I wonder if there are any half-decent documentaries about ghosts and ghost-hunting out there on DVD? I can live without the hysteria of Most Haunted and its ilk, I'd just be interested to know if anyone can recommend any rational but open-minded documentaries which are spooky at the same time. My benchmark for this (though I haven't seen it for twenty-odd years) is the documentary Ghost Hunters that the BBC made with Peter Underwood in the mid-70s (though I daresay that will never see the light of day, and probably would be a disappointment if it did - though somewhere I still have an audio tape of the chilling recording made at a church altar during the programme, of some creepy footsteps and sighing). Have any of the paranormal societies or suchlike released anything worth seeing?
Can anyone recommend a ghost DVD ... ?
- Thread starter darrg
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Answering my own question, in part, while posing another .... what are people's opinions of the William Woollard "Ghost Hunter" series (the UK one which was shown a lot on Discovery channel, not the American Most Haunted-alike)? In pursuance of my quest above I picked up a volume and it seems reasonably informed if a bit stiff. Woollard will always be "the bloke off of Tomorrow's World" for me (and I think he did the early series of "Top Gear") so he has the cachet of respectability, as far as I'm concerned!
DrPaulLee
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IMHO William Woolard's series is quite good.
As for the other series you mentioned, you could be in luck...partially. I emailed the British Film Institute a few years ago and the Borley Rectory episode is available for viewing (you'd have to check costs, they are quite high, but they can get viewing copies from the BBC Archive). Might be worth a try. However, the series was produced at the time of the great BBC archive purge and other installments might not exist. I'm waiting to hear back from the BFI.
As for the other series you mentioned, you could be in luck...partially. I emailed the British Film Institute a few years ago and the Borley Rectory episode is available for viewing (you'd have to check costs, they are quite high, but they can get viewing copies from the BBC Archive). Might be worth a try. However, the series was produced at the time of the great BBC archive purge and other installments might not exist. I'm waiting to hear back from the BFI.
I'm pretty sure all three shows were repeated in the early '80s (the ghost one certainly was), which suggests they survived the Great Magnet. There other two included one about UFOs; the third one I forget - it might have been about the Loch Ness Monster, but I'm happy to be corrected!
JamesWhitehead
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The Ghost Hunters series, narrated by Wm. Woollard is - or at least twelve episodes of it on four DVDs - can be found in pound-stores. The make is Delta. Not bad. 8)
Graylien
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Are those the ones that were hosted by paranormal expert Patrick MacNee? Or was that a different series? Whatever it was, it was very banal. The only time I ever want to see Patrick MacNee on my television is if he's wearing a bowler hat and fighting diabolical masterminds.