It was the BBC ghost story that terrified the nation, overloaded the corporation’s switchboard and caused such a furore that it has never been reshown on British television.When Ghostwatch aired on BBC One on Halloween night in 1992, millions of viewers were left scared stiff by what they believed was a live investigation into paranormal activity. What they hadn’t realised was that the whole thing was, in fact, a scripted drama.
Speaking to Radio Times from the safe vantage point of 2026, Ghostwatch writer Stephen Volk recalls the part Radio Times played in promoting his influential fright fest: “Radio Times did its bit for Ghostwatch. Annoyingly (for me, the writer), blowing the gaff by printing the cast list and making it clear it was drama. Hah!
But did those involved in making the now-notorious Ghostwatch anticipate such a fallout when they went before the cameras? And how did a one-off ghost story become one of the most controversial programmes in British broadcasting history?
Read on… if you dare.
Charles, who was the drama’s roving reporter, felt that viewers would recognise the precedent: “In many ways it was harking back to Orson Welles and his famous War of the Worlds radio broadcast. I hoped that the public wouldn’t figure out that it was fake, but assumed they would.”
Real-life couple Smith and Greene also took lead roles: he was in the studio, while she was out at the house in Northolt, Greater London, where poltergeist activity was believed to be taking place. “We had a meeting with the BBC days before transmission,” remembers Smith. “And we told them that this was going to cause a fuss. They told us not to worry because it was being billed as a drama in the Radio Times, complete with a cast list. But we felt that wasn’t enough.”
For those unacquainted with it, Ghostwatch, written by Volk, purported to be a live investigation into paranormal phenomena at a suburban home. Efforts were made to blur fiction and reality through such devices as a phone number viewers could call, shaky outside-broadcast footage and the use of parapsychology experts who were, of course, played by actors.
Although the finished piece, which aired at 9.25pm on Saturday 31 October 1992, appears to show two-way conversations between the studio and those on location, the sequences were actually filmed five weeks apart.
“We were shooting the exteriors during the day in July,” reveals Greene. “The whole house was cloaked in black felt to make it look like night-time, and there was a heatwave going on outside. There’s a fantastic crane shot in one of the opening scenes and, because it was summer, there are leaves on the trees. So there are a few little clues around the place that this wasn’t Halloween night.”
Yet despite efforts behind the scenes to inspire spontaneity, certain “accidents” were enough to give Smith the heebie-jeebies: “I was so thrilled to be working in the same Elstree studio where they’d filmed The Muppet Show. In fact, Statler and Waldorf’s box was still on a wall in the corner. But then odd things started happening. Light fittings exploded, the fireplace that we had as a prop went haywire, and a painting just peeled away from the wall and fell down.”
“They kept me in the studio once everyone else had left, and these bloody cameras started moving towards me and this red light appeared at the top of the gantry. It was quite chilling to see what looked like large Daleks closing in.”
The scene to which Parkinson refers unfolds in the closing minutes, as a malevolent spirit nicknamed Pipes unleashes its power, appears to kill Greene and takes control of the BBC studios, possessing Ghostwatch’s host in the process. “I was left gibbering away,” Parkinson laughs.
“It was a nightmare. The call counter used to go up to 20, and it was stuck on that level for five days after transmission. It was one of those pivotal moments that I always remember. People were ringing in concerned about Sarah Greene or saying that their pedal bin had just moved across the room or that their dog had gone mad. A man even said that his wife had been watching and had gone into labour because she was so spooked.
By the Monday, The Sun was running with the headline “Viewers blast BBC’s sick ghost hoax”, and Greene, the then co-presenter of kids’ favourite Going Live!, was forced to make an unscheduled appearance on Children’s BBC. “I had to go into the broom cupboard to show that I was alive and that it was all make-believe.
“Yet kids, who shouldn’t have been watching in the first place because they were too young, were sending me pictures of what they thought Pipes looked like. I don’t know whether my turning up unharmed was for the sake of the children or their parents.”
The trouble was that reassurances that the show was pure fantasy failed to stem the tide of complaints. By 8 November, the tragic suicide of Martin Denham, who had seen the programme, gave ammunition to those who had Ghostwatch in their sights. The result was that the corporation effectively disowned the drama and, to date, it has never been reshown in the UK.
Parkinson adds: “While feeling sympathy, obviously, for the young man, Mr Denham, who took his own life, it was a knee-jerk reaction to ban it. Ghostwatch was unnecessarily controversial because a lot of the hysteria had been drummed up by, in the main, the media.”
Charles, for one, is pleased by the continuing interest: “People often mention it to me and I can see that there’s this cult following.”
“The actual device of cloaking drama in reality would seem to be ahead of the spate of films such as Blair Witch that followed on,” says Parkinson. “Just by chance it’s become a leader in its field.”
However, such storytelling can backfire on those involved. Smith recalls going into hospital for an operation on his shoulder. As he was being prepped for surgery, a smiling anaesthetist in his mid-30s leaned over and said, “You did Ghostwatch, didn’t you? You frightened the f**king life out of me when I was a kid and this is my revenge. Good night.” Now that’s scary.
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