Summary

Ghostwatch, a BBC Halloween special from 1992, scared millions with its fake live ghost investigation.

Abstract

The article discusses the impact of the BBC's 1992 Halloween special, Ghostwatch, which was presented as a live ghost investigation but was actually scripted and pre-recorded. The show, hosted by respected late-night chat show host Michael Parkinson, featured TV presenter Sarah Greene in the "haunted house" with the family, Sarah's husband Mike Smith managing "phone calls" in the studio, and actor Craig Charles interviewing the "neighbours" on the street. The show's realistic presentation and the use of pre-recorded "phone calls" and brief sightings of the ghost, "Pipes," made it seem genuine, causing many viewers to believe it was real. The show was inspired by the Enfield poltergeist case from 15 years earlier, which also centered around a single mother living with her two daughters. Despite complaints from some viewers, the show was meant to be scary and was successful in its goal.

Bullet points

Ghostwatch was a BBC Halloween special from 1992 presented as a live ghost investigation but was actually scripted and pre-recorded.
The show was hosted by Michael Parkinson, a respected late-night chat show host, and featured Sarah Greene in the "haunted house" with the family, Mike Smith managing "phone calls" in the studio, and Craig Charles interviewing the "neighbours" on the street.
The show's realistic presentation and use of pre-recorded "phone calls" and brief sightings of the ghost, "Pipes," made it seem genuine, causing many viewers to believe it was real.
The show was inspired by the Enfield poltergeist case from 15 years earlier, which also centered around a single mother living with her two daughters.
Despite complaints from some viewers, the show was meant to be scary and was successful in its goal.

Old TV Shows

The Fake Live Ghost Investigation That Scared the Shit Out of Millions

Many people thought it was real, and one man even shat himself

Halloween 1992, I watched what I thought was a real ghost investigation.

It scared the shit out of me, and many other people. By the end, I realised it was fake, but it still stopped me from sleeping…

Ghostwatch: like Crimewatch but about ghosts

Ghostwatch was shown on Halloween night in 1992 on BBC1 in the UK. It was presented as if it was a real live investigation.

The host was Michael Parkinson, a respected late-night chat show host.
TV presenter Sarah Greene was in the “haunted house” with the family.
Sarah’s husband, Mike Smith, was in the studio, managing the “phone calls”.
Actor Craig Charles was out on the street interviewing the “neighbours”.

The way it was done made it seem totally genuine. But it was all fake, scripted, and pre-recorded.

Fake phone calls

There was a phone number for people to call with their own ghost stories and information. But when people rang up, there was a recorded message telling them the show was fake.

Throughout the show, we hear various phone calls, supposedly from viewers. But these were all pre-recorded.

Some of the “phone calls” talk about ghostly happenings in their own houses. But others give information about the history of the house’s ghost.

“Pipes” the ghost

We first hear about the ghost from the youngest daughter. She says she calls him “Pipes” because he often bangs on the pipes.

Later on, we see her older sister banging on the pipes. This made me think the family were bullshitting us about the ghost.

But throughout the show, there are lots of brief sightings of him:

The ghost speaks through one of the girls

At one point, the eldest daughter speaks in a spooky voice as if the ghost is speaking through her:

I was initially fooled

I was only fourteen at the time. And because of how it was presented, I assumed it was genuine.

But as the show progressed, I started to have my suspicions. Not of the show itself, but whether the ghost was real. I started to think the family were bullshitting us. But I still thought the show itself was genuine.

So when truly scary things started to happen later in the show, it really shook me.

It was only when the end credits rolled that I knew the whole thing had been fake. I saw the actors names for the characters of the people who lived in the house.

But I still couldn’t sleep that night.

Reactions from the public

A lot of people thought it was real, and many were traumatised. There were 30,000 phone calls to the BBC from people scared or angry. Even Michael Parkinson’s own elderly mother called up.

Apparently, one adult man was so scared that he shat himself.

Here is a TV debate about it from two weeks after: