18 - Ghostwatch (1992) by Stephen Volk episode artwork

EPISODE · Nov 23, 2021 · 1H 29M

18 - Ghostwatch (1992) by Stephen Volk

from General Witchfinders: The British Horror Podcast

Ghostwatch, a drama produced for the BBC anthology series Screen One, is a British reality–horror/pseudo-documentary television film, broadcast on BBC1 on Halloween night, 1992. Written by Stephen Volk, and directed by Lesley Manning. Despite having been recorded weeks in advance, the narrative was presented as live television. During and following its first and only UK television broadcast, the show attracted a considerable furore, resulting in an estimated 1,000,000 phone call enquiries to the BBC switchboard on the night of broadcast, comprising a mixture of complaints and praise for the programme's unique presentation, these calls included a call from Michael Parkinson's own concerned mother and a very nervous 15 year old Ross.Ghostwatch has never been repeated on UK television. The story, based on the tale of the Enfield Poltergeist, was put into production months before and was complete fiction. The presentation contained realistic elements which suggested to a casual viewer that it was an actual documentary. The studio scenes were recorded in Studio D, BBC Elstree Studios, Clarendon Road. The scenes at the house and the street were all shot on location around 5–6 weeks before the recording of the studio scenes. The recorded scenes in the house and street were then played into the studio, where Michael Parkinson, Mike Smith, and "Doctor Pascoe" had to interact with them.It earned the dubious honour of being the first TV programme to be cited in the British Medical Journal as having caused Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in children.As featured in his collection Dark Corners, screenwriter Stephen Volk wrote a short story entitled 31/10, which is effectively a sequel to Ghostwatch. The piece was later selected for "The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 2007".The Apparition PhaseWill Macleanhttps://www.penguin.co.uk/books/1119138/the-apparition-phase/9781786091017.htmlNo one Gets out Alivehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sY2TLiK27g4$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$Just in case anyone has too much money and wants to give a bit to us to help with our hosting n stuff. It would be amazing if you fancied sending us some pennies - thank you.https://supporter.acast.com/general-witchfinders$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/general-witchfinders. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode metadata supplied by the publisher feed · Published Nov 23, 2021

Embed this episode

NOW PLAYING

18 - Ghostwatch (1992) by Stephen Volk

0:00 1:29:36

No transcript for this episode yet

We transcribe on demand. Request one and we'll notify you when it's ready — usually under 10 minutes.

No similar episodes found.

No similar podcasts found.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long is this episode of General Witchfinders: The British Horror Podcast?

This episode is 1 hour and 29 minutes long.

When was this General Witchfinders: The British Horror Podcast episode published?

This episode was published on November 23, 2021.

Can I download this General Witchfinders: The British Horror Podcast episode?

Yes. Use the download control on the episode player to save the publisher-provided media file.
URL copied to clipboard!