On Halloween 1992, Sir Michael Parkinson’s prank gave children PTSD.
Ghostwatch was the mockumentary that tricked millions of viewers and saw national treasure Parky team up with former Blue Peter presenter Sarah Greene to investigate paranormal activity at a family home.
On the surface, it appeared like a regular news report with two of the country’s most trusted names at the helm. Why would anyone suspect otherwise?
The programme, which aired at 9.25pm, featured ‘home footage’ of a ghost terrorising two children in their bedroom with their mother rushing to get them out of the house.
It felt so real more than 30,000 people complained to the BBC switchboard in an hour as furious parents claimed their children had been left petrified.
The episode was banned from ever appearing on British TV again, and the BBC still ruled out repeating it despite Parkinson’s death in 2023.
Ghostwatch saw a family haunted by a ghost (Picture: TikTok @richie…d)
https://www.tiktok.com/@richie…d/video/6940918818881424645
Over 30 years later, people are still ‘wetting the bed’ and complaining they were ‘scarred for life’, responding to clips shared on TikTok.
A spooky paranormal show starring Michael Parkinson that was banned after being shown on the BBC has resurfaced on TikTok and scaring the living daylights out of people again 30 years later.
Horror writer Stephen Volk was behind the stunt, initially planning a six-episode horror before being asked to change it to a 90-minute programme.
In a piece for Examiner Live, Volk said initially there was a plan to have a quick discussion progamme in place to ‘diffuse the tension’.
‘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,’ he said.
‘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”.’
Ghostwatch was eventually blamed for giving children PTSD with the parents of one 18-year-old boy saying the show caused his death.
Martin Denham was a factory worker with learning difficulties and died by suicide five days after the show aired, convinced there were ghosts haunting his home.
‘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,’ his father told BBC News in 2017.
Denham’s parents filed a complaint to the Broadcasting Standards Commission (BSC), which ruled the programme was excessively distressing and graphic.
‘The BBC had a duty to do more than simply hint at the deception it was practising on the audience. In Ghostwatch there was a deliberate attempt to cultivate a sense of menace,’ it said.
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