Ghostwatch (Limited Edition) [Blu-ray]

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However, with publicity such as a Radio Times article that the cast conducted as though they were about to conduct a real investigation, and those trusted celebrities – who had played the investigation for jovial laughs before the tone terrifyingly shifted mid-show – appeared to truly fear for their lives as strange things rumbled in the Northolt night, millions wondered if a real life haunting was going on. Hundreds of thousands of calls were made to complain or enquire following the broadcast, and school playgrounds the next day were filled with pupils wondering if Parky really had been possessed and if the beloved Sarah Greene really had been captured by a malevolent spirit in the cupboard under the stairs. Photographs flying off the walls… a possessed Susan (‘What big eyes you have. What big ears you have’) – with some of the last words she’ll ever say – telling her mother she ruins everything and that she hates her… Kimmie drowning and enucleating her treasured toy rabbit… the screams and howls of mewling cats as a mirror tremors on the wall. If anyone was in doubt, Ghostwatch had now passed the point of family viewing and television sets were busy traumatising the nation’s children. The finishing blow to the senses for this section? The few seconds of silence as the TV crew remove the bars to Mrs Early’s Glory Hole cupboard and, as the doors creaks forward, the audience catches another, terrifying glimpse of Pipes, half-seen, peering out of the gloom before a mirror smashes and Susan screams echo around the home, before the live link is lost. The great Michael Parkinson is the glue that holds everything together, his gravitas keeping the viewers enthralled as a family invite a live television crew into their home to try and capture the ghostly goings-on that have been upsetting the 2 young daughters.

Ghostwatch Blu-ray - Zavvi UK Ghostwatch Blu-ray - Zavvi UK

With the passing of Parky, today, after a brilliant innings of 88, the first thing I fondly associate with him, despite all of the millions of great interviews with celebrities is his "starring role" is this magnificent innovative cult classic supernatural horror film. The grandfather of "found footage" film genre and frankly, still my favourite by far. The Early's have gone to the press with their problems before but the tabloids blew it all into a joke at the family's expense. To hopefully get to the bottom of things, they get involved with a paranormal researcher who gets the BBC involved and of course, this is how Ghostwatch came to be.

Ghostwatch’s ‘writer’, Stephen Volk, published a follow-up account, titled 31/10. In it, he wrote an alternative depiction about what had happened that night – that Sarah Greene and Susan Early were truly never seen again. That a lookalike had played the children’s TV presenter during her shows in the aftermath. That the surviving members of the Early family were secretively moved abroad. That the BBC studio was sealed off and boarded up. The premise of the thing is pretty sneaky - take a handful of recognizable and respected British news personalities such as Michael Parkinson, Sarah Green, Mike Smith and Craig Charles (all playing themselves), set some of them up in the studio and send a team out to a haunted house to investigate the supposed hauntings that occur there on a regular basis. Broadcast the entire thing over live TV and unleash some extremely frightening imagery onto an unsuspecting and surprisingly gullible populace and voila, you’ve got yourself a bit of a horror classic. If you’re feeling truly brave (and live close enough), there are two events happening. One is this weekend in Sheffield (as part of Celluloid Screams), the other on Friday 28th October at BFI London. These events offer an immersive viewing experience complete with spooky sound effects, smoke, rattling noises, and all kinds of horror. THN attended the first screening at Celluloid Screams this evening, and whilst we’re keeping our lips sealed about the finer details, we can confirm that they are a ton of fun, and perfectly timed for Halloween. Considering the big deal around the original broadcast was that this was coming to you live (or at least you'd have the illusion that it was), Ghostwatch is still an exceptionally well done piece that is not only interesting but oft times genuinely tense and even actually scary. We don't want to spoil it for anyone who hasn't seen it, but man, there is some seriously messed up stuff going on in this film and while you sort of see it coming and it's more than a little bit predictable, it still grabs you and gets under your skin. years later and “the cat now being out of the bag” about it, as well as a proliferation of found footage/live streamed/homemade horrors vying for our attention, does Ghostwatch still manage to entertain, especially during the “spooky season”.

Ghostwatch’ review: Dir. Lesley Manning [Celluloid Screams 2022] ’Ghostwatch’ review: Dir. Lesley Manning [Celluloid Screams 2022]

Ghostwatch. What could be considered the best practical joke the BBC ever made on the Great British public. And, much like all ambitious practical jokes, faced unconsidered consequences. A live report on Halloween from what we were told was a haunted semi-detached home, with some of the nation’s most respected faces. There’s children’s TV’s Sarah Greene, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed; her husband, Mike Green manning the phones; Red Dwarf funny man Craig Charles taking a side-eyed cheeky glance at the whole spectacle as roving reporter; and national treasure Michael Parkinson – Parky! – the grandfather of the talk show. Surely he’d be there to hold our collective hand if things get spooky? Right, Michael? Right?

This seems like a fairly non-descript appearance as things go from Raymond Tunstall’s canon, so why is this No. 1 on this list? Limited Edition Booklet: Includes ‘Extra Sensory Perception Management’ by Sarah Appleton, ‘Ghostwatch – As it Happened’ by Tim Murray & Short Story ‘31/10’ by Ghostwatch Writer Stephen Volk The disc also includes a new 30th Anniversary feature length documentary titled Do You Believe In Ghosts? that runs for forty-eight minutes in length. This piece features interviews with Sarah Green, Gillian Bevan, Lesley Manning, Jed Shepherd, Robert Savage, and Stephen Volk. They cover where the idea for the movie came from, how it wound up at the BBC, why they decided to make the project look like a live broadcast, choosing the house location for the shoot, how the different newscasters wound up in the project, working with the different actors who played the other parts, what went into directing the project, how the movie does a great job of getting you into the heads of the different characters that populate it, the influence of Ghostwatch, how it was received when first broadcast, the use of night-vision and heat-vision cameras, what went into trying to keep it as realistic as possible and lots more.