch back in 1992, dubbed a horror mockumentary, which aired on Halloween itself. The clever premise used known celebrity presenters to undertake an investigation live on air in a supposedly haunted suburban house.
Sarah Greene and Mike Smith, again both known from children’s TV, were doing an outside broadcast from the home in question interviewing the family and neighbours in the hope of experiencing what they had been going through.
Meanwhile, anchoring the whole proceedings in a live studio setting was the ever dependable Michael Parkinson. The whole programme had an air of authenticity about it, complete with the opportunity for viewers to ring in. You can see how a proportion of the viewing public bought into it completely so that when things started to get scary - with ghostly figures being seen in the background of a shot then disappearing, people being stuck behind closed doors, a weird wind breaking out in the studio itself with the transmission eventually being lost - people were in fear for their beloved celebrities.
When it was revealed that the whole thing was made for TV there was a public outcry. It had all been too real for some people, even comparing it to the Halloween radio broadcast of Orson Welles’ War of the Worlds back in 1938 when some listeners thought they were being invaded by aliens!
The result of all the complaints was that Ghostwatch was banned from ever being aired again and it was only in recent years that it has become available to buy on DVD so that today’s audiences can see what all the fuss was about.
In 2002 we were first introduced to Most Haunted and crew, hoping to fill a gap in the paranormal TV market possibly taking a leaf out of the Ghostwatch play book, especially where its live broadcasts were concerned.
In the first series, I believe their intentions were totally honourable taking the team, including the medium Derek Acorah to various reportedly haunted locations to carry out serious scientific investigations with some interesting results.
Come series two it seemed the production team wanted to spice things up a bit, even encouraging Derek to perform what I’ve dubbed his possession of the week! This is not how mediums should behave, especially when being watched over by a spirit guide like Sam and this activity eventually brought the show a certain amount of notoriety, resulting in Derek not participating when he foolishly used the name of an alleged spirit that turned out to be an anagram of Derek Faker!
Most Haunted can be blamed for many things, not only causing legitimate mediums to have to refer to their work as an 'entertainment' thanks to Derek’s antics, giving the owners of haunted properties the idea that there is money to be made by allowing teams of would be investigators in for the night and for encouraging these teams to set up in the first place. For now the world is full of Ghostbusters! Before MH hit our screens, there weren’t many of us about..
Lots of these groups have gone on to present their own paranormal programmes either online or on various TV channels, but I try to avoid them especially the American ones that tend to veer towards the demonic end of the paranormal spectrum, preferring to carry out my own investigations rather than watch others do them.
Recently, interest in all things paranormal seems to be on the rise once again with a plethora of spooky stage shows doing the rounds all of which I’ve seen, including Shock Horror, set in a haunted cinema; Do you believe in ghosts all about haunted theatres; and my favourite to date, 2:22 – A Ghost Story, set in a haunted house. The latter was written by Danny Robins, who is currently appearing on our screens with televised versions of his highly acclaimed podcast series, Uncanny, which features real people sharing their scary experiences with a view to investigating and researching the phenomenon to see if Danny and his team of experts can come up with any explanations. The programme attempts to give a balanced overview of each case, leaving the viewer to form their own opinions. Highly recommended, and compulsive viewing.
Just recently, Danny has started touring with a stage version of his Uncanny show, bringing his creepy cases to a live theatre audience. The other week, my partner Sarah took me to it as yet another of my 60th birthday gifts. It featured two new cases, told using film footage of the experiencers, opinions from guest experts, interaction with the audience and some suitably scary stage effects.
Most of the writers of these new stage shows claim to have been inspired by seeing a production of the perennial theatrical ghost story, The Woman in Black. This creepy play was one of the last shows at the Princess Theatre before COVID struck. I mention this because on Wednesday November 8 Most Haunted is back, this time live on stage at the Princess Theatre, showcasing some of their greatest hits from the TV show. I wasn’t originally intending to go, but guess what one of my other birthday gifts was? Looks like I’m going after all!