Ghostwatch
Writer: Stephen Volk
Director: Lesley Manning
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It was the night of Halloween, 1992. Millions of British TV viewers had tuned into a BBC TV programme called Ghostwatch to watch a live investigation into a haunted house. Hosted by Michael Parkinson and Sarah Greene, the show featured parapsychologists and electronics engineers who were certain their recording equipment was detecting something sinister. Viewers were told that they had taken part in a “national séance” that had unleashed a great evil via the TV signal.
This 1992 “live investigation” was, of course, a drama, but one convincing enough to prompt an avalanche of complaints as well as being banned from the screen for 10 years. Before the show was released on Blu-ray, we spoke to Ghostwatch’s writer, Stephen Volk, about quarter-inch tape recordings, using heat sensors to trap spectres and TV’s power to manipulate an audience.
How did Ghostwatch get onscreen?
I pitched it to Ruth [Baumgarten, a BBC producer] as a series. The BBC’s lack of interest was palpable, but we managed to get Ghostwatch considered as a one-off 90-minute drama under the Screen One umbrella.
What research did you do before writing the script?
I did a great deal of reading about poltergeists to concoct an amalgam of cases and their telltale signs. The psychology of ˛ú±đ±ôľ±±đ´ÚĚýis endlessly fascinating. A friend of mine, the Reverend Peter Laws, had recently given a lecture at Bath University to the Association for the Scientific Study of Anomalous Phenomena. He said that an interest in the paranormal was a “way of being religious that isn’t religion”.
Did you secretly hope Ghostwatch would fool the public as effectively as it is reported to have done?
I honestly thought that people might believe it was true for 10 or 15 minutes. I never saw it as a prank. And neither did the BBC, who spent a chunk of drama budget on it.
Were you satisfied with how creepy the so-called “Pipes” ghost looked on screen and the way it was subliminally inserted into backgrounds? His voice on the quarter-inch tape recorder was very scary.
The tape recorder idea came from the audio recording played to the court during the Myra Hindley trial. I thought how effective it might be to have the ghost “sound-only”. As for its appearances, I honestly don’t know how many there are because Lesley [Manning, the director] brilliantly put many more on screen than were scripted.
For a haunted house story, Ghostwatch is very tech-savvy. Did you take any advice from investigative technicians or parapsychologists when writing the script?
I love the juxtaposition of technology and the supernatural because the idea of catching a ghost as if it is a physical entity is completely absurd. All these attention-seeking ghost hunters with their ESMs [electro stress meters] and infrared cameras – I think it is just as nuts as people joining hands around the séance table.
Where were you on the night of transmission?
We were having a party somewhere, then Ruth arrived and told us the switchboard at the BBC was jammed and people were complaining. She said technicians were standing in Broadcasting House, looking up at the big screens in reception, saying “Bloody hell, what is going on in Studio One?”
What’s the best feedback you’ve received for Ghostwatch?
I was tremendously pleased that Oren Peli, the director of , said on camera that Ghostwatch was one of his influences. But my favourite is: “Ghostwatch terrified me when I was a kid. I had to sleep with the light on for a week. But it got me interested in horror and now I’m making my own horror films!” I get this frequently.
