‘I think he’s come to hurt everybody. I think he wants to do nasty thing…’
Every now and then, some piece of pop culture comes along and inspires the question ‘how the hell did this thing get made?’. It’s rare that one would ask that question of something broadcast on the BBC at primetime, but occasionally, truly transgressive stuff does slip through the net (Threads would be a good example). Well, Ghostwatch is absolutely one of those things. How the hell did this thing get made?
First broadcast ‘live’ on Halloween night of 1992 (it was actually filmed weeks earlier), Ghostwatch presented itself as a serious documentary about a supposed haunting taking place in the home of the Early family at Foxhill Drive on the outskirts of London. Several early ’90s celebrities play themselves (Craig Charles, Sarah Greene, Mike Smith) with Michael Parkinson featuring most prominently as the ‘presenter’ of the show, alongside parapsychologist, Dr Lin Pascoe (Gillian Bevan).
Unsurprisingly, Ghostwatch proved to be incredibly controversial, with many viewers complaining that it felt too real. Apparently, hundreds of thousands of people phoned the BBC switchboard to complain, or just to be reassured that what they were witnessing wasn’t real (including Parkinson’s elderly mother), and while it has never been broadcast since, its influence can be seen everywhere from Inside No. 9, to Rob Savage’s instant horror classic Host to the work of Derren Brown. Late Night with the Devil, one of the most acclaimed horror films of recent years, is essentially a more bombastic remake of Ghostwatch. But how does it hold up when viewed through a modern lens? Surprisingly well, is the answer. Parkinson, a true pro, is genuinely fantastic here, but all the performances feel naturalistic, and the narrative (inspired by the Enfield Haunting) is suitably creepy. This still feels like dangerous television.
Ghostwatch is not just an influential and innovative one-of-a-kind televisual event, it is also a time capsule of British TV in the early ’90s. The house itself, and the Early family that reside there, brought me back to my own childhood in a way that only made the more frightening moments (of which there are many) even more spine-tingling – an underseen horror gem.
