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BBC Building Ghosts

Peter Howell used to work for the BBC Radiophonic workshop (it was he who jazzed up the Dr Who theme in 1980) and he has a few lines in his autobiography which might be of interest:


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If I remember rightly it was James Alexander Gordon, and was at Broadcasting House in London - I read it in a book called "I've Seen a Ghost" in which celebs various recounted their own real ghost stories (we're talking 20+ years ago, so my memories are sketchy too) - there were one or two really spooky ones in there.

Here be chapter from said book dealing with said experience:

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One major difference between this horse's mouth version and the one quoted from Peter Howell's book (post #31) is the positioning of the ghost: In the original story the ghost was floating well above the level of the floor, not 'embedded' in it.
 
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I used to have a friend who'd been a studio manager at the BBC. She mostly worked on Radio 3, but did some work with the DJs on Radio 2.
She did tell me that there was a spare studio that most people avoided because they believed it to be haunted. It was largely unused, but only got used when the other studios were fully occupied. She didn't give me any details about the haunting.
I'm not in touch because she became annoying and I dropped her as a friend (something I really don't do unless it's necessary).
 
Here be chapter from said book dealing with said experience:

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One major difference between this horse's mouth version and the one quoted from Peter Howell's book (post #31) is the positioning of the ghost: In the original story the ghost was floating well above the level of the floor, not 'embedded' in it.
Wow!

Have to say the "outstretched arms" are such a ghost cliché that I would have doubted this if it weren't for such an impeccable witness. The figure persisting after he had returned to the room and turned the lights on is also most unusual. This would have made a great episode of "Uncanny' if the witness were still alive.
 
I read on the Bristol 247 website that technical problems in the 1980s were blamed on poltergeist behaviour at the BBC Bristol offices. When I was doing my ghost survey, I contacted them and was delighted to receive a reply, from "Jonathan" on 22/1/22:

"When I used to do the late shift, several of my TV colleagues reported seeing things in the corridors near the Points West studio when they were doing the late bulletins in the evening. The studios are tacked on to the original Georgian buildings that front Whiteladies Road, and I do find it a bit creepy down there on my own but I can't say I've seen anything personally." When asked how recent this was, I was told "we used to talk about it on the late shift pre-covid, so in the last few years." Jonathan soon provided more information which he gleaned from his colleagues; "... Ian, the PW weatherman says he heard children screaming in a corridor near where he used to present the weather. The bit of the building he was working in was built in the 1980s on the site of a now-demolished orphanage on Whiteladies Road. He was so concerned he called security out. Also one of our tech operators saw a person standing at the top of a stairwell where the old building meets the TV studios and again called security out. Both of these happened within the last 5 or so years so I'd say that's fairly recent enough."
 
I read on the Bristol 247 website that technical problems in the 1980s were blamed on poltergeist behaviour at the BBC Bristol offices. When I was doing my ghost survey, I contacted them and was delighted to receive a reply, from "Jonathan" on 22/1/22:

"When I used to do the late shift, several of my TV colleagues reported seeing things in the corridors near the Points West studio when they were doing the late bulletins in the evening. The studios are tacked on to the original Georgian buildings that front Whiteladies Road, and I do find it a bit creepy down there on my own but I can't say I've seen anything personally." When asked how recent this was, I was told "we used to talk about it on the late shift pre-covid, so in the last few years." Jonathan soon provided more information which he gleaned from his colleagues; "... Ian, the PW weatherman says he heard children screaming in a corridor near where he used to present the weather. The bit of the building he was working in was built in the 1980s on the site of a now-demolished orphanage on Whiteladies Road. He was so concerned he called security out. Also one of our tech operators saw a person standing at the top of a stairwell where the old building meets the TV studios and again called security out. Both of these happened within the last 5 or so years so I'd say that's fairly recent enough."

This thread keeps irresistibly bringing to mind an episode of the BBC Radio 4 comedy programme Down the Line - and this post has kind of consolidated the idea. I feel absolutely sure that the episode in question must be referencing some of this BBC related ghost lore.

Don't let the 'comedy' reference mislead you. What starts off in the usual spoof phone in show format gradually changes into something very different indeed. This episode is an outlier in relation to the rest of the series, and I dare say a lot of regular listeners ended up somewhat taken aback.

I really liked the series, but even if the humour's not for you, it's worth sticking with it to the finish - the tone shifts somewhat significantly. I found it genuinely quite spooky by the end:

 
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