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BBC Ghostwatch (1992 Television Pseudo-Documentary)

as a young teen at the time this was first shown it deprived me of sleep for the best part of a month...watching it back now though I find it hard to believe, even at that age, that I was left so affected.
 
Staying around my fiancee's home tomorrow night, on Hallowe'en, just before Uncon.

I'm bringing my Ghostwatch DVD "for a bit of a laugh"!

:twisted:
 
After so many mentions in FT I've just watched it. Not a bad bit of TV drama. No idea how I would have reacted watching it live and unawares. As it was I was distracted by the principal from "Teachers" and the US President who got killed by the Toclafane. Stacked up quite well against a documentary I saw on the Enfield Poltergiest a couple of months ago.
 
DougalLongfoot said:
After so many mentions in FT I've just watched it. Not a bad bit of TV drama. No idea how I would have reacted watching it live and unawares.
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It should always be pointed out that the majority of the UK was being battered by heavy storms that night, so when I saw it live the sound of the storms added to the heightened tension of the programme.
 
I can imagine how that would have added to the atmosphere.

I was a bit disturbed to the constant references to the glory hole, being the door under the stairs. I was only ever aware of the other sort of glory hole (but I've never seen or been inclined to use one can I emphasise :oops: )
 
The BBC Ghost Watch program has been reviewed/descused on the British Invaders Podcast, (episodes 166 & 167), should you be so interested.....

Wm.
 
Mods - I'm sure there is a thread for this already so please merge.

I might be late to the party here but I have just discovered that Ghostwatch is on the Virgin Media On Demand service. It's kind of like Netflix on Virgin Media boxes.
If you have Virgin then it should be available to you.

So, discovering that it's on there, and I'm home alone for the day I've settled down to watch. I honestly can't believe that people, myself included for the main part, thought that it was real. The acting is so bad.
That said the faux documentary was a new thing then. We were very trusting of presenters like Parkinson and Sarah Green.

Edited because I said 'I can' believe rather than 'I can't'!
 
Not sure if this has been mentioned yet, but last year a documentary and book came out on the story of the show - Ghostwatch: Behind The Curtain. They cover the making-of, and of course, the fallout. Both are worth investing in if you're a fan. The book is more of a personal journey of the author's quest to make the doc, but also covers things the doc does not. Steven Volk and director Leslie Manning are heavily involved in both, plus the doc features Michael Parkinson, Craig Charles, Sarah Greene, and before he passed away, Mike Smith.

http://www.ghostwatchbtc.com/

 
"Behind the Curtains" reminds me of the Russian ghost documentary that Sir Roger Moore narrated.
 
I think it's best not to think of the acting as acting, so much as trying to capture the feel of a real experience like a live news event, and in that sense the performances work well.
 
I've still never seen this.

Is it available online?
 
Yithian said:
Is it available online?
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At least two deliberately degraded versions are on Youtube.

One speeds the show up, the other slows it down. To judge by the comments, the videos are hobbled in other ways to make viewing as much of a chore as possible.

Youtube is now swimming in these crappy uploads. Some show the film in a tiny portion of the window, others zoom in so that only the centre of the image is visible with horrible consequences for the framing.

I cannot make out if they are posted with good intentions by people who think the content should be freely available regardless of the quality or if it an exercise to discourage searches for these films and shows. :dunno:
 
JamesWhitehead said:
At least two deliberately degraded versions are on Youtube.

One speeds the show up, the other slows it down. To judge by the comments, the videos are hobbled in other ways to make viewing as much of a chore as possible.

Youtube is now swimming in these crappy uploads. Some show the film in a tiny portion of the window, others zoom in so that only the centre of the image is visible with horrible consequences for the framing.

I cannot make out if they are posted with good intentions by people who think the content should be freely available regardless of the quality or if it an exercise to discourage searches for these films and shows. :dunno:
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A lot of deliberately degraded versions are posted to evade automatic copyright-detection software.

The most common are:

a) Putting the actual moving image in a static frame--usually one off-centre.
b) Introducing a horrible contrast gradient when the centre of the video is oversaturated and the edges very dark.
c) Speeding up and/or slowing down the video periodically.
d) Inserting the footage in the middle of a longer video of differing type/style/colouration.
e) Zooming-in on the video to cut out a lot of the edges.

Edit: easier on the eye.

 
In the strangest coincidence, here's news that Ghostwatch is getting a theatre release in the UK:
https://genesiscinema.co.uk/GenesisCinema.dll/WhatsOn?Film=8385981

On October 31st 1992, at 9.25pm, a BBC television show aired that shocked and mentally scarred millions of viewers for life. This iconic show was an originator of ‘alternative news’ in its most sinister form and its first broadcast lead to 30,000 calls logged to the BBC within 1 hour, the show being banned for around a decade and sleepless nights across the country. This show was GHOSTWATCH.

Through its genius cast of national treasure Sir Michael Parkinson and other known celebrities such as Craig Charles, Sarah Greene, Mike Smith and Gillian Bevan in combination with its masterful writing and direction, GHOSTWATCH lured a whole nation into terror as the innocent ghost hunting folly they assumed they were watching turned into a nightmarish experience live on television right in front of them. Following the airing of the show national newspapers were packed with stories of the outrage and trauma that the 90 min horror drama caused in the UK.

On October 31st, exactly 25 years on from its initial airing, Pilot Light TV Festival will be paying homage to the controversial show by screening the entire first episode and inviting key creators and cast members to discuss their work on the show, the traumatic impact it had across the country and its place in Television history. Joining Pilot Light at this very special event for a Q&A will be creator Stephen Volk, director Lesley Manning, actress Gillian Bevan and the writer/director of Ghostwatch: Behind the Curtains, Rich Lawden.

Pilot Light TV Festival invite you to experience the National Séance live for the 25th time and relive the terror of Ghostwatch this Halloween at Genesis Cinema!
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The notion of this old show raising a single goose-bump so long after its original showing is daft.

I quite enjoyed it when it was shown live and the VHS tape was a bit of camp fun but I would not fork out 15p. to see it as a Halloween treat, let alone the £15 asked!

Maybe it's for the kids - but they are in on the joke already! :comphit:
 
I was just a young pup when it was first shown, and it flipping terrified me. So much so, that I turned it off and have therefore never seen the end. It probably does look dated and ridiculous now, but the memory of that mounting horror still makes me loathe to revisit it. So, I guess the makers would see that as a success...? "ghunt:
 
This was excellent when it came out though, I think I was 12 or 13 when it first aired and school next day went crazy
:crazy:

I have a copy but it's from an awful VHS, would love for it to get a proper release on a good format. More for nostalgia than anything, which if this makes any money at all, must be the only reason I'd have thought.
 
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