https://web.archive.org/web/20101214115633/https://www.stephenvolk.net/31-10.pdf PDF file of '31/10' – the sequel to Ghostwatch 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

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

It is suggested that the character of Suzanne Early may become the next "layer" in the ghost's spiritual make-up, and in the final moments of the film the entity possesses television host Michael Parkinson. Sarah Greene and Craig Charles report from a reputedly haunted London home for the outside broadcast, while Michael Parkinson and Mike Smith stay in the warmth and "safety" of a BBC studio. The Early family are allegedly being harassed by the ghost 'Pipes', so named as his banging and crashing were initially attributed to bad plumbing. After a deliberately slow start the tension gradually builds, culminating in a terrifying crescendo. Although entirely fictional, the masterly combination of great scripting, intuitive direction and perfect casting made the supernatural pastiche appear frighteningly real. A retrospective documentary, Ghostwatch: Behind the Curtains, based on the film's lasting impact, was released on DVD in 2013 (having been in production between 2007 and 2012), featuring interviews with many of the original cast and crew. It too was made available as part of the BBC Store Frightmares collection, and shortly after release, the BFI Mediatheque.Midway through the production, Craig Charles has a natter with other residents of Foxhill Drive by the neighbourhood haunted playground that’s previously played host to a pregnant Labrador’s butchering (‘The kids weren’t right for weeks’), before going for a chat with Arthur Lacey, professional exorcist. Lacey can’t be that good at his job because, in among the crowd behind him, there stands Raymond Tunstall in all his partially eaten glory in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it manifestation. Ghostwatch is presented as a live broadcast, hosted by Michael Parkinson, in an attempt to present concrete evidence of paranormal phenomena. To achieve this, the programme launches an on-air investigation into a house in the fictional Foxhill Drive, Northolt, Greater London. Pamela Early ( Brid Brennan) and her daughters Suzanne (Michelle Wesson) and Kim (Cherise Wesson) are tormented by a poltergeist referred to by Kim as “Mr. Pipes”, his name originating from the noises made by the house’s plumbing. Pipes routinely possesses and harms Suzanne, and is said to dwell in the house’s basement, referred to as the “Glory Hole”. Baillie, M; Thompson, A; Kaplan, C (12 March 1994). "The terror of television. Made worse by family stress". British Medical Journal. 308 (6930): 714. doi: 10.1016/S0378-7206(96)01068-3. PMC 2539415. PMID 8142802. A false rumour persisted that Sarah Greene had advertised the programme on her Saturday morning children's show Going Live, including a visit to the location of the "haunting," and gave the impression that she was taking part in a "reality show." This rumour was debunked via the Ghostwatch: Behind the Curtain blog (which gathered information for a documentary about the show). After acquiring the three most likely episodes of Going Live (the week before, the day Ghostwatch was shown, and the week after) the blog's editors found no reference to the show. [9] Greene did however appear on the following Monday's Children's BBC strand to reassure younger viewers the show was not real. National Seance Live - 31st October 2020". ghostwatchbtc. 3 November 2020 . Retrieved 7 November 2020.

Ghostwatch - Wikipedia Ghostwatch - Wikipedia

More recently the creative team behind the 2020 British Zoom-based computer screen horror film Host have credited Ghostwatch as an influence. Co-writer Jed Shepherd, who had appeared on a podcast with Volk prior to working on Host, stated in an interview that he and his collaborators considered Host to be their version of Ghostwatch, and noted that the film has "a lot of Ghostwatch references", including displaying a Zoom caller ID of 31101992, referring to the date of Ghostwatch's broadcast. [25] Sequel ('31/10') [ edit ] What if Ghostwatch wasn’t a hoax? That those events millions of us witnessed were real? What if Ghostwatch depicted a real-life haunting but the BBC had to cover it up as a drama? A show they were not ashamed of, as the public perception of it was, but, terrified of – of the very real monster it had created. In its ruling, the BSC stated that "The BBC had a duty to do more than simply hint at the deception it was practising on the audience. In Ghostwatch there was a deliberate attempt to cultivate a sense of menace." They ruled that the programme was excessively distressing and graphic–referring to the scratches on the children and the reference to mutilated animals–and that it had aired too soon after the 9pm watershed. They further stated that "the presence in the programme of presenters familiar from children's programmes ... took some parents off-guard in deciding whether their children could continue to view." [13] [14] An inspiration to a generation of filmmakers, and years ahead of the profusion of found footage movies that would follow, Ghostwatch is regarded as a classic of the genre and remains as relevant, as terrifying, and as inspirational today.

Ghostwatch: Other Editions

And the thing that held the uncanny terror altogether was Pipes, the apparition formerly known as Raymond Tunstall, the undead child molester who in death now walked the corridors of the ill-fated Early family’s residence. Pipes didn’t get much screen time, but sure made an impact with each glimpse of his partially eaten-by-cats features adding to the sense of dread and menace. “Did you see the ghost?” people asked each other the next day. Indeed, they had, but no one could really figure out how many times he had made his presence felt. Ghostwatch: Behind the Curtains blog". Ghostwatchbtc.blogspot.com. 5 August 2016 . Retrieved 31 October 2017. 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. 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. Ghostwatch itself is still as unnerving as ever. As much as one can keep repeating it isn’t real, Manning’s craftwork still has you questioning certain aspects. What really helps sell Ghostwatch is the presenters involved. At the time of broadcast, Sarah Greene was a staple of BBC programming. Working across both kids shows like Going Live and magazine format show Pebble Mill; it made sense that she might be involved in a new programme for the channel. Similarly, the inclusion of Michael Parkinson added credibility to the project. The only slight indicator that something was awry is the addition of Craig Charles. He slightly over-egs his part as the silly cynic, but his segments are short and so audience attention remains on the other two.

Ghostwatch - 60 Minutes With Review: Ghostwatch - 60 Minutes With

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. Parkinson is supported by fellow hosts Sarah Greene, who ventures into the house to spend the night with the Earlys; her husband Mike Smith, who oversees staged phone calls from the public who wish to share their own ghost stories; and comedian Craig Charles, who interviews the locals regarding the street’s violent history. Greene is accompanied by her camera crew, Chris Miller and Mike Aiton, played by actual BBC technicians. Parkinson is joined in the studio by Dr. Lin Pascoe ( Gillian Bevan), a psychologist studying the phenomena. 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. A phone number was shown on the screen so that viewers could "call in" and discuss ghostly phenomena. The number was the standard BBC call-in number at the time, 081 811 8181 (also used on programmes such as Going Live!), and callers who got through were connected first to a message telling them that the show was fictional, before being given the chance to share their own ghost stories. However, the phone number was besieged by callers during the showing and many people who telephoned simply got an engaged tone. This commonly happened when phoning BBC "call in" shows and inadvertently added to the realism instead of reassuring viewers that it was fiction. Records the default button state of the corresponding category & the status of CCPA. It works only in coordination with the primary cookie.Since October of 2007, plans to develop a retrospective documentary on the "legendary" Screen One, Hallowe'en special, Ghostwatch, have been slowly gathering a head of steam." Well, because, despite the fact I clearly see the image of Pipes at this moment, there doesn’t appear to be any mention of this sighting anywhere on the internet. Ghostwatch has never been repeated on UK television. It has been repeated internationally, on stations such as the Canadian digital channel Scream for Halloween 2004, and the Belgian channel Canvas in 2008. From 2017 to 2019, Ghostwatch was available on the American streaming video service Shudder, [3] [4] and was made available on the Internet Archive in 2017. There have been three UK home video releases. In 2002, the British Film Institute released a 10th Anniversary edition on VHS and DVD, and 101 Films issued a DVD release in 2011 and a 30th Anniversary Blu-ray release in 2022. In 2016, BBC Store made the film available as part of the Frightmares collection, marking Halloween. Further adding weight to its authenticity were the trusted presenters, Sarah Greene, Michael Parkinson, Craig Charles and Mike Smith.

Ghostwatch Blu-ray (Limited Edition) Releases October 2022

While never troubling the likes of Freddy or Jason as horror icons, “Pipes” become an iconic ghostly figure in the UK after the screening of Ghostwatch, as it seemed most everyone was talking about it for a long time afterwards. People still split between whether what they had witnessed was real or not, which is testament to the hard work and planning that went into putting everything together in as convincing way as possible.

Limited Edition Booklet: Includes 'Extra Sensory Perception Management' by Sarah Appleton, 'Ghostwatch - As it Happened' by Tim Murray and short story '31/10&' by Ghostwatch writer Stephen Volk It's the most wonderful time of the year..." Ghostwatchbtc.com. 24 October 2011 . Retrieved 31 October 2017. The film's producers argued that Ghostwatch had aired during a drama slot, that it was recognisable as fiction to a vast majority, and that running disclaimers or other announcements during the programme would have ruined its effectiveness. They also stated that, had they anticipated the audience reaction, they would have made its fictional nature clearer. However, after the BSC ruling, they issued an apology. [13]