GHOSTWATCH
BBC shocks the nation

GHOSTWATCH was released as a DVD in the UK in its own right in 2011 and as one part of a double bill with THE STONE TAPE in 2013. Secondhand copies are often available on auction sites.

OTHER GHOSTLY SHOWS

GHOST WATCH - First transmitted 31st October 1992

A BBC outside broadcast team is sent to one of the supposedly most haunted houses in the whole UK for an unprecedented television experiment. On Halloween night, they will stay with the family involved, explore the stories behind the sceptical headlines and hope to capture indisputable proof of a ghost on video for the very first time. Or not.

GHOSTWATCH is a British television production that has reached nearly legendary status due to the effect it had and the fact that showings since that first night have been few and far between. If you have not seen the show, find a copy of the few dvd releases or search it out on the internet streaming sites before going any further with this review because it is a show best enjoyed knowing as little about it as possible and it is impossible to review without spoilers.

For those of you left, let's talk about GHOSTWATCH.

Firstly, you cannot fully appreciate the show with a modern eye. The period in which the show was created and transmitted had as much input into show's effect as does the production itself. We'll come back to that later, but the important thing to note about this show is that it is presented as though it is a live outside broadcast of the type that the BBC have done since time immemorial. It pretends that the story it is telling is real and happening in real time. Stephen King has made a notable living out of setting baroque horror in everyone's neighbourhood and GHOSTWATCH does just that. Horror is so much scarier if it is taking place just down the street.

The street in this case is a north London housing estate, based on the famous Enfield Haunting that had been much publicised. A single mother and her two daughters have allowed the BBC into their home in the hope of dispelling the harsh news reports that have already been made about them. A very sympathetic on-scene reporter and a much more sceptical comic actor form the outside broadcast team, whilst national chat show treasure Michael Parkinson hosts a paranormal researcher in the studio proper to discuss the background to the case and anything unusual that might happen. There is also a bank of telephone researchers for the public to call in and relate their own supernatural experiences. All of this is presented with absolute veracity, right down to the cheesy montage opening.

The evening gets off to a slow start as we are introduced to the family and their story. A piece of archive research footage is shown and suddenly people are calling into the studio saying they have seen a figure in the background. The footage is shown again with an apparent figure, but when freeze-framed it becomes clear there is no figure. Things are just getting going, however, with loud knocking on the pipes, strange wet patches appearing, frames flying off walls and ... ah, but that would be telling.

Though it was a fully-prescripted television film, the presentation was so thoroughly that of a live outside broadcast that some people didn't realise and the show became the most complained about broadcast in the BBC's history at that point for scaring the pants off the nation. GHOSTWATCH did to Britain what Orson Welles' famous radio adaptation of War of the Worlds had done to America. It is clear now that the BBC had considered that this might happen because the show has clear credits that lay out what it is, has the logo for a popular series of scripted dramas at the top and the number shown on the screen, if you dialled it, led to a recorded message that the show was just a drama and was not really happening. However, those measures didn't work for a lot of people. The show started at twenty five minutes past the hour rather than the more usual half past, so anyone watching something else wouldn't see those opening credits and so many people called in to the number that it was overwhelmed and they got the engaged tone, just as they would have if there was a real reaction to the supposed live show.

Back then, to 1992 when the show was broadcast. There was no such thing as the 'found footage' genre that has become such a hackneyed and hollow trope these days. There was no internet for the truth about the show to be looked up instantly. Politicians didn't lie right to our faces and television presenters were trusted and reassuring presences in our homes. As a result, seeing Michael Parkinson thrown off his super slick game by the spiral of events, seeing popular youth presenter Sarah Greene thrown into panic situations one after another and responding bravely, seeing the natural concern of her studio-bound husband Mike Greene as everything escalates and even Craig Charles's cheerful scepticism worn down into thoughtful consideration by some of the horrible stories he hears all had a much more profound effect. These nationally known figures are all convincing in their roles of themselves. That might sound easy, but acting and presenting are two very different skills and the stars carry it off very effectively indeed. The other actors in the piece are also convincing, though the American physicist strikes a bum note in his two short appearances. Even the two children pull of their acting tasks, any cracks in their performances papered over by the natural artifice resulting from having a camera crew in their home.

All of these excellent performances are in service of a great script that starts of slowly enough and hands out its bits of backstory and hints at horror in a sly and clever fashion. The mother shows clips of how her story has been received by other news outlets, neighbours speak of horrible events involving pregnant labrador dogs and rumours of child abductions, members of the public call in with stories of local folk villains that turned out to be true and then a social worker, wishing to remain anonymous brings in the killer bit of history. This detailed backstory is wound into the events of the evening and is all the more convincing because of it. The increasing tension in the spiralling of events in the house is matched with the increasing horrific details of the backstory.

Cleverly, though, the script doesn't overexplain things. The source of the evil is hinted at, there's a neat rug pull involving the origin of the pipe bangings further in, the only jump scare is a joke right at the beginning and the ending is left open. There is a hint of Nigel Kneale in Stephen Volk's plotting as potentially ancient evil collides with modern technology, but the script is sharp and Lesley Manning's direction is so obviously a live outside broadcast that it's brilliantly deceptive.

It's not perfect, of course. The game-playing with a potential figure seen in the early footage is too obvious and too clear and undermines some of the mystery. A later figure appearance is also a bit too clunky. Calling the room under the stairs a 'gloryhole' is jarring for modern audiences and a trick being played with edited footage should have been detected in the studio much more quickly than it is. And, obviously, if you're not British or old enough to remember them, the presences of Parkinson, Greene, Smith and Charles won't have the same impact.

GHOSTWATCH is a moment in British television history that could not be recreated. It can, however, still be enjoyed as the slick and clever presentation that it is and it's almost legendary status is ensured by the paucity of reshowings anywhere.