Early spring feels like a strange time to bring up our beloved Halloween, but I could think of no other story more fitting for this week’s blog than this. Let me set the scene for you.

It’s October 31, 1992, and you’re just settling in for the night with your family. You flip the TV on to BBC1. A familiar face greets you- Michael Parkinson- and he tells you that tonight on this special, live broadcast, their goal is to provide evidence that ghosts are, in fact, real. Over the next couple of hours, you watch a live television crew at the home of a London-area family, as they recount the terrors they’ve been experiencing at the hands of a poltergeist.

The family- a single mother named Pamela Early and her daughters Suzanne (a young teen) and Kim (around age 10)- appear quiet and a bit anxious as the kind and compassionate BBC reporter, Sarah Greene, and her camera crewmen, Chris and Mike, follow them around the house and ask them to explain their ordeal and to detail the haunting occurrences. Outside, locals are gathering and being interviewed (or rather, entertained) by Craig Charles.

In the meantime, back in the studio, our host Michael is joined by parapsychologist Dr. Lin Pascoe to evaluate the goings on in real time, as well as Sarah’s husband Mike Smith, who mans a phone bank to take calls from the public as they watch the broadcast. As the events unfold in the home, Michael asks Lin to provide insight to the happenings- what does she think is going on? Why?

Calls come in from viewers providing their own ghost stories, or responding to things they think they see in the live footage coming from the Early home. Overall, the night seems quiet- the girls play a board game with Sarah, and Pamela even steps outside to the news truck to do an interview remotely with Michael in the studio. But once the poltergeist decides to make an appearance, things escalate quickly.

You and your family are glued to the TV, watching as strange noises become louder, items begin moving, and one of the children develops scratches all over her face. One of the cameramen is injured and the family is forced to leave the house. In the studio, calls have come in to help piece together the twisted story of the home’s former occupants and the violence they experienced (or perhaps perpetuated). You watch as eventually, chaos engulfs the set and the home, and the broadcast ends with the realization that by televising this event, BBC1 has inadvertently created a massive, nationwide seance, potentially opening up everyone, including you and your household, to this phenomena.

This very thing happened, for real, on Halloween 1992 in the UK, with BBC1 televising a program called Ghostwatch. This 90 minute special broadcast caused panic throughout the country, and resulted in hundreds of thousands (estimates actually go up to approximately a million) of phone calls to the studio switchboard. The catch? The show wasn’t real.

Much like The War of the Worlds, masterminded by Orson Welles and broadcast in 1938, and even more recently like The Blair Witch Project, it was what has come to be known as a “mockumentary”, a scripted drama produced in the fashion of a documentary and often (and in this case) presented as a live broadcast. The producers presented this on the network as a news investigation of paranormal hauntings and used well-known hosts to make it feel even more believable. In this case there was even a phone number provided for viewers to call in to the live show, and it was a well-known number for the BBC so viewers didn’t think twice about the legitimacy.

When folks called into the BBC number, they were supposed to get an automated message revealing the show to be fiction, before they were given a chance to provide ghost stories of their own, but because of the massive influx of calls coming in, many people got a busy tone, which only led to the panic and confusion.

With the War of the Worlds incident, the radio broadcast incited chaos amongst the nation as many believed the country to be under alien attack. They then spread the concern by calling others, calling the press, or calling the police, which only exacerbated the situation. While the amount of panic was quite exaggerated, and was likely never as widespread as the press described, this event did become famous for tricking the public into mass hysteria.

*Photo from: skepticalteacher.wordpress.com*

BBC anticipated there would be potential issues (you know, history repeating itself and all, and they certainly weren’t unfamiliar with infamous events like The War of the Worlds) and they took steps to mitigate that concern by adding a title sequence and opening credits to include the writer. That did not ultimately save the day, however. After its airing, the BBC was faced with lawsuits and public apologies, and Sarah Greene had to take to the airways to reassure viewers that it was a fictional program. The show has been cited as inducing PTSD in children, though even the published article about that study states that “this diagnosis in their cases is inappropriate”.

Despite the negative reaction the press ran with at the time, Ghostwatch went on to inspire many beloved modern films and television shows, and has become a must-see classic in the horror community and is considered one of the greatest paranormal hoaxes of all time.

And THAT is why I chose this story for today's blog. I wanted to share with you, for April Fool's Day, some paranormal trickery. :) And so, my beloved spooky siblings, I wish you all a very happy April, and I encourage you to take everything you see, hear, or experience with an ounce of skepticism, always. Or at least for the next few days.

KISS

Keep It Spooky Sis :)

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*Sources used:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghostwatch

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_War_of_the_Worlds_(1938_radio_drama)

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2539415/

Ghostwatch, created by Stephen Volk. BBC. 31 October 1992.

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