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By *zero OP Man 5 weeks ago
Glasgow |
Watched a retrospective documentary on this and it got me wondering if something like it could be done today.
For those who don't know Ghostwatch was a BBC drama presented as though it was a live incident happening. The incident was a family who claim that their house was haunted and TV cameras, a presenter and a TV studio report the going ons. As the night goes on the situation gets a bit more sinister with things going crazy in the house and the studio.
A disclaimer was given at the start that what you were watching wasn't real but the involvement of TV host Michael Parkinson and presenters Sarah Greene and Craig Charles gave it an air of realism.
Did anyone here watch it and if so what did you think of it? |
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By *abluesbabyMan 5 weeks ago
Gibraltar/Cheshire/London |
Nope! A disclaimer was NOT put out when it was originally aired. They only put that disclaimer out these days as a person sadly took their own life due to being so terrified when watching believing the events to be true. And, furthermore, this is only in foreign territories as it has, out of respect, never be re-shown on UK telly.
Me myself? I loved it! I thought it was a great idea but, as the show progressed it became - well to 18 year old horror film fanatic me - blatantly obvious this was all a hoax/fiction.
Next morning all hell had broken loose with the BBC's switchboard jammed with over 1 million frantic calls of people terrified - and believing - what they'd seen! It really did cause trouble and the BBC ran with it, until like I say the sad death occurred and they had to come clean.
I have always said if they had done the show and basically found nothing, no evidence of any supernatural phenomenon EXCEPT they cunningly slipped just one tiny bit of hoax in then that would have been genius! |
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I watched it at the time and was terrified. The masterstroke was using TV presenters rather than people known as actors, so the whole thing had the same documentary feeling as the Orson Welles radio broadcast of War of the Worlds in the 1930s.
I watched it again a few years ago and noticed one actor who comes on and gives a 'turn' rather than a realistic performance. I think if I'd been a little older when it was broadcast I'd have spotted that and it would have broken the reality of it. |
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By *abluesbabyMan 5 weeks ago
Gibraltar/Cheshire/London |
"I remember this and it was awesome.
Was only when they did the cut half way thru, casualty came on and one of the actors was in that show and Ghostwatch.
Lost the plot for us then"
I don't recall an episode of Casualty popping up in the middle of it??? I don't doubt the same actors were in it but I am 100% sure Ghostwatch aired at 9.30pm on the Saturday night and lasted until Match of the Day came on at about 11pm.
Hey! Apologies if I have that wrong, but, I am pretty certain it was shown just in one "hit" and not split. |
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By *zero OP Man 5 weeks ago
Glasgow |
"Nope! A disclaimer was NOT put out when it was originally aired. They only put that disclaimer out these days as a person sadly took their own life due to being so terrified when watching believing the events to be true. And, furthermore, this is only in foreign territories as it has, out of respect, never be re-shown on UK telly.
Me myself? I loved it! I thought it was a great idea but, as the show progressed it became - well to 18 year old horror film fanatic me - blatantly obvious this was all a hoax/fiction.
Next morning all hell had broken loose with the BBC's switchboard jammed with over 1 million frantic calls of people terrified - and believing - what they'd seen! It really did cause trouble and the BBC ran with it, until like I say the sad death occurred and they had to come clean.
I have always said if they had done the show and basically found nothing, no evidence of any supernatural phenomenon EXCEPT they cunningly slipped just one tiny bit of hoax in then that would have been genius! "
My mistake not a disclaimer but it was mentioned as being part of the "Screen One" block. |
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By *abluesbabyMan 5 weeks ago
Gibraltar/Cheshire/London |
"Nope! A disclaimer was NOT put out when it was originally aired. They only put that disclaimer out these days as a person sadly took their own life due to being so terrified when watching believing the events to be true. And, furthermore, this is only in foreign territories as it has, out of respect, never be re-shown on UK telly.
Me myself? I loved it! I thought it was a great idea but, as the show progressed it became - well to 18 year old horror film fanatic me - blatantly obvious this was all a hoax/fiction.
Next morning all hell had broken loose with the BBC's switchboard jammed with over 1 million frantic calls of people terrified - and believing - what they'd seen! It really did cause trouble and the BBC ran with it, until like I say the sad death occurred and they had to come clean.
I have always said if they had done the show and basically found nothing, no evidence of any supernatural phenomenon EXCEPT they cunningly slipped just one tiny bit of hoax in then that would have been genius!
My mistake not a disclaimer but it was mentioned as being part of the "Screen One" block."
Ah! Gotcha. That explains it.
That was the whole issue with Ghostwatch as, as it was presenters like Parky and Sarah Greene, people assumed it was real. Cos they only did "real" telly. After the BBC tried to - unsuccessfully - wriggle out of it basically saying people were stupid for not realising it was fiction when it was shown in the Saturday night "drama" slot. But that failed, they were found to be in the wrong. Its why newscasters can't do fiction or ads so people aren't duped. I admit I was duped at first. I though it was a live broadcast and deadly serious. Until, like I say, they "over-egged" it big time and I smelled a rat. |
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In a "brilliant" decision by the BBC scheduling department, Ghostwatch was playing at the same time as BBC2's The Vault of Horror, an entire 7-hour, through-the-night celebration of the genre.
It played loads of really cool films, with newly-filmed documentaries about the genre shown between them. I managed to record the entire thing, and put it on every couple of years to accompany a good drink.
The BBC devoted all of its advertising to Ghostwatch, when they put so much more effort into The Vault of Horror, but they clearly went with the more commercial of the two. |
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