18 - Ghostwatch (1992) by Stephen Volk
Explicit content warning
11/23/21 • 89 min
Ghostwatch, a drama produced for the BBC anthology series Screen One, is a British reality–horror/pseudo-documentary television film, broadcast on BBC1 on Halloween night, 1992. Written by Stephen Volk, and directed by Lesley Manning. Despite having been recorded weeks in advance, the narrative was presented as live television.
During and following its first and only UK television broadcast, the show attracted a considerable furore, resulting in an estimated 1,000,000 phone call enquiries to the BBC switchboard on the night of broadcast, comprising a mixture of complaints and praise for the programme's unique presentation, these calls included a call from Michael Parkinson's own concerned mother and a very nervous 15 year old Ross.
Ghostwatch has never been repeated on UK television.
The story, based on the tale of the Enfield Poltergeist, was put into production months before and was complete fiction. The presentation contained realistic elements which suggested to a casual viewer that it was an actual documentary. The studio scenes were recorded in Studio D, BBC Elstree Studios, Clarendon Road. The scenes at the house and the street were all shot on location around 5–6 weeks before the recording of the studio scenes. The recorded scenes in the house and street were then played into the studio, where Michael Parkinson, Mike Smith, and "Doctor Pascoe" had to interact with them.
It earned the dubious honour of being the first TV programme to be cited in the British Medical Journal as having caused Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in children.
As featured in his collection Dark Corners, screenwriter Stephen Volk wrote a short story entitled 31/10, which is effectively a sequel to Ghostwatch. The piece was later selected for "The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 2007".
The Apparition Phase
Will Maclean
https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/1119138/the-apparition-phase/9781786091017.html
No one Gets out Alive
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sY2TLiK27g4
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Ghostwatch, a drama produced for the BBC anthology series Screen One, is a British reality–horror/pseudo-documentary television film, broadcast on BBC1 on Halloween night, 1992. Written by Stephen Volk, and directed by Lesley Manning. Despite having been recorded weeks in advance, the narrative was presented as live television.
During and following its first and only UK television broadcast, the show attracted a considerable furore, resulting in an estimated 1,000,000 phone call enquiries to the BBC switchboard on the night of broadcast, comprising a mixture of complaints and praise for the programme's unique presentation, these calls included a call from Michael Parkinson's own concerned mother and a very nervous 15 year old Ross.
Ghostwatch has never been repeated on UK television.
The story, based on the tale of the Enfield Poltergeist, was put into production months before and was complete fiction. The presentation contained realistic elements which suggested to a casual viewer that it was an actual documentary. The studio scenes were recorded in Studio D, BBC Elstree Studios, Clarendon Road. The scenes at the house and the street were all shot on location around 5–6 weeks before the recording of the studio scenes. The recorded scenes in the house and street were then played into the studio, where Michael Parkinson, Mike Smith, and "Doctor Pascoe" had to interact with them.
It earned the dubious honour of being the first TV programme to be cited in the British Medical Journal as having caused Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in children.
As featured in his collection Dark Corners, screenwriter Stephen Volk wrote a short story entitled 31/10, which is effectively a sequel to Ghostwatch. The piece was later selected for "The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 2007".
The Apparition Phase
Will Maclean
https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/1119138/the-apparition-phase/9781786091017.html
No one Gets out Alive
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sY2TLiK27g4
$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$
Just in case anyone has too much money and wants to give a bit to us to help with our hosting n stuff. It would be amazing if you fancied sending us some pennies - thank you.
https://supporter.acast.com/general-witchfinders
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Previous Episode
17 - Quatermass 2 (1957) aka The Enemy from Space
Quatermass 2 (a.k.a. Enemy From Space in the United States and Canada) is a 1957 black-and-white British science fiction horror film from Hammer Film Productions, directed by Val Guest, that stars Brian Donlevy, John Longden, Sidney James, Bryan Forbes, Vera Day, and William Franklyn.
Quatermass 2 is a sequel to Hammer's earlier film The Quatermass Xperiment, Like its predecessor, it is based on the BBC Television serial Quatermass II written by Nigel Kneale.
Brian Donlevy reprises his role as the eponymous Professor Bernard Quatermass, making him the only actor to play the character twice in a film. It is considered as the first film sequel to use the ‘2’ / ‘II’ suffix within the title.
The film's storyline concerns Quatermass's investigation of reports of hundreds of meteorites landing only in the Winnerden Flats area of the UK. His inquiries lead him to a huge industrial complex, strikingly similar to his own plans for a Moon colony. This top-secret facility is in fact the centre of a conspiracy involving the alien infiltration of the highest echelons of the British Government. Quatermass and his allies must now do whatever is necessary to defeat the alien threat before it is too late.
The first Quatermass film had been a major success for Hammer and, eager for a sequel, they purchased the rights to Nigel Kneale's follow-up before the BBC had even begun transmission of the new serial. For this adaptation, Nigel Kneale himself was allowed to write the first draft of the screenplay, although subsequent drafts were worked on by director Val Gues who directed the first Hammer Quatrmass. Guest once again employed many cinema vérité techniques to present the fantastic elements of the plot with the greatest degree of realism. Nigel Kneale was critical of the final film, mainly on account of the return of Brian Donlevy in the lead role. Kneale was unhappy with Donlevy's interpretation of the character and also claimed the actor's performance was marred by his alcoholism.
Although Quatermass 2 was financially successful, its box office performance was eclipsed by the massive success of another Hammer film, The Curse of Frankenstein, which was to be the first of their many Gothic horror films. (and the subject of our 2nd ever podcast episode) As a result it would be ten years before Hammer adapted the next Quatermass serial for the cinema with Quatermass and the Pit in 1967. Supposedly Quatermass 2 was originally shot in AnsaColor, developed by Agfa, but released in Black and White and it is said the colour negative still exists in the archives - although this could be a weird online hoax.
Something Horrific:
Whisper Down the Lane
by Clay McLeod Chapman
https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/55671294-whisper-down-the-lane
Cornish Horrors: Tales from the Land's End
by Joan Passey (Editor)
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58320855-cornish-horrors
Where Furnaces Burn
by Joel Lane
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16299282-where-furnaces-burn
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Just in case anyone has too much money and wants to give a bit to us to help with our hosting n stuff. It would be amazing if you fancied sending us some pennies - thank you.
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Next Episode
19 - The Reptile (1966)
Staring Noel Willman, Ray Barrett, Jennifer Daniel and Jacqueline ‘Servalan’ Pearce, The Reptile is based in the fictional village of Clagmoor Heath in Cornwall where several locals are dying from what is deemed to be the "Black Death".
Harry Spalding inherits his late brother Charles' cottage and arrives with his new bride, Valerie. The inhabitants of the village keep clear of the couple and only the publican, Tom Bailey, befriends them. Tom explains that the hostility exhibited by the townspeople is the result of many mysterious deaths in the community.
The sinister Dr. Franklyn, the owner of the nearby Well House, is the only resident in the vicinity of the cottage, and he lives with his daughter Anna and her menagerie of ‘pets’. Franklyn treats Anna with cruel contempt, and she is attended by a silent Malay servant.
The production was filmed by Hammer, back to back with The Plague of the Zombies, using many of the same sets, including exterior shots in the grounds of Oakley Court near Bray, Berkshire (seen burning in the final frames).
As documented in books on Hammer Film's history, Jacqueline Pearce disliked wearing the Infamous Reptile make-up as she suffered from claustrophobia. After this film, she vowed never to wear "creature" make-up in her future acting projects.
The film was released in 1966 and in some markets was shown in a double feature with Rasputin, the Mad Monk.
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Just in case anyone has too much money and wants to give a bit to us to help with our hosting n stuff. It would be amazing if you fancied sending us some pennies - thank you.
https://supporter.acast.com/general-witchfinders
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