BBC show viewers mistook for a real ghost hunt revisited in new documentary tonight
A documentary diving into how the BBC scared half the country is on tonight exactly 34 years since the original show went on the air.
Wind the clock back to Halloween 1992 and the BBC aired Ghostwatch, a Michael Parkinson led programme which claimed it was investigating some paranormal activity.
Supposedly looking into a ghostly figure called 'Pipes', viewers were instead scared as things got a little too real as things appeared to spiral out of control.
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As the Channel 5 documentary on tonight at 9:15pm will show, it was all part of the act and scripted, only most of the audience didn't realise that and feared it was happening for real.
The Ghostwatch format wasn't really on TV at the time, the viewers expected that the 'live' paranormal investigation was really happening, and being fronted by familiar faces helped sell it to them.
When people tuned into Ghostwatch it looked like an investigation was launched after 'home footage' showed mum, Pam Early, and her daughters being terrorised by a ghostly presence named 'Pipes'.
While Michael Parkinson took to the studio, reporter Sarah Greene and a film crew did a 'real' investigation.
At the time, viewers were absolutely terrified because Ghostwatch managed to blur the line between fiction and reality.
Though horror writer Stephen Volk was planning to air six episodes, the series was cut down to a 90-minute programme and eventually banned.
He reckoned people would twig what was really going on after 10 or 15 minutes and then enjoy the fiction, but for many viewers they believed it was real through the entire runtime.
He would later tell Examiner Live: "If you are going to tell this horror gag then don’t do it half-heartedly. If you say it’s not true then you pull the teeth out of unsettling drama.
"We were of the opinion that when it’s finished then we can have a discussion about it. The BBC didn’t do that. When it cut to black at the end the announcer said, 'And now, Match of the Day'."
The show as it aired attracted over 30,000 complaints from the 11 million people who watched it, and for 10 years the BBC wouldn't show it again until an anniversary DVD was released.
It's stuck in the popular imagination ever since, and each Halloween clips from the programme are shared on TikTok, with many remembering the horror of watching it in the 90s - with some claiming they're still ‘wetting the bed’ over 30 years later.
One commented: “It frightened so many people thinking it was real. It was shown on Halloween. It frightened me too. No wonder it was banned.”
Another said: “I remember watching this in the 90s. I was so scared. Sarah Greene was part presenting it. It was a hoax though. Still scary.”
A third wrote: “I remember watching this n didn’t sleep for days.”
And a fourth added: “This terrified me... and I was 21 when it first aired! Would love to watch it again.”
The show was also accused of giving viewers PTSD after parents of an 18-year-old claimed it caused his death.
Martin Denham committed suicide five days after it aired and his stepfather told BBC News in 2017: "He seemed a bit upset because things were happening at that time in the house that had been happening [on Ghostwatch]. The pipes were banging."
Mother April Denham added: "He seemed entranced with the talk of ghosts."
Ghostwatch: The Night that Terrified Britain is airing on Halloween at 9:15pm on Channel 5.
Anish Vij
