Haunted print issue 1

EDITORIAL

EDITORS Albert Nonn (info@hauntedmagazine.co.uk) Paul Stevenson (paul@hauntedmagazine.co.uk) Tel: 01623 511 203 DESIGNER Richard Page (richard@roomtwelve.co.uk) www.roomtwelve.co.uk CONTRIBUTORS Libby Clark, Jason Karl, Eve Merrick-Williams, Lee Roberts, Stephen Saul, Lesley Smith, Morgan Steele, Milly Wong

WELCOME TO HAUNTED, a new and vibrant paranormal magazine, packed full of what we like to call “scary goodness”.

If this is your first time reading HAUNTED, where have you been? You missed a really cracking “pilot” issue, although we wish we’d done a feature on Haunted Airfields (pilot issue, geddit?) but have no fear, we have back issues available. This is the official “first” issue of HAUNTED, we looked at what we did wrong, what we did right, what we didn’t do, what we should have done, what we achieved and what we missed. To which, here we proudly present Issue#1 of HAUNTED. Enjoy!!

of the Dutch that eating doughnuts on New Year’s Day would bring good fortune. We shall wait and see but what a great excuse to immerse yourself in sticky sugary jammy food (I was “stuffed” after my fifth, but it was all in the aid of acquiring luck). Our cousins across the pond celebrated the New Year by eating black-eyed peas and cabbage as they are both considered to be good luck vegetables. Well “I got a feeling” that didn’t happen in the majority of households here in the UK.

Happy New Year to all the readers of HAUNTED. This is the first “official” issue of HAUNTED. It was always our intention to do a pilot issue to test the water, so to speak, as this is our first dabble with producing our own magazine. The feedback has been generally very good to be honest and it really was a pleasure to finally see it in print, all we need is a bit of luck and good fortune. HAUNTED is probably the first “paranormal” magazine that has tried to stretch the genre to a wider audience with its diverse features, hey come on where else would you have got a magazine featuring ScoobyDoo and Girls Aloud? The plan was to actually launch just before Christmas but circumstances prevailed so that we decided to start in 2010, what do they say, New Year - new start.

What a year 2010 is going to be, I can feel it in my bones (it’s either that or rheumatism). I feel that the paranormal industry maybe turning a dark, dark corner into a dark, dark, street and becoming bigger, better and more popular than ever (can anyone remember the “dark, dark” ghost story that ‘we wuz told when we wuz kids’? answers on a postcard please). Just the other day, I was asking Jeeves about ghost hunting events in 2010, and there are hundreds of locations and literally thousands of events planned throughout the UK in 2010. There are some wonderful Ghost festivals planned for this year and new paranormal style programmes are popping up on both mainstream and satellite/cable TV. This will be an exciting year for the paranormal as Most Haunted goes on a nationwide tour and two great talented writers Andy Nyman & Jeremy Dyson premiere their Ghost Stories on the stage.

I hope that you are all doing well with your New Year resolutions; I made a resolution not to start any resolutions, work that one out!! Apparently it is thought that you can affect your luck throughout the year by eating certain types of food and many cultures believe that any food in the shape of a ring is good luck, symbolising “coming full circle”. Personally, I share the views

What has HAUNTED got planned for you in 2010? Well, subscribe and I shall tell you, only joking!! I can let you into a few secrets; I don’t want to give everything away. HAUNTED has two regular celebrity writers, not just

SUBSCRIPTION ENQUIRIES info@hauntedmagazine.co.uk SYNDICATION Paul Stevenson 01623 511203 (paul@hauntedmagazine.co.uk) PUBLISHED BY ANON PUBLICATIONS 6 Peveril Drive, Sutton In Ashfield, Nottinghamshire NG17 2GT anonpublications@hotmail.com PRINTED IN THE UK BY Europa - The European Printing Company 0800 689 9117 (www.europaprint.co.uk) STANDARD SUBSCRIPTION RATES 6 Issues: UK £16, EU £22 Rest of the World: £32 For more info email info@hauntedmagazine.co.uk

Visit: www.hauntedmagazine.co.uk

interviews but regular celebrity writers, voicing their opinions, sharing their thoughts and partaking their knowledge with us all and HAUNTED has an exclusive interview with the UK’s Scream Queen, Emily Booth, oh yes. This issue has some brilliant features including the first part of the history of supernatural on British TV, a wonderfully researched feature on the legend that is Peter Cushing and two exclusive pictures taken at Dudley Castle, during a Halloween ghost hunt, and at The Falstaff Experience, Stratford-upon-Avon. I won’t tell you what the photographers and I think we can see (as the power of persuasion is a curious thing) BUT I feel that they have captured really clear images. See for yourself. As usual, we have an eclectic mix of features that fall within the paranormal umbrella written by some fantastic writers and contributors. I hope you enjoy this issue of HAUNTED, you’re very welcome to come back and read some more at any time.

Finally, remember don’t be normal and natural, be PARAnormal and SUPERnatural!!

Albert Nonn FEB/MAR 2010 HAUNTED MAGAZINE

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CONTENTS

FEB/MAR 2010 - ISSUE 1

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79

EMILY BOOTH

JASON KARL’S SCAREZONE

She’s sexy, sassy and scary (when in character), Haunted chats with the UK Scream Queen

Exploring different aspects of the UK scare entertainment industry

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28

WICKEDPEDIA

Peter Cushing, OBE

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LESLEY SMITH:

Her story on history

REGULARS 7

8

PLEASE STOP YOU’RE KILLING ME!

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THE HISTORY OF BRITISH SUPERNATURAL TV

HAUNTED DERBYSHIRE

15 “LEGGI TUTTE LE INFORMAZIONI”

Catch up with the latest Paranormal news from all over the world

I’m a Medium, well that’s what it says in my underpants. Haunted dedicates a page to the lighter side of the Paranormal

18 PARANORMAL TV FLASHBACK

“READ ALL ABARRRT IT!!”

45 SO YOU WANT TO BE A …

Catch up with the latest Paranormal news in the UK

10 WHERE ARE THEY BURIED?

Haunted seeks out the final resting places of much loved and dearly departed celebrities

Halloween 1992, Michael Parkinson, Sarah Greene, Mike Smith and Craig Charles go Ghosthunting

Careers advice not for the faint hearted

87 LIBBY’S LAST RITES

Our resident Medium, Libby muses about love, life and the universe

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For the very first time in its history, THE WORLD HORROR CONVENTION is being held off the North American continent, in the historic seaside city of

BRIGHTON on the south coast of England.

GUESTS OF HONOUR

TANITH LEE, DAVID CASE, LES EDWARDS, DAVE CARSON HUGH LAMB, JO FLETCHER JAMES HERBERT The theme will be

INGRID PITT

“BRIGHTON SHOCK!” — a Celebration of the European Horror Tradition

THE PLACE

THE HOTEL

An easy journey by rail or road, Brighton is also quickly accessible from Gatwick Airport. Originally a sleepy fishing village, then famously the venue for “romantic” weekends, Brighton is now a thriving city with every modern amenity — but with ghosts and a historical murder or two never far away...

The Royal Albion Hotel is right on the picturesque seafront, opposite the world-famous Palace Pier and within a stone’s throw of everything the town has to offer — from countless restaurants, clubs and bars to excellent shops, the promenade, and some of the finest Regency architecture in the world...

THE PROGRAMME With a packed schedule of professional panels from morning until midnight every day, not to mention readings, launches, signings, workshops and live entertainment — culminating in the banquet presentation of the HWA Stoker Awards at a special event on the iconic Brighton Pier — this is a convention absolutely not to be missed.

WISH YOU WERE HERE? You can be — but act fast: due to overwhelming demand, nearly 90% of memberships have already been sold. Do it now...

Join at www.whc2010.org

DEAD FUNNY

Got any good Paranormal related jokes?

Send them to info@hauntedmagazine.co.uk and if we like them we might use them (after copyrighting them of course).

What have you got to lose? (apart from your dignity, kudos and respect of your fellow man (or woman))

Here at HAUNTED we like a laugh, we’re not just into the macabre and mysterious world of the paranormal!

The HAUNTED team are currently reading the following books: Pain & Sorrow - By Anne Gwish, The Japanese Way of Death - By Harry Kirrey, The Haunted Room - By Hugo Fearst, Attack of the flying Blood-Sucker - By Amos Keeto, I will get my revenge - By Yul Besorri, Never been Ghost Hunting: is it fun? - By Howard I. Knowe, A history of the clever know it all geek in Horror films: do they survive and get the girl? - By Willie Mayckeit and Illustrated by Betty Willnot

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The Paranorm LOCH, STOCK AND ONE DEAD SEA-MONSTER? Not like this, not this way. The Loch Ness Monster might well be dead, readers. YES it’s true, fans (and Nessie has many) fear their favourite water-based monster may have kicked the dreaded watery bucket.

With only one decent sighting in Loch Ness in 2009, a documentary has been made that explores the possibility that the monster might be sleeping with fishes more than the recommended eight hours a night. We are talking permanently.

sighting in 2009. Ten years ago sighting were a plenty but in the last two or three years they have trailed off”. So it looks like Nessie has gone to the great, shaky-camera place in the sky.

So, grab a hanky, blow your nose, dry your eyes and be upstanding, in respect of The Loch Ness Monster (565 AD 2010)

Gary Campbell, president of the Official Loch Ness Monster Fan Club said sightings were becoming increasingly rare, “we are relieved to have had one

WHO YA GONNA CALL? BE-SPECTACLED TWINS OR GHOSTBUSTERS? Lochaber, made famous by that Proclaimer’s song where the spectacled twins sing “Skye - no more, Lochaber - no more”.

Well no more indeed as a series of spooky goings on at a Lochaber hotel looks like putting Lochaber back in the public eye and has led to the launch of a Ghostbusters group to seek out spirits in the area. Jim Morrison and

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Heather MacLeod, former employees of Ballachulish Hotel, have reported experiencing paranormal activity and have now formed Ghost and Paranormal Investigators Scotland.

Jim was a porter at the hotel, while Heather was assistant housekeeper when they stumbled across strange goings on. Jim recalled “One day in room 112, I was helping Heather move a bed when we heard heavy footsteps coming along the corridor and

stopping outside the door. But when I looked, nobody was there. On another occasion, I was in room 204 when the window which normally stays open twice slammed shut when there was no wind or anything to cause it. Then, when I looked over to the bed, there was an imprint on it as if somebody had been sitting on it.

There would also be strange feelings in certain rooms like you were being watched”. Along with three others - Rob Price, of Fort William, and Natalie Milne and Jim Rogan, both of Aberdeen - the team will investigate people’s houses and other premises like hospitals, schools and hotels. Their first probe will be in February at Old Inverlochy Castle.

mal Observer MOVE OVER BLACKPOOL LIGHTS HERE COMES LANCASTER’S DARK SIDE

AND FINALLY...

ANGEL DE-FLIGHT

Two ghost authors are putting the final terrifying touches to a new book which tells of Lancaster’s dark side.

Angels depicted heralding the birth of Jesus in nativity scenes across the world are anatomically flawed, according to a scientist who claims they would never be able to fly.

TV presenter Jason Karl and Adele Yeomans, owner of haunted Mains Hall in Singleton, have spent the past year trawling the city for spooky tales.

Lancaster’s Haunted Heritage, due out in 2010, features Lancaster Castle, a haunted autograph shop and the strange tale of a Roman ghost in a council house. It is the third in the series which saw a Blackpool-based book published last month and local bestseller Preston’s Haunted Heritage in 2007. The book will be a collection of true accounts of encounters with ghosts and spirits at hotels, pubs,

GHOST WRITERS SIT WELL A historic Scarborough building is haunted by the late family who owned it, according to it’s current occupants.

Sitwell House, now known as Woodend Creative Workspace, is apparently haunted by members of the literary Sitwell family. A live ghost hunt was recently filmed in the building and there were plenty of spooky goings-on

private houses, shops and workplaces throughout the city and its villages within a 10-mile radius.

A spokesman for the book’s publisher, Galgate-based Carnegie Publishing, said: “The paranormal has an enormous and ever-growing appeal and Lancashire seems to be a rich source of strange events combining tales of the paranormal with local history.”

Jason and Adele regularly appeal to anyone who has seen a ghost, or had any kind of supernatural encounter in Lancashire, to contact them via e-mail for future projects on stories@ jasondexterkarl.com. People who do not wish to be identified can have their name altered to protect privacy.

to report. Andrew Clay, centre director of Woodend, said: “We have always though Woodend was haunted. They are all friendly ghosts. We have seen very strange things in the past and someone once took a picture of a face in the window. People have told us they have seen ghosts here before. So we decided to do a ghost hunt to see if we can confirm it.” The ghost hunt was streamed live on the internet and Mr. Clay says the ghosthunters picked up plenty of messages. He said: “We went round the building seeing if we could find anything and Angie, the lady who led the session, was picking up signals all the time.” Mr. Clay said a signal was picked up from Ida Sitwell, who was the wife of Sir George.

A leading biologist has compared the physiology of flighted species with the representations of spiritual and mythical creatures in art - and found the angels and fairies that sit atop of Christmas trees did not get there under their own steam.

Professor Roger Wotton, from University College London, found that flight would be impossible for angels portrayed with arms and bird-like feathered wings.

“Even a cursory examination of the evidence in representational arts shows that angels and cherubs cannot take off and cannot use powered flight,” Professor Wotton’s paper explores why the mythology is so strong. “Looking at these things teaches us something about what we believe and what is concrete,” said the academic. “Angels are very powerful religious icons for people with faith. Their similarity to humans adds to their power. At the same time, they have wings on them because they are more than human.

They take messages to heaven and therefore have to fly. “Fairies of popular imagination are thought to come from a pleasant underworld and commute between that and our world, so flying is a way of decreasing travel time.”

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Where Are They

Buried?

One of the first horror movies that I watched was My Bloody Valentine, back in 1981. YES I was under age and YES it was a pirate copy and YES it scared the be Jesus out of me. Fast forward 28 years and there was a 3D remake version released back in January 2009. It kinda got me thinking about Valentine’s Day, love, romance, passion, Rolos’ and as this issue of HAUNTED is available to buy, read, peruse during Valentine’s Day 2010 I thought I would pay a respected homage to four people who had a lot to do with love, passion, romance and maybe a bit of the other, nudge, nudge, wink, wink, say no more, during their lives.

Giacomo Casanova

Famous Lover Birth: April 2nd 1725, Italy Death: June 4th 1798, Bohemia Born into a family of Venetian actors, Giacomo Casanova studied for the priesthood as a young man, at a Seminary in Padua. Expelled for his licentious activities, he returned to Venice by way of a secretaryship to a Cardinal in Rome - from which he was promptly fired, amid scandal.

He is known more for his amorous adventures than for his experiences as a secret agent, author, businessman and musician. During his life, he served as a spy for King Louis XV, began a business selling printed silk and played the violin for the theatre in Venice. Back in his home

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town, Casanova supported himself by conning the local nobility with a mixture of magic tricks, fake alchemy and vague occult mysticism. Rather too successful at this, he was convicted of witchcraft by the Inquisition in 1755, and imprisoned in the Doge’s palace. He managed to escape and flee to France, where his skill in selfpublicity really began to shine. His autobiography is an erotic account of his exploits which, according to his count, involved one hundred and twenty-two different women.

The book gives an intimate look at life in the eighteenth century and it made him a widely known symbol of extraordinary sexual conquests. A sensationalised account of his story appeared as a pamphlet which led to a sudden popularity. Styling himself ‘Jacques Casanova, the Chevalier de Seingalt’ he made a small fortune establishing a lottery. This established a pattern for Casanova of travelling to a new country, re-mythologising himself and his history, making and then losing fortunes. In his time, he encountered such luminaries as Pope Clement XIII (1760), Voltaire (1760), Rousseau and Mozart (1787). His legacy was ensured by the publication of his “Histoire de Ma Vie” - a document better regarded for its portrait of the social history of the Enlightenment period in continental Europe, than for its strict biographical accuracy. Once more impoverished, Casanova ended his days as the librarian to the Count of Waldstein in the castle of Dux, Bohemia (now Duchcov, Czech Republic).

He died, aged 73, almost forgotten, but his autobiography, published in complete form in 1960, returned him to a position of fame. Nowadays, Casanova is better remembered as a symbol of prodigious sexual conquest than a historical figure. Despite his heterosexual reputation, however, Giacomo Casanova was gleefully bisexual all his life.

Burial: Zamek Duchov Hrbitov, Duchov, Ustecky Region, Czech Republic Plot: Exact gravesite no longer exists. It disappeared when a park was constructed out of the cemetery behind the castle

Rudolph Valentino

Actor Birth: May 6th 1895, Italy Death: August 23rd 1926, New York Born Rodolfo Alfonzo Raffaelo Pierre Filibert Guglielmi di Valentina d’Antonguolla in the small town of Castellaneta, Puglia, Italy, he originally had no intention of becoming an actor. As a child, Valentino was reportedly spoiled and troublesome.

His mother coddled him while his father disapproved of his behaviour.

He tried to enlist in his country’s Royal Naval Academy but was rejected because his chest size was an inch too small. When he was 15 he attended the Royal Academy of Agriculture and graduated with a certificate in scientific agriculture. Becoming restless with life in his small town, he left to find a better life in America. He sailed to New York aboard the “SS Cleveland” and arrived on December 23, 1913. Arriving in New York, Valentino soon ran out of money and spent a period of time on the streets. Speaking no English

and having little money, he worked as a busboy, then as a waiter. Soon after, he became a professional host to wealthy women, and would dance with them at Maxim’s restaurant. He moved to Hollywood, but because of his dark looks, was usually cast in bit parts as a villain. He met screenwriter June Mathis who suggested he be cast in the lead role of “The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse,” which featured him prominently in the legendary tango scenes. The movie became a success; it was one of the first films to make $1,000,000 at the box office and is the sixth highest grossing silent film of all time. This success allowed him to later get the title role in the 1921 film “The Sheik,” starring opposite of Agnes Ayres. The movie was an even bigger success and gained him legendary star status. He was married twice, first to actress Jean Acker in 1919, then to set designer Natacha Rambova in 1922; both marriages ended in divorce, the end of the marriage to Rambova was bitter, with Valentino bequeathing Rambova one dollar in his will. He was in New York in August

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1926 to attend the premiere of his new film and sequel to “The Sheik” entitled “Son of the Sheik,” when he collapsed in his hotel room on August 15. He underwent surgery for a gastric ulcer and ruptured appendix. The operation was performed, but he later became ill due to peritonitis. His health deteriorated over the next week and the doctors realised that he was going to die but decided to withhold this from Valentino who believed that his condition would pass. During the early hours of August 23rd Valentino was briefly conscious and chatted to doctors about his future. He fell back into a coma a few hours later and died at the age of 31. It was estimated that over 100,000 people lined the streets of New York to pay their respects at his funeral. The event was drama personified as Suicides of despondent fans were reported and riots broke out as mourners waited in line to pay their respects and have one last look at their film idol. Valentino’s funeral mass was held at St. Malachy’s Roman Catholic Church, often called the “Actor’s Chapel” as it is located on west 49th street in the Broadway theatre district.

The body was taken by train across the country and 2nd funeral was held at the Catholic Church of the Good Shepherd in Beverley Hills. Valentino had left no burial arrangements.

Burial: Hollywood Memorial Park Cemetery, now called the Hollywood Forever Cemetery, Hollywood, California Plot: Cathedral Mausoleum, crypt #1205

Over the years, a “woman in black” carrying a red rose has come to mourn at Valentino’s grave, usually on the anniversary of his death.

Several myths surround the woman, though it seems the first woman in black was actually a publicity stunt cooked up by press agent Russell Birdwell in 1928. Several copycats have followed over the years.

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Marilyn Chambers

Model and Actress Birth: April 22nd 1952, Providence, Rhode Island, USA Death: April 12th 2009, Santa Clarita, LA County, California, USA Marilyn Chambers was an American pornographic actress, exotic dancer, model, actress and vice-presidential candidate. She is best known for her 1972 hardcore film debut “behind the Green Door” (not starring Shakin’ Stevens). Her father tried to discourage her from pursuing a modelling career, citing brutal competition. At 16 she learned how to fake her mother’s signature on notes to get out of school, taking the train into the city to go to auditions. While in high school she landed some modelling assignments and a small role in the Barbra Streisand film “The Owl and the Pussycat”. Her parents were not impressed so she moved to Los Angeles to look for more work and featured in a low-budget film in 1971 called “Together”, in which she appeared nude. She left Los Angeles for California where she did several jobs including work as a topless model and a bottomless dancer. During her early career her most well-known modelling job was as the “Ivory soap girl” on the Ivory Snow soap box, posing as a mother holding a baby under the tag

line “99 & 44/100% pure”. Chambers saw an advertisement for a casting call and rushed to the audition, only to find it was for a pornographic film “behind the Green Door”. She was about to leave when the producers noticed her resemblance to Cybil Shepherd and agreed that a wholesome blond actress was needed for the film. After filming concluded she informed them that she was the “Ivory Snow Girl”; the producers capitalising on this billing her as the “99 and 44/100% pure” girl.

Procter & Gamble quickly dropped her after discovering her double life as an adult film actress and the advertising industry was scandalised. The fact that Chambers was so well know from Ivory Snow boosted the film ticket sales, the film cost $60,000 and grossed $25 million and nearly every adult film she made featured a cameo of her Ivory Snow box. The film made her a star but her efforts to launch a successful mainstream acting career proved fruitless. In an interview in 2004 she said “my advice to somebody who wants to go into the adult film industry is: Absolutely not! It is heart-breaking and it leaves you kind of empty. So, get a day job and don’t quit it”. In the 2004 USA presidential election, Chambers ran for Vice President on the Personal Choice Party, receiving a total of 946 votes. Chambers was found dead in her home, discovered by her 17 year

old daughter. The autopsy revealed that Chambers died of a cerebral haemorrhage and aneurysm related to heart disease. Pain-killers and anti-depressants were found in the blood stream but not enough to cause death. In her final film, “Porndogs: The Adventures of Sadie,” she was the voice of Sadie, a yellow Labrador retriever who has the lead role; the film was in post-production at the time of Chambers death.

Cause of Death: Cerebral haemorrhage and aneurysm Buried: Cremated, Ashes scattered at sea Specifically: Ashes scattered off the coast of Malibu, California, into the Pacific Ocean

St. Valentine

Noted Saint Birth: unknown Death: between 269-273AD Saint Valentine was apparently the name of several martyred saints of ancient Rome. The name “Valentine”, derived from valens (worthy), was popular in The Middle Ages. Of the Saint Valentine whose feast is on February 14, nothing is known except his name and that he was buried at the Via Flaminia north of Rome on February 14. It is even uncertain whether the feast of that day celebrates only one saint or more saints of the same name. The name “Valentine” does not occur in the earliest list of Roman martyrs compiled in 354AD. The feast of St. Valentine was first established in 496 by Pope Gelasius I who included Valentine among those “... whose names are justly reverenced among men, but whose acts are known only to God.” As Gelasius implied, nothing was known, even then, about the lives of any of these martyrs. The Saint Valentine that appears in various martyrologies in connection with February 14 is described either as a priest in Rome, a bishop or a martyr in Africa, a then Roman province. The first representation of Saint Valentine appeared in the Nuremberg Chronicle in 1493; alongside the woodcut portrait of Valentine the text states that he was a Roman priest martyred

during the reign of Claudius II. He was arrested and imprisoned upon being caught marrying Christian couples and otherwise aiding Christians who were at the time being persecuted by Claudius in Rome. Helping Christians at this time was considered a crime.

Claudius took a liking to this prisoner -- until Valentine tried to convert the Emperor -- whereupon this priest was condemned to death. He was beaten with clubs and stoned; when that didn’t finish him, he was beheaded outside the Flaminian Gate. Various dates are given for the martyrdom or martyrdom’s: 269, 270, or 273AD. The official Roman Martyrology for February 14 mentions only one Saint Valentine. English eighteenth-century antiquarians Alban Butler and Francis Douce, noting the obscurity of Saint Valentine’s identity, suggested that Valentine’s Day was created as an attempt to supersede the pagan holiday of Lupercalia, a very ancient, possibly pre-Roman pastoral festival, observed on February 15th to avert evil spirits and purify the city, releasing health and fertility. Many of the current legends that characterise Saint Valentine were invented in the fourteenth century in England, notably

by Geoffrey Chaucer and his circle, when the feast day of February 14 first became associated with romantic love. The Catholic Church’s official list of recognized saints, lists seven St. Valentines’ : a martyr (Roman priest or Terni bishop?) buried on the Via Flaminia (February 14); a priest from

Viterbo (November 3); a bishop from Raetia who died in about 450AD (January 7); a fifth-century priest and hermit (July 4); a Spanish hermit who died in about 715AD (October 25); Valentine Berrio Ochoa, martyred in 1861 (November 24); and Valentine Jaunzaras Gomez, martyred in 1936 (September 18), just don’t tell the missis, seven cards and seven presents!!

In 1836, relics that were exhumed from the catacombs of Saint Hippolytus on the Via Tiburtina, then near (rather than inside) Rome, were identified with St Valentine; placed in a casket, they were transported to the Whitefriar Street Carmelite Church in Dublin, Ireland, to which they were donated by Pope Gregory XVI. Many tourists visit the saintly remains on St. Valentine’s Day, when the casket is carried in solemn procession to the high altar for a special Mass dedicated to young people and all those in love. Alleged relics of St. Valentine also lie at the reliquary of Roquemaure in France, in the Stephansdom in Vienna and also in Blessed John Duns Scotus’ church in the Gorbals area of Glasgow, Scotland.

There is also a gold reliquary bearing the words ‘Corpus St. Valentin, M’ (Body of St. Valentine, Martyr) at The Birmingham Oratory, UK in one of the side altars in the main church.

Cause of Death: loss of head, after severe beatings and stonings failed to end his life Buried: (several locations, allegedly) mainly Dublin, Glasgow & Birmingham

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Les Paraneurm MYSTERY OBJECT WHIZZES PAST EARTH It did not hit the planet, but scientists aren’t sure what it was, exactly.

called 2010 AL30 flew by Earth at a distance of just 80,000 miles (130,000 kilometers).

The object was a 10-meter-wide asteroid and was detected two days before it missed Earth.

A near-Earth object that could be human-made was only discovered to be hurtling towards us a few days before it passed and on January 13th, the object

Expert astronomers observed it shining with a brightness of a 14th-magnitude star (the approximate brightness of Pluto’s weak glow as seen from Earth) as it dashed through the constellations of Orion, Taurus, and Pisces. What makes this near-Earth object, or NEO, special is that it has an orbital period of almost exactly one year.

GB#3: RUMOUR#133

This fact has led some scientists to speculate that 2010 AL30 could be an artificial object and not an asteroid.

New Year’s resolution for 2010 let’s not be even vaguely ready to buy into every little Ghostbusters 3 rumour that we hear.

However things do seem to be happening, for better or worse, and while we’re now in the new days of 2010 let’s be positive. The latest is from Harold Ramis, who promises a summer 2010 shoot for a 2011 release saying “Something’s going to happen. Dan [Aykroyd] did write a spec GB3 screen -play a few years ago, but no one was motivated to pursue it. Now, 25 years after the original, there seems to be a willingness to proceed and apparently a substantial public appetite for a sequel. We’ll introduce some new young Ghostbusters, and all the old guys will be in it, too. Think Christopher Lloyd in Back to the Future … GB3 plans to shoot next summer and release in 2011. Don’t hold your breath!

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After all, there’s a lot of space junk up there. There’s every possibility that it could be a spent rocket booster or some other chunk from a spacecraft.

PLEASE LEAVE A MESSAGE AFTER THE TONE An Israeli rabbi and kabbalah scholar recently attempted the world’s first exorcism via Skype.

HaRav David Batzri, one of Israel’s best known kabbalists, tried to exorcise a “dybbuk” -- a spirit that allegedly posesses the body -- from a Brazilian Jew. Some streams of ultra-Orthodoxy, such as Batzri’s, believe in ghosts, spirit possession and reincarnation.

The problem was the fact that the fellow was located in Brazil. Rav Batzri’s assistants arranged for him to be able to be in video contact with the Brazilian man via Skype, an internet video tool, and in that way Rav Batzri could try to exorcise the dybbuk from the man. The effort, unfortunately, was not successful and the man was reportedly to be in Israel shortly for Rav Batzri to attempt, in person, to banish the dybbuk. At time of Haunted going to press it is not known whether the exorcism was successful.

Video footage of the Skype exorcism (complete with Rabbi Batzri praying over a computer) can be found at http://matzav.com/video-rav-batzriattempts-dybbuk-removal-viadybbukvision%C2%AE

mal D’Observee FOR SHE’S A JOLIE GOOD SPIRIT Angelina Jolie wants to plan a séance, a meeting in which a spiritualist attempts to communicate with the spirits of the dead, with her late mother Marcheline.

Apparently Jolie has been reaching out to a New Orleans psychic she met two years ago, shortly after her mother died of ovarian cancer. According to the National Enquirer “Angelina told

OIL BE AMAZED Bereaved parents George and Lina Tannous believe their dead son is performing miracles at their house.

They claim a mysterious oil that weeps from the walls of his bedroom and leaves messages has helped to heal dozens of people. The oil, which scientists have failed to identify, started to appear just weeks after the 17-yearold died in a car accident in September 2006, and is still appearing more than 3 years later. Lina, who insists her son should be declared a saint, said: “Mike is a messenger between us and God. He has healed so many people.

“The number of people arriving at the house in Australia has been so great that the family have had to impose visiting times. Those hoping to find cures for ailments ranging from

the psychic that she’d like a sign from her mum that her soul is at peace…

Also Angie has been grappling with the dilemma of whether she and Brad should make their union official.

Marcheline always said she wanted Angie to settle down, but one of Angie’s biggest regrets is that she never asked her mom if she thought Brad was ‘the one.’ Angie is also agonizing over whether or not to adopt another child, or try for another biological child.” The 20-question séance will take place during Angelina’s trip to New Orleans in early 2010.

arthritis to cancer come to pray at the Tannous home in the western suburbs of Sydney. George said the family was keeping a record of his son’s healing powers. “Our boy is a saint,” he said.

“This is him talking to us, talking to other people.” Last year a woman who lived near the Tannous house was told by doctors she could not have the third child she desperately wanted. Mike’s aunt Susan Sawan said: “She came here and prayed. A month later she came back with a box of chocolates and said: ‘Guess what? I’m pregnant.’”

The oil has continued to weep, appearing on almost every wall of the three-bedroom house, as well as on framed photos of Mike and religious icons. “Over the weekend we had people everywhere. We even had to close the street. They want to experience a miracle,” said George. If Mike is canonised, he would be the country’s first male saint. Earlier this month the Pope confirmed that Mary MacKillop, an Australian nun who died in 1909, would become its first female saint.

AND FINALLY ...

YOU ARE NOT ALONE The ghost of deceased pop legend, Michael Jackson, has been spotted in Zimbabwe.

The sighting of Jackson’s ghost occurred at the St Mary’s Mission School, a Catholic institution, in Zimbabwe’s capital of Harare.

Allegedly a group of students aged from twelve to fourteen years were sitting along with some of the nuns that work at St Mary’s and watching a nativity play that was organised after school hours.

Children dressed as Mary, Joseph and the Wise Men were on stage when suddenly the lights went out. Then ghost-like being appeared on stage waving a white-gloved hand.

The terrified students emptied the hall along with the supervising nuns.

Almost all the students later agreed that it was Michael Jackson that they saw’ ‘It definitely was MJ’ noted Theresa, a student at the school. ‘It was his face and his clothes. He smiled and waived at us’. ‘I saw it too’ commented Sister Maria ‘it was not human and must have been a spirit. The students later told me it was Michael Jackson’.

News of the otherworldly event spread through the area and some interested locals even visited the hall in the hope that they too might see Jackson’s ghost. Belief in ghosts is widespread in Zimbabwe.

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Paranormal TV Flashback

GHOSTWATCH BBC ONE - 31ST OCTOBER 1992

Ghostwatch was a British horror-mockumentary television movie broadcast on BBC One on 31 October (Halloween) 1992.

Despite having been recorded weeks in advance, the narrative was presented as ‘live’ television. Due to the furore that followed its first and only UK television broadcast, the film is now widely regarded as being one of the most controversial British television events in recent years.

The film was produced for the BBC’s Screen One anthology film series

by Richard Broke, Ruth Baumgarten and Derek Nelson. It was written by Stephen Volk, and directed by Lesley Manning. As yet, Ghostwatch has only ever been repeated on television outside of the UK - on stations such as the Canadian digital channel SCREAM for Halloween 2004, and the Belgian channel Canvas in 2008. In 2002, the British Film Institute released a 10th Anniversary edition on VHS and DVD. A retrospective documentary (Ghostwatch: Behind the Curtains) based on the film’s lasting impact has been in production since late 2007, and is said to be backed by many of the film’s original cast and crew.

The 90-minute film was a horror story shot in a documentary style and appeared as part of BBC Drama’s Screen One series. It involved BBC reporters performing a live, on-air investigation of a house in Northolt, Greater London at which poltergeist activity was believed to be taking place. Through

revealing footage and interviews with neighbours and the family living there, they discovered the existence of a malevolent ghost nicknamed Pipes from his habit of knocking on the house’s plumbing. As the programme went on, viewers learn that Pipes is the spirit of a psychologically disturbed man called Raymond Tunstall, himself believed to have been troubled by the spirit of Mother Seddons - a ‘baby farmer’ turned child killer from the 19th century. These manifestations became more bold and terrifying, until, at the end, the frightened reporters realise that the programme itself was acting as a sort of “national séance” through which Pipes was gaining horrific power.

Finally, the spirit unleashed its immense power, killing Sarah Greene and escaping, beginning to escalate its poltergeist activity in the BBC studios themselves, possessing Michael Parkinson as a prelude to its unleashing on the world. In truth, the story, though based on the tale of the Enfield Poltergeist, was put into production months before and was complete fiction.

However, the presentation contained realistic elements which suggested to a casual viewer that it was an actual documentary. The studio scenes were recorded in Studio TC6 in the BBC Television Centre in London.

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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 material shot 5–6 weeks previously. A phone number was shown on the screen so that viewers could “call in” and discuss ghostly phenomena. The number

in the vein of Nigel Kneale’s The Quatermass Experiment, in which “all hell breaks loose”. However, when producer Ruth Baumgarten doubted the viability of an entire mini-series and recommended instead a 90-minute TV special, Volk suggested that they “do the whole thing like Episode Six”, portraying it as an actual “live” broadcast fronted by well-known TV personalities. The BBC, however, became concerned over the effect the

“Ghostwatch was originally conceived by writer Stephen Volk as a six-part drama (similar to Edge of Darkness) in which a fictional paranormal investigator and a TV reporter investigate poltergeist activity at a North London housing estate, gradually discovering more elements of the mystery each week.” was the standard BBC call-in number at the time 081 811 8181 (also used on programmes such as Going Live!), and callers who got through were connected first to a message telling them that the show was fictional, before being given the chance to share their own ghost stories. However, the phone number was besieged by callers during the showing and many people who telephoned it simply got an engaged tone. This commonly happened when phoning BBC ‘callin’ shows and acted to add to the realism instead of reassuring viewers that it was fiction. The set and filming methods, including shaky hand-held video cameras, lent a documentary feel. Most convincing of all was the use of actual BBC personalities playing themselves. Sarah Greene and Craig Charles were the reporters on the scene at the house, while Mike Smith (Greene’s real-life husband) and Michael Parkinson linked from the studio.

Ghostwatch was originally conceived by writer Stephen Volk as a six-part drama (similar to Edge of Darkness) in which a fictional paranormal investigator and a TV reporter investigate poltergeist activity at a North London housing estate, gradually discovering more elements of the mystery each week. This would have culminated in the final episode in a live TV broadcast from the property,

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broadcast would have on the public and very nearly pulled the show shortly before broadcast. Ultimately they insisted on adding opening credits including the writer’s name, in addition to a Screen One title sequence.

The film’s fictional, villainous spectre, Mr. Pipes, is depicted as a merging of negative, spiritual energies. His physical appearance mostly resembles that of the deceased Raymond Tunstall, a fictional character who, it is revealed by a phone-in caller, committed suicide at the haunted property some

time in the 1960s. Pipes’ powerful supernormal potential is drawn from the various ‘onion skin layers of evil’ which have accumulated in/around the haunted property, possibly spanning back to prehistory. It is alluded that the character of Suzanne Early may become the next ‘layer’ in Mr. Pipes’ spiritual make-up. Interestingly, Pipes is only referred to as Mister Pipes once in Ghostwatch - by the TV host shown interviewing Kim Early on the family’s home VHS recorder, early on in the film. Many methods familiar to modern ghost shows such as Most Haunted are demonstrated in the show, some of which were either genuine stateof-the-art technology at the time or simulated to give the idea they were real. The house was allegedly equipped with motion detectors, temperature sensors and covert cameras. The temperature sensors were referred to as being able to check for dramatic changes in temperature - a recognised unexplained phenomenon linked to real-life ghost sightings. One major feature of the show was a genuine thermographic camera, which, although it didn’t pick up any ghosts, came in very handy when all the lights failed at the end of the show.

The programme makers used many examples of phenomena related to real life paranormal research, in order to maintain a realistic edge to the show:

Apparitions On several occasions the presenters examine video footage of a bedroom scene in which a shadowy figure can be seen at the foot of a child’s bed.

Three versions of the apparition are shown intermittently to confuse the viewer - one with the figure, one where it is slightly faded out, and one where it isn’t seen at all. The ghost, which is described later in the programme as a disfigured man in some kind of black robe, also turns up at various points during the course of the “live” show. He makes seven fleeting, almost subliminal appearances in the following places.

• Behind Dr Pascoe as the “possessed voice” tape is played in the studio.

This appearance is more easily visible if the brightness of the screen is increased.

• During the outdoor segment in which Craig interviews various local people. As Craig approaches Arthur Lacey, the ghost can be seen standing among the crowd of onlookers, totally unnoticed by any of them.

• Reflected in the glass of the kitchen door, moments after Sarah discovers the children’s drawings on the floor and is startled by the cat outside.

Look carefully, and you can see the ghost standing behind the film crew.

• In front of the curtains in the girls’ bedroom as everybody tries toexit the house. The ghost is briefly visible as the cameraman turns to leave and whips the camera around, but is gone again when he turns back in alarm.

• Standing inside the cupboard under the stairs, half a second before the mirror leaps off the wall and knocks the sound man unconscious.

• In a burst of static as the last camera in the house cuts out, just as the cupboard door slams after Sarah enters. This appearance only lasts for three frames, but gives you a closeup look at the ghost’s mauled face.

• On a gantry in the TV studio as the lights begin to explode.

James: Slow, but sure I watched Ghostwatch on a dark, wet night with a friend and two bottles of wine. We started off with the lights off. After half an hour, the lights were firmly back on, most of the wine was gone, and we were huddled together whimpering on the sofa.

Ghostwatch is deceptive. The first few minutes are convincingly tedious - the hilariously cheesy set with fake fireplace, the crushingly over-sensitive expert with lovely legs, and Michael Parkinson’s “Why-am-I-taking-this-so-seriously?” expression. Then it starts to get stranger and stranger, and you start to get truly, truly scared. Even though you know it’s not real, you take it all the more seriously because it looks and behaves just like bland factual television. The backstory is similarly compulsive and unsettling. It’s not just a ghost - it’s a very bad ghost whose cameo appearances are completely terrifying (you’re never quite certain you have seen Pipes at any point, which is all the more frightening). By the end it’s quite simply chilling. The one thing that lets it down is the hurricane which rushes through the studio - it’s just a little bit too much.

Spiritual possession During the course of the programme there are many references to characters being allegedly possessed by a ghost who, whilst doing so, maniacally recites nursery rhymes. This happens in a tape recording of the eldest daughter Suzanne, later in a ‘live’ section to the same character and eventually Michael Parkinson himself is seen to be possessed.

Rapid temperature changes The show references temperature changes being linked to ghosts and claims to be monitoring the temperature in each room of the house to check for this. Also mutilated household objects are shown which were allegedly analysed by the army as

being subjected to rapid temperature change.

Poltergeist activity In both alleged recordings and live segments of the show we see objects moving of their own accord which, it is claimed, is a result of poltergeist activity. Also a perfectly round patch of water appears on the living room carpet and animal scratch marks also appear on one character’s face.

Banging noises are intermittently heard during the climax of the show.

At one point the producers play on this by exposing one of the daughters as causing the banging noises herself, creating a hoax within a hoax. However this later occurs when both girls are accounted for. Near the end of the

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Stephen: A National Seance” Ghostwatch really should be better remembered than reviewed but if anything it’s scarier, craftier, and smarter the second time around. Such a shame, as it may never be broadcast again. It is easy to see why many viewers fell for it. Though some of the actors aren’t up to the job of ‘being real’, the presenters excel at playing themselves. The visuals are devilishly trick or treat, either slight of hand or heart-stopping glimpses of the supernatural. What does amaze though, is that no-one saw through the over-the-top ending. ‘We’ve created a national seance?’ I mean, really! Magicians say people don’t mind being tricked, so long as they have a chance to appreciate how clever the con was. Why not give the public another chance to see how ingenious Ghostwatch really was?

programme, when a wind whips through the studio, the cups and plates brought in by Doctor Pascoe as evidence of the poltergeist activity in the house, begin to move on their own, and one cup falls onto the studio floor and smashes into pieces.

Disembodied voices Although the ghost of the story is only heard to speak through the voices of others we hear the disembodied sounds of cats whenever phenomena is taking place. Much of the British public believed the events to be true and some controversy ensued after its airing. This was all in spite of the fact that Screen One was a drama slot, the programme aired with a “Written by...” credit at the start, and a cast list was published in the BBC’s Radio Times listings magazine. This, however, needs to be tempered by the fact that Sarah Greene had advertised the programme on her Saturday morning children’s show Going Live. This had included a ‘visit’ to the location of the ‘haunting’ and gave the impression that she was taking part in a ‘reality show’ and not a drama. The programme in effect

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being sold to children as a Halloween ‘ghost hunt’ rather than an adult play. The BBC was besieged with phone calls from irate and frightened viewers, and British tabloids and other newspapers criticised the BBC the next day for the disturbing nature of some scenes, such as Greene’s final scene where she is locked in an under-stairs cupboard with the howling ghost, and

Psychological effects A number of psychological effects were reported in Ghostwatch’s wake: 18-year-old Factory worker Martin Denham, who apparently had a mental age of 13, committed suicide five days after the programme aired. The family home had suffered with a faulty central heating system which had caused the pipes to knock; Denham linked this to the activity in the show causing great worry. He left a suicide note reading “if there are ghosts I will be ... with you always as a ghost”. His mother and stepfather, April and Percy Denham, blamed the BBC. They claimed that Martin was “hypnotised and obsessed” by the programme. The Broadcasting Standards Commission refused their complaint, along with 34 others, as being outside their remit, but the High Court granted the Denhams permission for a judicial review requiring the BSC to hear their complaint. in its ruling, the BSC stated that “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.” They ruled that the programme was excessively distressing and graphic - referring to the scratches on the children and the mutilated animals - and that it had aired too soon after the 9pm watershed. They further stated that “the presence in the programme of presenters familiar from children’s programmes ... took some parents off-guard in deciding whether their children could continue to view.”

“The film’s producers argued that Ghostwatch had aired during a drama slot, that it was recognisable as fiction to a vast majority, and that running disclaimers or other announcements during the programme would have ruined its effectiveness.”

Parkinson’s eerie possession scene.

The reaction to the programme led the BBC to place a decade-long ban on the programme being repeated after its initial broadcast and, although this has now been lifted, it remains unlikely that it will ever be shown again on British terrestrial television. The British Film Institute released it on Region 2 DVD in November 2002.

The film’s producers argued that Ghostwatch had aired during a drama slot, that it was recognisable as fiction to a vast majority, and that running disclaimers or other announcements during the programme would have ruined its effectiveness. They also stated that, had they anticipated the audience reaction, they would have made its fictional nature clearer.

Derren Brown has said that he was inspired by Ghostwatch when he made his TV programme called Séance.

However, after the BSC ruling they issued an apology. Simons and Silveira published a report in the British Medical Journal in February 1994, describing two cases of Ghostwatchinduced post-traumatic stress disorder in children, both ten-year-old boys.

They stated that these were the first reported cases of PTSD caused by a television programme. Responses to the article described a further four cases in children aged between 11 and 14, as well as one case in an 8-year-old that stemmed from watching the prewatershed hospital soap Casualty.The respondants also noted the potential for similar reactions in elderly people.

However, the conclusion of the article states “The rapid resolution of the children’s symptoms suggests that the children suffered a brief anxiety reaction to the television programme; although they may have exhibited some of the features of post-traumatic stress disorder, this diagnosis in their cases is inappropriate.”

Sequels and future developments?

In his anthology book Dark Corners, screenwriter Stephen Volk wrote a short story entitled 31/10, which is effectively a sequel to the original film.

It was later selected for The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror 2007. The story centres on screenwriter, Volk taking part in a fictitious, 10th anniversary edition of the original film in 2002.

Venturing into the previously sealedoff BBC studio space where the original Ghostwatch took place, he is accompanied by a small team of individuals whose lives were somehow affected by the show, ten years previously.

Ghostwatch: Behind the Curtains is an ‘in-development’ retrospective documentary, set to look back at the controversial BBC Screen One drama.

The ‘Behind the Curtains’ subtitle is derived from where fictitious poltergeist, Mr. Pipes, ‘hides’ in the shared bedroom of characters, Kim and Suzanne Early. It is also one of the chapter headings on the official Ghostwatch DVD. On the 21st of February, 2008, the GhostwatchBtC channel was officially launched on YouTube. All that was

initially revealed regarding this elusive project was a notice asking fans of the original film to contribute any Ghostwatch-related stories or recollections via the comments boxes provided. The first video to appear on the page was a short teaser trailer announcing the project’s existence.

Consisting almost entirely of clips taken from the original film, the aspect ratio had most notably been re-framed from the (circa 1992) standard TV format 4:3 to a more contemporary 14:9. The first official confirmation that Ghostwatch writer, Stephen Volk was actively involved in the documentary’s production can be seen in the video, “A Message From Stephen Volk” in which he asks fans of the original film to “keep in tune for future updates”.

On October 31, 2008 (exactly sixteen years after the original film was originally broadcast), the Ghostwatch: Behind the Curtains blog was launched.

The first article to be published was written by the documentary’s creator, Richard Lawden, in which he revealed the idea to make a retrospective first originated at a Cineformation screening held at The Watershed, in Bristol. Subsequent articles have included a special Hallowe’en message from Stephen Volk, and a link to a new Ghostwatch article written by lead actor, Sir Michael Parkinson. Between December 2008 and February 2009, links leading to the official Ghostwatch: Behind the Curtains web forum, Twitter, MySpace and Facebook pages were also added.

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An interview with

Stephen Volk The Inspiration The beginnings of Ghostwatch

Q: What was the original inspiration for Ghostwatch?

The idea was to combine a team of psychical researchers with all the technology of TV journalism. I use that last word loosely: initially it was a World In Action type investigative TV show that gets involved: the Crimewatchstyle live broadcast idea came later.

The “inspiration” if it existed was twofold: 1) If you think back to pre-1992: there was a dawning of docu-dramas and dramatized documentaries (it’s de regeur now!) and I thought ‘how do we trust what we’re shown any more on TV’? How much will people believe if it’s conveyed in factual TV “language”?

2) The other thing I was interested in is how to tell a ghost story on TV with the equivalent of literature’s “first person narrative” which ghost stories seem to depend on for their authenticity?

My answer in this case was the TV equivalent (faces to camera, talking heads, interviews etc) of the authorial, truthful “I”. Edgar Allan Poe often wrote pieces that mimicked the “truth” of the articles surrounding his stories in the publications.

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Developing Ghostwatch (Or How Stephen Volk nearly created The X Files) Q: I read an article stating that your agent suggested a drama in the vein of Edge of Darkness. How much did that drama influence the original concept of Ghostwatch?

My agent Linda Seifert said the BBC was looking for more 6-part thrillers

(female). I also had a scientist who was investigating psychic people in a lab, but that was lost along the way, along with the reporter’s clash with her bosses. It worked in a conventional drama serial sense, structured a bit like a Stephen King mini-series, not pretending to be ‘real’. Except Episode 6 was to be a ‘live’ broadcast from the haunted house in North London, and all hell breaks loose. Then one day the producer Ruth Baumgarten said to me,

The idea was to combine a team of psychical researchers with all the technology of TV journalism. I use that last word loosely: initially it was a World In Action type investigative TV show that gets involved: the Crimewatch-style live broadcast idea came later. in the style of Edge of Darkness. So I thought, ‘great, [here’s] my chance to do a supernatural thriller film serial on the BBC… dark, moody, grainy, etc.

Maybe featuring an investigative team who’d go on to have other stories.

Anyway I did this treatment of six one-hour episodes, starting with a poltergeist in a North London housing estate, which is investigated by an eccentric young psychical investigator (male) and a TV Roger Cook-ish journo

look, there’s no way the BBC are going to commit to this as a series, is there any way we can do it as a one-off 90 minute drama? I remember very clearly sitting in her office and saying, “Look, I had this idea: what if we do the whole thing like Episode 6 and pretend it’s going out live?” There was this look on her face and I thought ‘oh my God, there’s no going back now. How the hell do I pull this off’?

Switching formats - Conjuring live TV as drama.

Q: Were there any ideas that you had to omit due to writing a ‘live’ 90 minute film, as opposed to a six part drama for example?

Lots, but I diligently tried to incorporate the good ones in the new form! For instance I always wanted a bluff skeptical character to act as a contrast to the Cassandra-like scientist doing the investigation. When I came up with the idea of talking to Emilio Sylvestri by satellite it seemed perfect!

I was always trying to maximize all the devices we know and trust from factual TV: the phone-ins, the jokey

Ghostwatch, for example. You couldn’t script it like dialogue, it had to be like interview speech which paradoxically is all exposition - the very thing you avoid in conventional screenplay writing!

So Pam Early told her whole story of the Glory Hole to camera, for instance – [she has] that trembling lip and the camera relentlessly goes in.

Incidentally, my hat goes off to the brilliant director Lesley Manning for sticking to her guns. For going for unknowns and using long, long takes with the camera tracking around. It wasn’t filmed in one go but the fact that people thought it was means it worked!

“It would give the game away. I was adamant that nothing really scary could happen till about halfway through. You’d never believe a stake out on Halloween where we see a ghost in ten minutes!” presenter, the earnest interview, the clips, the vox pop of the crowds. It forced me to convey a ghost story in this way, but of course the hard part was that I couldn’t construct the drama in three neat acts with climaxes like a normal drama. It would give the game away. I was adamant that nothing really scary could happen till about halfway through. You’d never believe a stake out on Halloween where we see a ghost in ten minutes! So the first 45 minutes is more or less all build up and set-up for things to pay off in the second half. You can virtually do a ticklist and see everything that is planted pop up and be paid off!

Writing reality - Twisting the tools of the trade Q: How difficult did you find it to script the supposedly live, spur-of-themoment events that transpired as the drama unfolds?

I watched everything that was live on TV at the time, not just Hospital Watch, Tomorrow’s World, but Wogan... everything. Whenever I saw a device that would be fun I incorporated it: the video wall, blow-up photos, the stolen objects on Crimewatch became the box of shattered objects on

Scripting Michael Parkinson - Writing for presenters as themselves Q: When writing the screenplay, were you aware that Michael Parkinson, Mike Smith, Sarah Greene, and Craig Charles were all on board? What were the challenges of write for them playing themselves?

It was written with PRESENTER, FEMALE REPORTER, PHONE-IN PRESENTER in the script, but with a note on the cover saying these would be real TV presenters. It made for a clumsy read but I got tired of taking out Jonathon Dimbleby and putting in John Humphries or Anneka Rice (who I seem to remember turned it down, by the way!) and every change of name affected the way you read the programme. We wanted Nick Ross but the Powers That Be said “No way!”

Luckily Sarah Greene trained as an actress, we were lucky there and her experience of live TV was invaluable.

She was offered it and showed it to hubbie Mike Smith and he wanted to be in it too. Ruth phoned me and said: “What do you think, the two of them in it, one in the studio, one in the house?”

And after about two seconds I said, “Fantastic!” So I reshaped the script to

reflect the husband-wife thing. Sarah’s true story about seeing the ghost was true, by the way. I was all for that. Craig Charles was a great choice and I think re-did his lines pretty much which is great. I said to Michael Parkinson (who loved the script and “got it” completely): “Look, you’ve been doing this lark for 25 years, if it doesn’t sound right, do what does sound right!” and he was fantastic, absolutely a brilliant anchor for the show.

The BBC at one point wanted to seriously chicken out and have it all actors! Can you imagine how shitty that would have been? But I salute Ruth and Lesley for fighting for that all the way through. Incidentally when we started shooting it was by no means certain we’d get the Halloween night slot.

But Lesley took the huge gamble and decorated the house with pumpkins, etc anyway, which was always the intention. Again, her handle on the material was astute and she knew exactly what had to be done and what shouldn’t be compromised for stupid BBC reasons.

Public outrage - Scandal strikes!

Q: As a viewer it seemed clear that Ghostwatch was an extremely well executed Halloween pastiche of the Crimewatch genre. Were you surprised by the reaction it received?

What surprised me was the avalanche of ‘IT SHOULDN’T BE ALLOWED’, ‘HEADS MUST ROLL’ and ‘HOW DARE THEY INSULT OUR INTELLIGENCE!’ The anger at being, as certain members of the viewing public saw it, duped and hoaxed by trusted Auntie Beeb. I think the only [serious] review I read about it as a piece of drama was in Sight and Sound where Kim Newman, bless his cotton socks, referred to Quatermass and obviously got ‘it’.

We were doing a piece of drama with a theme and nobody discussed that. It was all ‘SHOCK, HORROR, SICK’ tabloid stuff. I must say in all honesty that in all the meetings I had with the Drama Dept at the BBC, I never heard anyone at any time use the word ‘hoax’. We were just doing a drama in a particular style (as The Blair Witch Project has done more recently) to give a modicum

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of authenticity. The idea that we wanted to make fools of people is absurd and just wrong.

Subsequently Ghostwatch has become a staple subject for Media Studies projects: one University lecturer told me that somebody chooses it virtually every year!

The Parkie effect - Parkinson’s added validity Q: How do you feel about the amazing reaction to Ghostwatch?

What astonished me was the public’s reaction. It went in totally opposing directions, from people who saw through it in seconds and thought it was awful and stupid, to people who believed in it completely all the way through. In fairness, I was after the middle ground: people who would watch it, get intrigued, sucked in, ‘get it’ then enjoy it nevertheless. It was weird to be accosted by a lady in a shop the next day who said, “Ere! My young lad was awake all last night because of you! We had to take down his luminous skeleton off the back of his bedroom door!” (To which one might say: what was the skeleton doing on his door in the first place?)

I was also amazed that a friend of mine, whom I had told to watch out for this programme “wot I wrote”, phoned me to say she had believed it totally. I said, “But I told you I wrote it.” She said, “I know, but as soon as I saw Michael Parkinson I thought you must have got it wrong!”

Q: When did you realise that most of the public had bought into the programme asa reality show and not fiction?

I didn’t fully realise until I read the Sunday papers the next day. It was a hell of a shock, the extent of it!

The Ghostwatch phone line, the number which flashed up during the programme, was manned by people from the Society of Psychical Research.

Their first response to any call was the explain that the programme was totally fictitious.

Ruth, Lesley and I were all very keen to build in this safeguard but it didn’t

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“That moment is my favourite because it really messes 100% with the viewing audience. They are, in fact, involved as a character at that point” stop the switchboard being jammed at the BBC with mostly irate calls: my favourite of which being the man who thought the BBC had evoked demonic forces simply by broadcasting the show. Oh, and a later caller who (in a scenario more fantastic than any X File) said he thought the show had actually happened and the BBC was now covering it up by pretending Sarah Greene was still alive!

Warning the audience - Retaining the authenticity of Ghostwatch Q: In its defence, Ghostwatch was post-watershed and Parkinson did instruct parents to send their offspring to bed several times... Do you think that people just ignored these precautions not realising it was an adult drama?

I think it’s ‘damned if you do and damned if you don’t’. If we’d had a screaming banner across the screen reading THIS IS NOT TRUE, what is the point of that? You might as well have a comedian give you the punchline before he tells you the gag. The BBC insisted on certain billing compromises in the Radio Times such as a cast list (that almost had me slitting my wrists!) and a lot of the magazine coverage pretty much gave the game away.

What do you do? Destroy the fun of the programme for the people who might enjoy it, for the sake of pleasing those who might be offended, who probably won’t like it anyway? The BBC’s answer to that would be YES! My answer would be NO. In my experience, kids actually ‘got it’ more than adults. Many were so taken by it that lessons on Monday morning were given over to discussing the programme, I’m told. It seemed that the kids understood the language, and the ‘gag’ largely, but it was adults who were unbelievably upset by it.

Teenagers who were maybe ten or twelve when it was broadcast are invariably the ones who seek me out to say they loved the programme.

Teasing the viewers - Scary tricks and treats Q: Ghostwatch played ingenious tricks on the viewers. In particular, showing a scene with the ghost clearly visible, then showing it again with the ghost removed.

That moment is my favourite because it really messes 100% with the viewing audience. They are, in fact, involved as a character at that point. “What? He says he didn’t see anything – but I DID!” Again it’s about the theme of trust, and later on the moment when Lyn Pascoe (the scientist) looks at the video wall, sees the picture is up there and shouldn’t be, and realises the ghost is in the machine (bad pun: couldn’t resist it!).

It was quite tricky to gauge in that we had to do a lot of teasing in the first 45 minutes, as I say. I guess how much to ‘see’ Pipes was difficult to gauge and I know Lesley put a ghost in very subtly at points that weren’t scripted: there’s a game fans play guessing how many times the ghost is seen. I think the answer is eight, but some are pretty obscure! I was very keen to avoid the man in a rubber suit syndrome. In fact we make that joke early on with Craig Charles jumping out of the closet: as if to say, ‘no rubber suits tonight folks!’ It’s also a homage to a similar moment in my favourite TV ghost story The Stone Tape (by my favourite TV writer Nigel Kneale of Quatermass fame). As soon as special effects or make-up jobs are in evidence you’re not being scared, you’re looking at how it’s done.

Ghostwatch’s intention - Playing with audience trust Q: How does it feel to have been favourably compared to Orson Welles’ War Of The Worlds radio broadcast?

Did you intend to provoke a similar response to that caused by the Welles’ production?

We did say “let’s try to do a bit of a War

of the Worlds” but the emphasis was always to make it work as a drama, and not make the whole thing depend on it being taken as ‘true’. We certainly didn’t want people to have the holy horrors and take to the hills in panic.

We wanted people to be scared – really scared – but within the realm of a horror story told on TV in an unusual way that hadn’t been done before.

People compare it to War of the Worlds” but, as hoaxes go, Ghostwatch is way down the list. Below the Panoramal spaghetti harvest and Alternative 3.

The Welles broadcast was more than a phenomenon, it was a historical event!

Q: What factors do you think underpinned the public’s extremely passionate and divided reaction to Ghostwatch?

If anything, we underestimated the incredible degree of trust the public puts in television images conveyed in a certain way (the language of Factual TV), and the BBC in particular. These members of the audience felt their trust was being ridiculed. Paradoxically I wanted them to feel, ‘only the good old BBC would dare to do this! What a great idea!’ I like it that some people loved it and others hated it. Wasn’t it Oscar Wilde who said that was the definition of a worthwhile piece of art – that it divides the public? I rest my case. Seriously, I do love the fact that people come up and say it was the most amazing thing the ever saw on TV. It might not be true, but the fact that even one or two people might think that for a second is incredible.

God bless ‘em!

Think of the children! - On scaring the kids at Halloween Q: ‘Think of the children!’ is the usual criticism. To what extent do you feel dramas that deal with fear of the supernatural are valuable or detrimental to younger viewers?

This is a gigantic question and I can’t possibly do it justice here, but I’ll have a stab (I did a three-day seminar in German talking about ‘horror’ and that wasn’t long enough either)! My feeling is that supernatural stories are essential to myth and have always been around. They help us symbolically

understand the world, and science is even grappling with whether these things are true – but essentially they reflect our inner nature. I think in a ghost story, for it to be dramatizable, the ghost has to represent something, possibly the loss or flaw in the main character. In ghost and horror stories we can vent our emotional spleen in ways that other genres don’t allow.

That doesn’t mean that an interest in these things is sadistic, in fact the opposite: I believe that horror writers aren’t essentially sadistic, they’re essentially neurotic. They aren’t more nasty than everybody else, they’re more scared than everybody else.

That’s why there’s a compulsion to write these things, to exercise (rather than exorcise) these emotions, so after it you feel safer, or at least understand fear a little more. There’s no easy answer, but I think it’s bad to deny or censor dark impulses or continually force feed this idea that the world is a good and caring place. It ain’t. I certainly do not feel that “horror films” make kids violent per se. To take just one example; me. I have been besotted

Remains is excellent but they made a boo-boo in the first one by having the camera follow the woman into the bedroom when she bonks the clown: if it were a real documentary the camera wouldn’t. In drama, though, the old NYPD Blue shaky-cam a la This Life or Cops is ubiquitous and works so well we don’t really question it any more.

But ‘mistaken’? I honestly don’t think the BBC would take that risk a second time. They don’t like getting the flak. It’s much safer sticking to Harbour Lights.

Q: You persuaded the BBC that someone else would inevitably do a Ghostwatch if they didn’t. Were there any other ideas in competition?

No specific ideas in competition that I knew of, but, slightly after us came Chris Morris’ The Day Today on BBC2.

We felt that kind of thing was imminent and inevitable. And, of course, a while after Ghostwatch there was that ITV programme with Michael Aspel presenting stories of the unexplained.

We all felt that was heavily influenced

by Parkinson doing Ghostwatch. It sort of looked the same.

“We wanted people to be scared – really scared – but within the realm of a horror story told on TV in an unusual way that hadn’t been done before. “ by the genre from the age of about seven and I have never raised my hand in anger against anybody in my life. I would run a mile from your average axe wielding maniac, honest. You know, Beowulf, Frankenstein, Dracula, Macbeth, Ghostwatch, whatever – don’t ban them. If you want to ban something that kills people and makes them violent, ban alcohol. What can I say?

Once in a Primetime? - On Ghostwatch striking twice...

Q: Would it be possible, postGhostwatch, for another drama to be mistaken for a real programme again?

I think they are doing it all the time and it doesn’t have impact any more.

Mostly for comedy. The Alan Partridge interviews. The new show Human

Demon Docusoap - Nasty Nick could get nastier...

Q: What do you think of recent factual shows like Big Brother and the whole Docusoap genre?

A haunted house Big Brother would be good. I was hooked like everybody else but it was really pure voyeurism and no real surface content: only as interesting as the people themselves. Instead of ‘Fly on the Wall’ documentaries we now have ‘Hole in the wall’ documentaries – peering into next door’s bathroom and knicker drawer.

One of my Ghostwatch episodes when it was a six-parter was called The Fly on the Wall which I thought was a neat double-entendre ghost story title. I think every Halloween is an opportunity for subversion.

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It is not often that I am at a loss for words, I think it has only happened on four occasions – the birth of my twin daughters (does that count as two?), watching 9/11 as it happened on the tele and Deirdre Rachid (nee Barlow) being sentenced to 18 months for fraud and now I can add another event to my “lost for words” list.

Although, technically how can I be lost for words when I am busily typing this and telling you that I am lost for words, but let’s not be pedantic, let’s not cross swords.

Haunted is immensely proud and actually quite excited to be bringing you the news, views and muse from one of the most charming ladies that I have yet to have the pleasure of meeting, formerly located in the “history corner” of Most Haunted LIVE!! and curator of the beautiful and often quite scary Tutbury Castle. Lesley does not normally write for magazines, and here, at Haunted we are indeed humbled and amazed by the fact that we are still in our infancy and we have secured, procured, pedicured and any other words ending in ured that you want to use, the writing services of Lesley, who has stamped her own uniqueness on the history of places, and has indeed made history appear fun and exciting to many people, who probably thought otherwise.

Each issue of Haunted, Lesley will be bringing that “uniqueness” to print.

Haunted welcomes Lesley, with open arms, a warm heart, a wink of the eye and a cheeky smile.

Lesley Smith Her story on history FEB/MAR 2010 HAUNTED MAGAZINE

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DEAD AND DUSTED Documents that is, and old books and manuscripts. All vital tools to the ghost hunter who really wants to try to understand what or who is happening when things really do go “bump” in the night.

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I would say that wouldn’t I? For I am a historian and am totally defeated by the logic that would send a team of people out to seek evidence of a previous life without any concept of the people who had lived on that land or in the property before. Here is a little guide to preparation and some analysis techniques you may find helpful.

First of all consider the site you are on.

If the property is owned by one of the large organisations such as English Heritage or Royal Palaces, then take a sigh of relief, buy the guide book and be happy you will be getting a pretty good representation of the main family names and events that happened on the site. At the back of most books of this nature are bibliographies which list the sources of information used to compile the guide book. You can then try and get access to these sources for a more in-depth look at all matters relating to the property. There are vast numbers of highly respectable on-line information sources such as The British Library, Wellcome Library and British History on Line you can depend on as providing you with the most up-todate research analysis plus a wealth of

original documents. I should warn you some of these works can only be seen in a photographed state on a computer screen as they are too precious to take out into the air and daylight very regularly. Shakespeare’s Will, you will not be surprised to learn is kept in the most careful temperature, light and moisture controlled conditions. Don’t be worried you can’t read them – you don’t have to be brilliant at Latin, lots of works are in clear English and there are translations offered alongside many of these information sites. You will find there is plenty of French out there too in Court documents. Be wary about which site you look at though, not least of all because there is some utter rubbish out there too – some of it is just plain enthusiasm without proper research and some is deliberately being misleading for whatever thrill that gives those sorts of people.

No we come to some more traps about properties... Please do not assume that the property you are visiting is the only one that has ever been built there and it is really worth while to check with the Land Registry to see who owned the land or property on that

land before. There is also the chance the property may have had Iron Age or Prehistoric man on the site but as

guide books so do not be afraid to ask if there is an evidence of an event on a site or if it is an oral tradition. Current

”It seems ghosts, according to tradition, don’t have to be people who were murdered or raped or committed suicide to be hanging around a property after death but can just be souls wandering around apparently looking for a lit-up exit door. the population was tiny then – that is less likely but possible. Not everyone can read or write and servants are not necessarily recorded so there is a whole class of people almost invisible but may sometimes be found in accounts books as the names of the servants and their annual wages would be recorded. Often you will see a simple cross against the name to indicate this person has made their “mark” alongside their name to prove receipt of wages.

These crosses may well give you a jolt when you realise how frowned upon it was, comparatively recently to educate the servant classes believing they may try to challenge the system of master and servant if educated and therefore questioning. There are lots of assumptions made about our ancestors and those assumptions are frequently overturned so stay a little open minded.

owners and members of staff who have seen and heard things count as evidence.

I had a wonderful experience not many years ago when a site manager told me horrible story of woman who had been raped on the site and later committed suicide. As the building was Victorian I set off to check police files and court records and the newspapers to try and find this case. Nothing!

I went back to the site owner and told him what I hadn’t found and should have done – that was a trace of evidence. He looked a little uncomfortable and then lit up to explain that actually he was a Medium

It seems ghosts, according to tradition, don’t have to be people who were murdered or raped or committed suicide to be hanging around a property after death but can just be souls wandering around apparently looking for a lit-up exit door. At least that is what most Mediums have told me. I can’t imagine why some people make up stories about what has happened to individuals in these properties for in some the real thing is much more gruesome than anything the most feverish mind could make up. I am not suggesting a full research study on every site you go on but I do think it is both fascinating and worthwhile to get a clear picture of the building, its environs and the individuals associated with it. Libraries, museums, universities and archives can provide you with pretty well everything you need. Some site owners, keen to have ghost hunters in are inclined to, shall we say, add a little colour to their

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PROFILE Lesley Smith, well known for giving lectures and performances dressed as famous figures from history - most notably those of Elizabeth I and her ill-fated cousin, Mary Queen of Scots - is nothing short of a fascinating character herself.

Lesley Smith is a scholar, historian, heritage publicist and actress. She was formely the resident historian on the television show Most Haunted Live! and presenter of Most Haunted: Midsummer Murders. She has also been featured on the show The Worst Jobs in History.

Aside from her TV work, Lesley is the curator and lessee of Tutbury Castle, a position granted by the Duchy of Lancaster, for which she works as Public Relations Officer. Since taking the position in the year 2000, she has presided over a 12-fold increase in visitor numbers. To reward her achievements, the University of Derby awarded Lesley an honorary master’s degree. At the conferment of the degree, she was described as “a remarkable social historian of the 16th century who is passionate about and committed to raising public understanding of the subject.” Lesley is also well-known for her dramatic interpretations of Queen Elizabeth I and Mary Queen of Scots, for which she dons authentic replica costumes. She performs regular ghost hunt evenings, in character, at Tutbury. She also takes these reenactments, as well as those of Nell Gwyn and Anne Boleyn, to theatrical and charitable venues.

Lesley is currently researching for a PhD at Birmingham University. She is also a MAMW (Member of the Association of Medical Writers) have recently been accepted into the Society of Apothecaries of London, holds a minor Conservator qualification from the V&A, and gives talks and lectures all over the UK and abroad, often in full period costume including the Royal School of Medicine and the Royal Society in Edinburgh for the Scottish Parliament. Lesley only usually writes academic pieces and has 18 publications in her name mostly for the Royal College. A regular face on Television, having formerly appeared in Most Haunted, Most Haunted Live, Most Haunted: Midsummer Murders, Living with the Hoff, The World’s Biggest Ghost Hunt, The Caterers, Bargain Hunt, Everything Must Go, Trading up, Ripley & Scuff and soon to make a first time appearance on a well known show. She is not just a well known historian and public speaker – she is also a well known ghost hunter…!

She is married and has a son named Henry, and get this, her elder sister is Annette Day who starred with Elvis Presley in the 1967 film Double Trouble.

Lesley has an undoubtable love and enthusiasm for her subject, which can only be an inspiration to those lucky enough to hear her speak about it. Indeed her passion for facts and interest in the people who experienced them has led to her allegedly being known as “Gin and Tonic” on the history circuit, due to her experimentations with formerly undisclosed, or forgotten, historical methods of living. Her mission - to bring history to the masses rather than just the elite!

Lesley can be described in many ways - eccentric, passionate, with a love for graphical detail - sometimes too much so but one thing that is certain is that Lesley is one of the most inspiring, dedicated and intelligent people you could ever wish to meet. Her professional legacy will surely be her desire to see history regarded as a subject for the masses, that we should all have knowledge of and play our part in. As Lesley says “history is for everyone!”

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(since when?) and that he had experienced this event and that is how he knew it was true. Fantastic, for a minute I thought he was lying to try and get more business and publicity.

Of course if would be quite wrong to suggest every single crime is known about and recorded but a double event such as that would have hit the press or at least been investigated if only by the Coroners court.

There are lots of views about evidence in history and you may well find that some sites have utterly opposing views about what has happened there published by respected historians. Here at my own Tutbury Castle I brought in the British Museum to carry out a seven year dig and research study which revealed Mary Queen of Scots had been here four times, not three, that Henry VIII had been here as a young, golden King and that the castle was one of the most important in English History. Charles 1 st. being here and the Civil War being so brutal meant the castle is now in part ruined and has been for over 300 years thanks to Oliver Cromwell. Only parts of this information had been confirmed until they proved it irrefutably, for now.

Do not be put off by people jeering at your findings when you go to a property .Real academics don’t behave that way, only amateurs – the real thing discuss it politely. The paranormal world has more than its fair share of highly competitive and ambitious individuals.

It also has some great investigators with courage and a fantastic sense of humour enabling them with an enquiring mind to really explore the possibilities of the paranormal world. I have been ghost hunting with David Hasselhoff and believe me, I have explored the possibilities of the paranormal world in the best of company.

GOOD LUCK!

Lesley

Haunted Derbyshire Derby is a city with a very long and interesting history which is why it’s needless to say that it tells an abundance of ghost stories and spooky tales. The city of Derby has actually been crowned the “Ghost capital of Great Britain” by the BBC with over 1,000 paranormal sightings recorded in recent years, and this is something that the people of Derby are extremely proud of.

Derby boasts an abundance of historical connections, such as a visit from Bonnie Prince Charlie and has also hosted, if that is the right word, a long line of grisly and gruesome executions in its infamous Gaols, so the high level of reported hauntings

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seems inevitable. So whether you are a Derbyshire resident or keen on a visit and have an interest in the city’s and county’s spooky reputation, we hope that you enjoy this feature as we take a look at “Haunted Derbyshire”.

©s81photos

Derby’s location, almost in the centre of the country, has led to its great importance for almost 2,000 years, and also to its great prosperity. Lying where highland meets lowland, at the lowest crossing point of the River Trent and its contributory the Derwent, at the start of the Midlands plain and the end of the barren hills of the north, it has always been a crossing of the ways.

Many people have passed through Derby on their way elsewhere others have stayed. Some went on to greater things; others were dispatched whence they came.

Derby was the scene of the last hanging, drawing and quartering to be carried out in England, the result of the last rebellion against the Crown to take place in England. At one time or another there were five prisons in Derby - and a public house for every 36 people, no wonder there was a need for so many prisons. Derby also witnessed the last pressing to death, or the sentence of penance, which took place at the time of King Charles 11 in 1665. The only peer of the realm to be hanged for murder was Lawrence Shirley, 4th Earl Ferrers. For 126 years,

the De Ferrers family were Earls of Derby. Lawrence Shirley was also the first man in England to be hanged by the ‘new drop’ instead of the old system of the condemned standing on a cart with a noose round his or hers neck.

Mary, Queen of Scots, on her way to be executed at Fotheringhay Castle, slept in Derby; the hopes and aspirations of Bonnie Prince Charlie floundered here; Florence Nightingale went on from Derby Railway Station to world fame.

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Dolphin Inn, Irongate This is Derby’s oldest public house, dating back to around 1530. Of course, due to its great antiquity, it has various ghosts associated with it including a blue lady who walks through the old lath and plaster walls. She has been seen by many customers in the pub and also in the tea rooms upstairs. The most intriguing part of the Dolphin is its 18th-century extension on the left-hand side of the building in Full Street. This was not always part of the Dolphin, being originally a doctor’s house. In the 18th century, it was customary for doctors to have bodies delivered to their homes for the furtherance of medical science. Part of the sentence of execution in those days was that afterwards, the body of the criminal would be delivered to ‘ye surgeons’ for dissection’. Many condemned prisoners were more in

unless, of course, the executioner happened to be feeling particularly generous, in which case he would climb to the top of the scaffold or tree and put both feet on the hanging person’s shoulders and push down, or with his assistant, take a leg each - and this is where the saying ‘pull the other leg’ comes from - and pull down, thus tightening the rope around the neck and hastening the end. Because of the length of time it sometimes took for the accused to die, some who were hanged and then delivered to the surgeons in the Shire Hall in St Mary’s Gate, woke up on the dissecting slab.

These poor wretches would be taken off and placed in a corner where a careful eye was kept upon them to see if they would later die or recover A particular incident of this kind apparently happened in the cellar under the doctor’s house, which is now

but many bodies were dissected in that cellar under the Dolphin, and to this day it is haunted by a poltergeist which turns the taps of the beer kegs off in that part of the cellar. Because of the unearthly atmosphere, two members of staff normally go down together, as no one wishes to venture there alone.

fear of the dissection then the death sentence. Before the introduction of the new drop, around 1760, the victim was delivered to the hangman on a cart. The executioner then placed the halter around the victim’s neck and the cart was driven away, leaving the condemned man swinging. it could take anything up to 20 minutes for the person to die of slow strangulation from the weight of their own body,

part of the Dolphin. One morning, so we are led to believe, the doctor came eagerly down into the cellar after a body had been delivered. He pulled the body on to a table and ripped the shroud from it, only to find life still present. No one knows what happened - whether the doctor died from shock; whether the person died; or the doctor in fact plunged his scalpel into the body; or even if the person recovered -

The Greyhound, Friargate If you are ever walking up the treeline area of Derby known as Friargate you may well be tempted to stop off in The Greyhound. And why not? It is certainly an attractive and pleasant public house. However if you are male and have a particular Christian name you had better be careful where you sit. The Greyhound is home to what regulars refer to as the “cursed chair”.

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The Headless Cross, Friargate Derby suffered several times from the plague, perhaps being worst affected in 1592 when 464 people perished.

Local farmers refused to trade with the townspeople and it is said that grass grew in the Market Place from lack of people and business. As the plague continued, it was feared that there would be a famine until, at last, farmers in the surrounding countryside agreed to trade with the people of the town under the condition that money for the payment of provisions was left in bowls of vinegar at the Headless Cross on Nun’s Green. The farmers returned later to collect their money. The ‘Hedles Cros’, or ‘Broken Crosse’, as it has been recorded, is thought to date from the 14th century and by the 15th it had been recorded as already having lost its top. At one time the cross was moved to the Derby Arboretum park, where it stood for many years, having a reputation even then of being haunted. Eventually the Headless Cross was moved back to the top of Friar Gate, probably quite close to where it originally stood.Two ghosts have been seen near the Headless Cross, one of which is said to be that of a dog sitting. The other is alleged to be the figure of a lady in grey - although she is sometimes in white - ‘coming out of the stone’. Some claim that the ghost of another lady which is often seen on the Arboretum is in some way connected with the cross, whilst others believe that the same ghost now haunts both Friar Gate and the Arboretum park.

It gained its notoriety when people noticed that particular men - all sharing the same Christian name had died having sat there. But the connections between The Greyhound and the spirit world do not stop there. People have spoken of ghostly footsteps where noone was walking and various knocking and banging sounds emitting from empty rooms within the building. But why should The Greyhound suffer from a ghostly presence. Why this public house and not others? The answer may lie in the fact that The Greyhound is no average public house. It was built sometime in the 17th century and stood opposite Derby’s second County Gaol. It has been noted that many prisoners were allowed to drink on the way to the gallows after being sentenced to death by hanging. Many people have suggested that due to its location The Greyhound would have been one of the establishments visited.

Maybe there lingers something that is not ready to finish their final drink, before getting “back on the wagon”, and heading off to their date with destiny.

The Bell Hotel, Sadlergate The Bell Hotel is one of the old coaching inns in Derby, and has managed to retain much of its original appearance, although its apparent Tudor timbering was not added until after World War One. It was built around 1680, for the Meynell family and is reputed to have various ghosts within. Victorian lady in blue stands in one of the downstairs bars and vaporises in front of staff and customers alike. A poltergeist in another downstairs room has been known to throw items around, one barmaid being hit on the back of her head by a wooden coat hanger, but close inspection of the room revealed no one else present. Upstairs in the Bell, one of the rooms is haunted by the ghost of a serving girl who has been seen on frequent occasions, dressed in 18th century clothing with a white mob cap. The original story, that she was murdered by the Jacobites in 1745, has nothing to substantiate it, but she has been seen on two occasions in connection with children. In the 1930s, the landlord had an asthmatic son. One afternoon he heard him coughing and choking in his bedroom. The boy’s

Image courtesy of Angus Crossley

father ran upstairs and burst into the bedroom, to find a lady dressed in 18th century costume bending his son over and patting him on the back. As the boy’s father took over, the mysterious figure simply vanished before his eyes. In the 1950s this same room was used as a nursery. One day the baby was being changed by the landlady and mother of the child. The mother moved away to get some nappy pins and cotton wool, and as she turned back, standing over the baby, stooping as if to pick the child up, was the same figure in the 18th century costume, complete with mob cap. The mother rushed to pick her child up and as she did, the ghostly figure completely faded away. Perhaps the reason that this ghost lingers here is that she died trying to protect her child, or maybe even in childbirth. Perhaps she was not a servant at all, but a dedicated nursery maid.

The Silk Mill England’s first factory was built here in 1717, on the banks of the River Derwent. John Lombe, who was possibly the world’s first industrial spy travelled to Livorno in Italy to steal the patterns for making silk- throwing machines, spending his days working the machines and at night, when he should have been sleeping, copying down their plans. These he carefully placed in bales of silk destined for England. The plans were then intercepted by his father’s agents and brought to Derby. The silk-throwing machines were constructed in Derby’s old Guildhall and eventually moved to what was the first purpose-built factory in England. Lombe escaped back home but three years later, so the story goes, he was poisoned by an Italian assassin from Livorno, sent over to this country to exact revenge. The Silk Mill burnt down in 1910, and all that was saved

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was the bell tower. It is this tower which is known to be haunted by a little boy who was kicked down the stairs by one of the overseers for not working hard enough. Children as young as seven were employed at the silk mill. They worked from 5am until 7pm. This little boy’s cries can still be heard at the foot of the stairs where he bled to death.

On many occasions staff of what is now Derby’s Industrial Museum have gone into the tower, thinking that there is a child lost, but there is never anyone there. The lift operates by itself, often going up and down on its own. The Silk Mill staff check at night before leaving to make sure that no one is in the lift, as it operates so often in this manner.

Guildhall Catacombs, Marketplace Beneath Derby’s Guildhall is a labyrinth of tunnels and catacombs. One of the tunnels used to link the old police lock-up in Lock-Up Yard to the Assize Courts which were at that time in the Guildhall. Many prisoners have trudged along those dark, dank tunnels from the lock-up to the courts, where they were sentenced, and then trudged back into the lock-up to be then taken away to be executed, transported, or imprisoned. One such person who made the mournful journey through those tunnels was Alice Wheeldon, from Peartree. In 1917 it was alleged that she had plotted to murder David Lloyd George, the Prime Minister.

She was arrested in Peartree Road,

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Derby, taken to the lock-up and eventually tried at the Assize Courts.

People say that they still hear ghostly footsteps along those tunnels. Perhaps it is those of Alice Wheeldon, who although imprisoned, was later found to be innocent. The whole story was apparently fabricated by the British Government because Alice Wheeldon was hiding Conscientious Objectors - men who did not wish to fight as soldiers- in World War One. She was later released from prison and lived as a recluse in Derby until she died and was then buried in an unmarked grave somewhere in the town. Also within the Guildhall catacombs, the ghost of a little boy has been seen, dressed in rags. He often wanders through the tunnels and has been seen by workmen. They shout at him, thinking that he is trespassing, but then he disappears and although thorough searches are undertaken, no sign of the boy can be found.

St. Helen’s House Known affectionately as Pickford’s masterpiece and built in 1767, St Helen’s House is probably Derby’s finest surviving Georgian town house.

Built for John Gisbourne of Yoxall Lodge, Staffordshire, in 1767, this fine Palladian mansion once stood in 80 acres of parkland and was visited by society’s elite, who would have been almost certainly entertained in some splendour. The house would have

had all of the necessary accessories to have impressed the most influential people of the day. Grand balls and dinner parties would have been a regular occurrence at this grand house.

The first monastery in Derbyshire is believed to have existed on the site prior to the present building being erected. In 1137 a man called ‘Ibvi gifted a parcel of land to be used as an oratory (chapel) which was dedicated to St Helen and served by a community of Augustinian canons. St Helen’s House has had several uses in its time including once being owned

by William Strutt, eldest son of the industrialist Jedediah Strutt, who made many improvements to the interior.

The building then became Derby School, during which time several new parts were added, including a redbrick chapel. Today the building is the property of Derbyshire County Council, and houses an adult education centre.

There are many who believe that the building would be better utilised as a museum to accommodate some of Derby’s treasures including paintings

by Joseph Wright, whose pictures quite possibly hung there in earlier days. Needless to say, the building is said to be haunted by many ghosts.

One is said to be that of a young lady, who comes sweeping down the stairs as if hurrying away from something, or someone, that is chasing her.

Another ghost is said to be that of a monk who has been seen on several occasions in different parts of the building. One previous lady worker at St Helen’s House, who was employed there when it still functioned as a school, informed me that on several occasions whilst she was working late in the evening she had heard an eerie and chilling voice whisper her name.

On further investigation this lady found no other person present. When questioning colleagues about her experience she was told that this type of strange occurrence had happened frequently to several people, and some members of staff were so used to this that they had nicknamed the ghost ‘The Whisperer’. Certain parts of the building are also said to have cold spots, and one gentleman, a student at the building in 1992, witnessed a grey smoky figure, seemingly almost of human shape, descend as if from the ceiling and pass through a wall.

Bolsover Castle Raised by the Peverel family in the 12th century, very little is known of the original Bolsover Castle. A stone Keep was built c1173, surrounded by a curtain wall with an outer bailey, but the wall was breached in 1216 during the reign of King John. Surviving fragments of this curtain wall were later incorporated in a wall walk that can be seen in the castle garden.

Bolsover Castle became Crown property in 1155 when the third William Peverel fled into exile, but by 1400 it had lost its strategic importance. Years of occupation by tenants had left Bolsover Castle ruinous by the time it was purchased by Sir George Talbot in 1553. Talbot, later becoming the 6th Earl of Shrewsbury, is noted for two famous associations.

Firstly, his marriage to ‘Bess of Hardwick’, probably the most astute business woman of the 16th century, who owned the vast Chatsworth estates. And then his lengthy term as keeper to the exiled Mary Queen of Scots, a 16 year duty that seriously drained the family’s resources.

To ease the financial burden, Bolsover Castle was first leased to Sir Charles Cavendish in 1608, and five years later he became the owner.

Employing Robert Smythson as his

architect, Cavendish set about rebuilding Bolsover Castle. The tower, known today as the little castle, was completed c1621, and building work continued with their sons adding the terrace and riding school ranges.

Used as extra accommodation, the Terrace Range originally consisted of apartments and kitchens, but with a Royal visit imminent this range was extended to include a long gallery and an external staircase.

staterooms to the Terrace Range and, by the time of his death in 1676, Bolsover Castle had been restored to good order. His successors, however, chose to live at Welbeck Abbey and in 1752 they stripped the lead from the roof of the Terrace Range at Bolsover Castle to effect the necessary repairs to their preferred residence. The Little Castle and the Riding School Range survived much better, and was let to the Curate of Bolsover in 1834.

When Charles I and his Queen arrived in 1634, the Riding School Range was probably at foundation level. At completion, the school had every facility required, including a forge, a tack and harness room, a large arena, and an upper viewing gallery. One of the most notable features of the Riding School range is its magnificent timber roof. With the advent of the Civil War, Sir William Cavendish took command of the Royalist troops who were defeated at Marston Moor, in 1644.

Following the death of his widow in 1883, Bolsover Castle remained uninhabited and was eventually given to the nation by the 7th Duke of Portland in 1945. Bolsover Castle is reported to have a fairly active ghost in the domestic quarters. A spectral figure of a woman carrying a baby is regularly seen in the kitchen. “She obviously cares deeply about the child because she very carefully lays it down before disappearing. But, inexplicably, she puts it in the fireplace,” A local recounts. A local legend claims that the devil was in Bolsover one day and decided to have his hooves shoed by the local blacksmith. Unfortunately, the blacksmith drove a nail into the soft part of the devil’s hoof, who took off with a scream of agony. As Chesterfield church was in his way, it received the full force of one of his frenzied kicks – which accounts for its twisted spire.

Although he survived, he was forced to flee into exile and Bolsover Castle was surrendered to Parliamentarian troops in August of the same year.

After the reformation of the Monarchy in 1660, Sir William Cavendish was able to return to England and his now ruinous castle. Despite great financial problems, he added a new hall and

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Odd events known to have happened at Bolsover Castle: 1. Some one being pushed down a staircase by invisible hands 2. One member of English heritage staff was crying in one of the on suite cupboards because of home problems, and she felt a small hand hold hers as if to comfort her.

3. Footsteps and the sound of a dress dragging across the floor above the toilet block in the riding school ...there’s no accessible floor above the toilet block.

4. Security picking up a candle glow making its way past the stairs windows in the riding school 5. Security cameras in the riding school detected objects moving in the riding school after dark.

6. Sound of horses hooves through gift shop, which is a modern building in the entrance to the site.

7. One of the members of staff was hoovering on the staircase in the Jacobean keep, and felt the cord of the hoover being tugged, when no-one else was their. She went down to see what was happening, went back up the stairs to where the hoover was, and it had been, moved to a different level.

8. Guests being slapped and pinched in the kitchen of the Jacobean keep.

9. Ghost of a boy being seen walking the battlements 10. Vision of a woman throwing a baby into the large kitchen fire 11. Mrs. Robbins room door (ex house keeper) sometimes can’t be opened in the morning. 10 minutes later, it will open.

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Other interesting Derbyshire Locations ...(that may very well be Haunted!!)

Sutton Scarsdale Hall is the imposing shell of a grandiose Georgian mansion built in 1724-29, with an immensely columned exterior. Roofless since 1919, when its interiors were dismantled and some exported to America: but there is still much to discover within, including traces of sumptuous plasterwork. Set amid contemporary garden remains, including ha-ha ditch and parish church.

Arbor Low Stone Circle and Gib Hill Barrow is the region’s most important prehistoric site, Arbor Low is a Neolithic henge monument atmospherically set amid high moorland.Within an earthen bank and ditch, a circle of some 50 white limestone slabs, all now fallen, surrounds a central stone ‘cove’ - a feature found only in major sacred sites. Nearby is enigmatic Gib Hill, a large burial mound.

Wingfield Manor is the vast and immensely impressive ruins of a palatial medieval manor house arranged round a pair of courtyards, with a huge undercrofted Great Hall and a defensible High Tower 22 metres (72 feet) tall. This monument to late medieval ‘conspicuous consumption’ was built in the 1440s for the wealthy Ralph, Lord Cromwell, Treasurer of England. Later the home of Bess of Hardwick’s husband, the Earl of Shrewsbury, who imprisoned Mary Queen of Scots here in 1569, 1584 and 1585. Filmed at this site was Zeffirelli’s film Jane Eyre.

Nine Ladies Stone Circle is a small early Bronze Age stone circle of (actually) ten stones. They were traditionally believed to be nine ladies turned to stone as a penalty for dancing on Sunday. Part of a complex of prehistoric circles and standing stones on Stanton Moor.

Hob Hurst’s House, a square prehistoric burial mound with an earthwork ditch and outer bank.

Named after a local goblin.

Peveril Castle is perched high above the pretty village of Castleton, the castle offers breathtaking views of the Peak District. Founded soon after 1066 by William Peverel, one of William the Conqueror’s most trusted knights, it played an important role in guarding the Peak Forest. Henry II made a number of additions to ‘Castle Peak’ (as it was known in the Middle Ages). Most notable is the great square keep with its round-headed windows, built in 1176. Thirteenth- century developments included the great hall, and though by 1400 the fortress had ceased to be strategically important, its impregnability guaranteed its continued use as a prison.

Following extensive conservation work on the keep, a walk-way at first floor level enables visitors to enter two previously inaccessible chambers: a medieval garderobe, and a small room with beautiful views.

Displays in the visitor centre tell the story of Peveril as the focal point of the Royal Forest of the Peak, a royal hunting preserve since the 1000’s.

Dim the lights, settle into your comfiest chair, make sure the door is locked and prepare to be spooked as it’s time for our reader’s story.

Fluffy was lying on her back playing with a piece of screwed up paper. He could see she was watching him out of the corner of her eye. That cat was such a flirt and probably the only other creature that loved him.

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He missed Fran, most people didn’t like him, he came across as a cold, driven, money head, only Fran saw the real him and the two years he’d spent married to Fran had been the happiest of his life. She truly loved him and he loved her, really, he did. Her death had been the worst thing he’s ever experienced.

He’d bought Fluffy a year after Fran’s death so as to have something to come home to. He’d fallen in love with the little ball of fluff with the huge green eyes the moment he’d seen her at the breeders. He and Fran had been planning to buy a cat just before… he quickly changed that the train of thought it took him places he didn’t want to go. He topped his gin up.

Fran had a thing about cats; she used to meow and growl in bed and claw her nails across his back. She always

said that she’d like to come back as a cat. When he’d asked what sort.

She paused for a moment as though considering it seriously, before telling him that she’d come back as something exotic, expensive and pampered. He took another gulp of his gin. He knew he was drinking too much; he’d started drinking when the business got into difficulties just to unwind and relieve the stress and after Fran’s death to blot out the memories.

He threw another ball of paper to Fluffy who caught it in her front paws, rolled over and began batting it around the room growling. Fluffy was a Persian long hair; her hair got everywhere and blocked the vacuum filters but he didn’t mind, she was worth the extra work. She’d cost a fortune but after Fran’s insurers paid up he could afford

by Eve Merrick-Williams it. Though the insurance money hardly compensated for the hole Fran’s death left in his life.

Fluffy got bored with the paper and jumped onto his lap purring. He ran his fingers through Fluffy’s long silky fur.

It reminded him of Fran’s hair which had the same soft texture as Fran’s and brought back pleasant memories. She sniffed at his gin, sneezed and gave him a disapproving look.

“Don’t go all moralistic on me Fluffy I need a drink of an evening.”

He’d got used to talking to Fluffy in the long lonely hours and unburdening himself of his worries, fears, and disappointments, in much the same way he had once unburdened himself to Fran. Though he could be honest in a

way with Fluffy he could never be with Fran. After all a cat couldn’t understand and certainly didn’t Judge. He couldn’t tell Fran the business was in trouble. It had been a sound enough business; it was just a short term cash flow problem. But, the bank were cutting up rough and refusing to extend his credit. He’d already remortgaged the house without telling Fran and worse he’d missed three payments. He scratched Fluffy’s tummy and took a heavy pull at his gin. He must be drunk talking to a cat like this.

Hell! I’d been to school with them, alright they’d bullied me; they bullied everyone. I certainly didn’t think they’d put the arm on me the way they did. I was frightened it’s not like I planned to kill Fran for the insurance.”

He poured himself another drink and noticed in a detached way that he was halfway down the bottle. Fluffy was sitting up, ears pricked forward; regarding him intently.

“I really loved her; she was the best thing that ever happened to me.” A gin tear trickled down his cheek.

“You see Fluffy, everything was coming apart the business had hit the buffers. There was only one way to save it I needed a short term loan.

The bank was no use, so I turned to the Thompson twins for a loan. I know they had a bit of a reputation. But,

“But, what else could I do? I was desperate. I know how the Thompson brothers ‘encourage’ people to pay up.

They start by breaking a finger every day until the debt is paid and they have other ways once they ran out of fingers.”

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Eve MerrickWilliams Eve is a lightly dotty lady of a certain age or more accurately a mad old hippy.

She has been in her time a science technician, riding teacher, Gardener, Jewellery maker, story teller and performance poet, and a load of things she forgets now. She has been a practicing witch and Pagan but now she is a devout Buddhist.

She has a degree in ancient history and an MA in ancient philosophy and myth. Eve has had a few things published in the past and plans to really concentrate on writing now

He emptied his gin at a gulp and topped the glass up. Fluffy was staring at him hard. “There’s no need to look like that anyone would have done the same.”

He laughed, though he could hear a slightly hysterical edge in it. He must be well pissed trying to justify himself to a cat.

“It’s not that I didn’t love Fran but her life insurance was my only way out.

Johnny Thompson had been round for one of his little chats. The man’s a sadistic psycho even Paul Thompson is afraid of him. Fran’s insurance would pay off the Thompsons, pay the mortgage, and put the business to rights. It did too.”

Fluffy’s tail was twitching and even though it was dark in the room her eyes were green slits. He poured another glass and gulped it down barely tasting it. He knew he was getting very drunk.

“It’s not as though I started out planning to kill Fran; I found myself wishing she’d just die and then I’d be off the hook. I hated myself for even thinking it but I began to see it was my only way out. It really was me or her. I mean I loved her but what else could I do? It’s not like I wanted to, it broke my heart.

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It was the day that Johnny Thompson visited for his ‘little talk’ I realised I had no option, I had to kill Fran. But that was the problem if anything happened to Fran I was the obvious suspect. The police always suspect the husband especially if he had something to gain from the wife’s death.”

Fluffy was sitting up alert and staring intently into his eyes, he found it slightly unnerving and she’d stopped purring.

“Let’s face it, I had a failing business; the only beneficiary of her large life insurance policy; and serious debts. I really didn’t know how I was going to it. I’d watched enough CSI to know a murderer always leaves some sort of evidence behind.” Fluffy was purring again, at least he thought she was purring, though it sounded like a low growl.

“Then I had a stroke of luck. Fran got a nasty infected wisdom tooth. She was on antibiotics, the ones that you can’t drink with, just one drink; you’re paralytic and super strong pain killers.

All I had to do was slip her some alcohol. I laced her coffee with super strength vodka; with all the sugar she couldn’t taste the vodka. Pretty soon she was semi conscious. I got more of the vodka down her laced

with her pain killers. It was a Hell of a job getting her up the stairs but I managed and propped her against newel post. I went down stairs to the living room and picked up the phone and called Harry, a golfing friend to arrange a game. This would fix my position for the police. I hung out the conversation as long as could. I knew it was only a matter of time before she fell down stairs. I was sweating I can tell you Fluffy. Then it came, the sound of a body bumping down stairs and a crash as she hit the hall stand. It was loud enough for Harry to hear. My performance would have won me an Oscar. I dropped the phone and rushed into the hall. Fran lay at the foot of the stairs her neck at an awful unnatural angle.”

He poured himself another gin and knocked it back in one. He was sure Fluffy was growling, there must be a mouse in the room.

“It was plain sailing after that… well not quite. The police gave me a bit of a hard time, but they were just going through the motions. They were pretty convinced it was an accident and when the coroner brought in a verdict of accidental death I was away and clear. I mean… I’m sorry about Fran but in the end it was her or me.”

Fluffy was definitely growling there must be a mouse in the room. God! He felt sleepy. It must be all the booze.

Not much left in the bottle now, might as well finish it and have a little snooze.

He lay back and began to snore. Fluffy stretched; yawned and walked up his chest. She stood staring down into his face. She dabbed his face with a soft paw; when he didn’t respond she smacked his face harder. Satisfied she drew her paw back and slashed leaving a bloody furrow across his cheek. She began to purr loudly and lay across his face covering his mouth and nose. He struggled feebly but in a few minutes he lay quiet. Fluffy stayed where she was until she was sure his chest had stopped moving. She jumped down to the floor and walked to the phone. She nudged the hand piece off its cradle and dabbed the speed dial with her paw. It was probably just chance that it rang the local police station.

so you want t o be a

Funeral Direc Every person that we meet in our day-to-day lives has two essential things in common with every other person – that they were born and that they will die. Both of these events are viewed or governed by two extremes of human emotion.

The birth of a new life is generally a very happy and exciting time, looked upon with pleasure, expectation and a great deal of hope for the future.

Death, on the other hand, is greatly feared and the death of one that we love is so often greeted with disbelief, deep sadness and fear of the future.

The role of the Funeral Director and his or her staff is one which can be misunderstood and largely ignored.

Yet it is a most demanding career. The demands are not only for dedicated attention to every small detail; it is essential that a caring, sympathetic and understanding approach be offered to the bereaved. The ability to mix the harsh practicalities of death with the ‘human’ side of a caring and supportive nature is only one of the special qualities that any good funeral director needs. It is often said that funeral service is a vocation rather than a job and it is easy to see why.

Funeral services are run by either family businesses or by larger organisations with a number of branches. The Staff employed need to have varied skills and a genuine desire to offer as much

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help, guidance and assistance as is required by those they are called upon to serve. Funeral service is by no means an easy career option but, it must be said, it can be one of the most fulfilling and rewarding of the service careers.

In many businesses, particularly small businesses, a variety of tasks may be performed by one person and the skills needed for these various tasks may need to be acquired. In many cases you will need the ability to deal with a variety of people – members of the medical profession, ministers of all faiths, crematoria and cemetery personnel and, most importantly of all, the recently bereaved. Drivers and support service staff require a clean driving licence and the role may include a variety of different duties including the cleaning and maintenance of the company’s vehicles. For those wishing to become Funeral Directors, there is a need to have a complete awareness of all aspects of the service. It is helpful therefore, if you look to begin your career as a funeral service operative, with training based upon the day-to-

day tasks involved in funeral arrangements.

This way you will have the opportunity to discover which part of the profession your skills and talents are most suited for. Training is often carried out within the business, with managers and colleagues being involved as trainers.

To study for a qualification you will need to contact the NAFD Support Centre on 0845 230 1343, or look them up on the web www.nafd.org.uk

ctor Career Options There are a wide range of jobs to choose from within the funeral service industry, including: • • • • • • • • •

Funeral Director Receptionist Operator Secretary Account Administrator Coordinator/Administrator Driver/Coffin Bearer Coffin Fitter Bereavement Counsellor/After Care Service Provider • Embalmer/Carer for the Deceased • Branch Manager/Area Manager

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Job Description The role of a Funeral Director is incredibly varied and so every funeral director has to be multi-skilled, for example he or she must be able to: • Organise and conduct funerals • Be on call 24 hours a day, every day • Arrange transport of the deceased to a place of rest prior to the funeral • Be aware of the various religious factors which may affect decisions • Be aware of all the options available to clients and be able to advise them accordingly • Advise on all aspects of the funeral arrangements • Advise on what help may be available to pay funeral costs • Offer guidance on legal requirement, registration procedures etc

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• Assist with cremation forms and legal details • Advise clients on obituary and death notices • Advise on floral tributes and charitable donations • Complete all forms relating to funeral arrangements • Be able to advise on Coroners’ procedures • Submit a written estimate of all funeral costs • Advise on memorials of all types • Arrange and conduct visits to the chapel of rest • Be available, often out of normal hours, to help, comfort and advise, even after the funeral is over.

Qualities Care, compassion and the ability to absorb other peoples’ distress without it affecting you personally requires a very special personality. You will need to become accustomed to the various

types of bereavement and the various stages of grief through which each bereavement progresses – whilst never losing the emotional strength needed to cope with the massive range of feelings different people display as reactions vary greatly from person to person. You must accept that this is no ‘ordinary’ job with set hours of work.

The funeral service operates 24 hours a day, 365 days of the year in all weathers and in any circumstances. Death is no respecter of Bank Holidays, personal situations or private lives.

Skills Depending upon the role within the profession that you decide upon, there are a series of training and education programmes and examinations/ diploma courses available to you. The ability to communicate with clients and colleagues is very important and you will also need to have strong organisational skills. You’ll need to learn the fine balance between necessary routine and outstanding customer service and then combine this with a caring, almost protective attitude.

You will learn how to guide your

clients through the emotional and traumatic experiences they are being subjected to, probably for the first time in their lives.

Training The NAFD offers a variety of nationally recognised courses including the ‘Foundation Certificate in Funeral Service’, the ‘Diploma in Funeral Directing and the ‘Diploma in Funeral Service Management’. Tuition for these examinations is offered under the guidance of the British Institute of Funeral Directors who have tutors throughout the UK. The examinations are handled by the NAFD Board of Examiners. Many firms will encourage staff to take these, or other, funeral related qualifications and will be prepared to stand the cost. Students may also undertake these qualifications in their own time and at their own cost.

In order to be granted the certificates for these qualifications it is necessary to be employed in funeral service. Is there a preferred or ideal age requirement for a career in funeral service? There are no age preferences or restrictions for funeral service, though a mature approach is, of course, essential.

The funeral service is available to all, irrespective of age, sex, race, creed or ethnic origin.

Positivies & Future Prospects That’s simple – plenty of job satisfaction and the chance to advance your career. Funeral service is one of the most secure businesses to be involved with, so you can expect a secure and regular income and genuine prospects to develop your career, particularly if you join one of the larger firms. There’s even a possibility that you could branch out on your own at some point in the future – though a note of caution; the capital outlay for such ventures is substantial!

What to do next?

Well, probably the best way to find out more about funeral service is to approach a local funeral directing firm and ask if you can pop in and talk to them about their work. They’ll probably be delighted to help you. If, on the other hand, you feel you need advice about who to contact, please feel free to get in touch with the NAFD Support Centre.

A day in the life of a

funeral direct or

For many of us, death isn’t something we think about until we’re faced with it. And no matter how prepared we think we are, death has a particular way of catching most of us by surprise.

As we go through the numb and reflexive motions following the death of a loved one; endless paperwork, choosing, flowers and music,( just to name a few) oftentimes there’s an impartial third party standing by to help smooth out the wrinkles and details making a painful time a little easier.

director Stephen Clarkson does in an average day. First off, I received the grand tour of the building, which began in the showroom filled with a wide range of caskets and urns (personally, I fell in love with the silver metal casket). Caskets are like cars, they go from your basic model to your Rolls-Royce.

Since many of us only rely on the services of our local funeral director when we encounter the death of family or friends, it’s safe to assume that many of us don’t know the exact job description of these unpretentious, diligent and consoling people.

A few weeks ago I approached a local funeral parlour about having an inside look at an average day. Although they wish to remain anonymous they obliged this curious reporter. From the politically-correct lingo, to piles of paperwork to cleaning, I learned how they do it all.

“Caskets, to be very simple, they either come in wood, or they come in metal,” said Christian, “If you were to walk into a furniture store, the prices differ based on the quality of the wood and the type of wood, same with caskets.”

After trying my hand at dusting and polishing each of the wooden coffins with a damp cloth, we were off to the preparation room where bodies are embalmed and prepared for a viewing or funeral. But no worries for me, the room was both empty and spotless.

Admittedly, I was a little squeamish, about the thought of what actually goes on in that room, but was quickly reassured when I saw how bright and clean it was. “This is where we embalm, and dress and it’s very disinfected and clean,” Christian said, “A health inspector person comes in every year and about every four years the Board of Funeral Services does a random search of everything. Everything you can think of, your paperwork, your facility, your signage - everything.”

“I want you to get a real perspective of my job. I don’t want you to think I do gardening or sit on my backside all day and do nothing or just answer the phones,” said funeral director Christian Davies, 31, who has been in the business for eight years.

Very serious about showing me the ropes, Christian had me doing everything that he and co-funeral

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In addition to preparing the body, if necessary, Christian will also use cosmetics to make the deceased appear more natural. However, he says there’s conflicting opinions on whether to use makeup provided by a funeral home company or cosmetics from a chemist. “I only use makeup from the drugstore. It’s easier to buy, it’s easier to get the right colour and it’s easier to use,” he said.

Similarly to many in the world of reporting, those in the business of funerals are on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.

Because most deaths are unexpected, either Stephen or Christian has to be available to help the family organise the funeral proceedings.

“You do have to learn about other faiths and you hope the family is willing to offer information about their wishes. If you tell me that you want to have something seen or done, and I’ll make sure that it’s seen or done.

If you’re open and honest with your funeral director, it will be done,” he said.

“We find it’s very important to have a funeral that’s unique and personally reflects you and your life.”

This brought me to learn about the many different ways to keep your memory alive, long after you’re physically gone. From being a part of an ocean reef, to fireworks, to being launched into space, there are hundreds of ways to be remembered.

My personal favourite is the creation of an authentic diamond from cremated remains. Called Life Gems, carbon is extracted from the cremated remains and a yellow, orange, red or blue diamond is made for loved ones to keep.

Even though he’s only been in the business for eight years, clearly Christian is in his element and loves what he does. “I was in a careers-related class at college in Leicester and I had to do a project and it kind of veered towards funerals. So, where else do you find out about funerals, you go to a funeral home and I actually said I could do this job,” he said.

For Stephen, who has been a funeral home director for eighteen years, the job happened mostly by accident.

“I thought that it sounded interesting,” said Stephen. “I was in college and I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life. I decided to do flick through the local paper and saw an advert for a funeral home.”

Christian admits that she has a strange job and at moments it’s difficult, but he says he’s learned to emotionally distance himself. “There are always some funerals that affect you. You have funerals for babies and for people

that just shouldn’t have died, but you need to learn to disassociate yourself from your job. I can’t sit down and fill out paperwork with a family and start crying my eyes out,” he said. “We’re not counsellors, but we help people with their grieving process.”

And oddly enough, he says there are pleasant parts of her job - educating others. “A lot of public relations stuff we do is fun. I go into to the local colleges sometimes, if the teacher requests it,” he said. “How better to educate students about my field then to have me there answering their questions?

If you have a room full of people and they find out your a funeral director they always have questions.”

As for their own wishes for when they pass on to the other side, Christian and Stephen say it’s a common topic of conversation around the office. “We talk about it, not everyday, but it’ll come up quite often,” he said. “But I change my mind from day to day sometimes.”

Peter Cushing (born Peter Wilton Cushing) was born on May 26, 1913 in Kenley, Surrey England to George Edward Cushing and Nellie Marie Cushing. His father was a Quantity Surveyor and his family had quite a few connections with the theater. His grandfather traveled with Sir Henry Irving on tours of the US and Canada, his aunt worked with actress Gertie Miller and his step-uncle Wilton Herriot was a well-known actor (played a principal in ‘Charley’s Aunt’). Cushing also had an older brother named David. In Kenley Cushing was educated at Shoreham Grammar School and Purley County Secondary School where he enjoyed painting, rugger (rugby), and amateur theatricals. His first encounter with the stage was at eleven. He and his brother, David, ran a puppet show for friends and family.

His uncle advised they not charge admission, afraid they would lose their audience. After the performance, though, Cushing’s brother stood at the door with an upturned hat and charged 3 pence to leave the room.

Cushing’s first job was with the Purley Urban District Council as Surveyor’s

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Assistant, ‘...little more than a glorified office boy’ he said. It was during this time that he’d won a scholarship to Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. At 21 he applied for a position

Worthing for several months as the Assistant Stage manager, he says it was the best training he could have had for a dramatic career. He wasn’t paid much but did not live too badly.

“Strangely enough, I don’t like horror pictures at all. I love to make them because they give pleasure to people, but my favourite types of films are much more subtle than horror. I like to watch films like Bridge Over the River Kawi, The Apartment or lovely musicals.” with the Worthing Repertory Company (from an ad in ‘The Stage’) He did not receive a reply to his initial application or the fifteen subsequent letters to the manager. One morning he did receive an answer with an invitation to see the manager, Bill Fraser. Cushing quit his job and left for Worthing. When he met Mr. Fraser he was told to stop being a nuisance. Cushing explained tearfully that he could not return as he’d given up his job. Bill Fraser’s sympathies stirred, Cushing went on as a ‘debtor’ that very night in Priestley’s play Cornelius. Cushing worked at

He was allowed to eat all the food a local well-known grocery provided for the eating scenes (for credit in the program). For this reason Cushing became very fond of Coward and Lonsdale plays for in nearly every one there was ‘a pork pie at least’. He then moved to Southampton where he played small parts and later worked with various companies allover England gradually working his way up to juvenile leads. This was not just a small part here and there, as a member of the William Borrkfield Players at the Theatre Royal in Rochdale and Harry

Hanson’s Court Players in Nottingham, he, and other actors, would sometimes play up to 45 parts in just as many weeks and up to eighteen hours a day! He had, like many other British actors, a strong desire to go to ‘the Coast’ so after nearly 4 years in English repertory; he left for the US with 60 pounds (about $140) in 1938. He spent his first week in New York City trying to make contacts, then went straight to Hollywood, he found work after only two weeks, in James Whale’s film The Man in the Iron Mask Cushing was employed as a double for Louis Hayward (who played the lead both bad and good brother) he received $75 per week for 4 months. He got a bit part on the film, he had to gallop up on a horse and call, ‘The Captain wishes to see you, sir’. He landed a role as second lead in Vigil in the Night with Carol Lombard. Just after that, war was declared between England and Germany. Cushing was declared unfit for military duty but became homesick and wanted to return home, but that proved difficult to find passage on a ship during war-time. So, he went to NY to work in Broadway plays and traveled to Canada. While saving for home he worked as a night-porter at the YMCA, a parking lot attendant and as an usher in Montreal. He finally returned home in 1940. He appeared in Noel Cowards’ Private Lives in 1940 where he met and later married actress Helen Beck. During World War II he made his contribution to the war effort by joining the Entertainment National Services Association.

Early life Cushing and Helen bought a seafront home in Whitstable in 1959 after visiting in the 40’s and loving the town and it’s people. He turned the attic into a studio where he produced water colors, detailed theatrical set models, scarves and jewellery for his wife. In 1948 his first British film appearance was in Hamlet. Not too long after this he started to receive many offers from Hollywood, bringing him back to the US. He would go on to make a long string of horror films, known as the Hammer films, spanning over 30 years.

“I hate the word “hate”.”

Hammer Horror His first appearances in his two most famous roles were in Terence Fisher’s films The Curse of Frankenstein (1957) and Dracula (1958). Cushing is closely associated with playing Baron Victor Frankenstein and Lawrence Van Helsing in a long string of horror films produced by Hammer Horror.

He later said that career decisions for him meant choosing roles where he knew the audience would accept him.

“Who wants to see me as Hamlet?

Very few. But millions want to see me as Frankenstein so that’s the one I do.”

He also said “If I played Hamlet, they’d call it a horror film.” Cushing was often cast opposite the actor Christopher Lee, with whom he became best friends. “People look at me as if I were some sort of monster, but I can’t

meet you in a dark alley’.” he said in an interview in 1966. He also appeared in the cult series The Avengers and then again in its successor, The New Avengers. In 1986, he played the role of Colonel William Raymond in Biggles. In Space: 1999, he appeared as a Prospero-like character called Raan. He was one of many stars to guest on The Morecambe and Wise Show — the standing joke in his case being the idea that he was never paid for his appearance. He would appear, week after week, wearily asking hosts Eric and Ernie, “Have you got my five pounds yet?” When Cushing was the subject of This Is Your Life in 1989, one of the guests was Ernie Wise, who promptly presented him with a five pound note, but then, with typical dexterity, extorted it back from him.

think why. In my macabre pictures, I have either been a monster-maker or a monster-destroyer, but never a monster. Actually, I’m a gentle fellow.

Never harmed a fly. I love animals, and when I’m in the country I’m a keen bird-watcher,” he said in an interview published in ABC Film Review in November 1964. In the mid-1960s, he played the eccentric “Doctor” in two movies (Dr. Who and the Daleks and Daleks — Invasion Earth 2150 AD) based on the television series Doctor Who. He made a conscious decision to play the part as a lovable, avuncular figure, in an effort to escape from his perceived image as a “horror” actor. “I do get terribly tired with the neighbourhood kids telling me ‘My mum says she wouldn’t want to

Cushing was absolutely delighted with this, and cried: “All these years and I still haven’t got my fiver!” Cushing played Sherlock Holmes many times, starting with Hammer’s The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959), the first Holmes film made in colour. Cushing seemed a natural for the part and he played the part with great fidelity to the written character - that of a man who is not always easy to live with or be around - which had not been done up to that point. He followed this up with a performance in 16 episodes of the BBC series Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes (1968), of which only six episodes remain. Finally, Cushing played the detective in old age, in The Masks of Death (1984) for Channel 4.

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Personal life In 1971, Cushing withdrew from the film Blood from the Mummy’s Tomb when his wife died. He and actress Helen Beck (8 February 1905 – 14 January 1971) had been married since 1943. The following year, he was quoted in the Radio Times as saying “Since Helen passed on I can’t find anything; the heart, quite simply, has gone out of everything. Time is interminable, the loneliness is almost unbearable and the only thing that keeps me going is the knowledge that my dear Helen and I will be united again some day. To join Helen is my only ambition. You have my permission to publish that... really, you know dear boy, it’s all just killing time. Please say that.” Six years later, his feelings were unchanged: “When Helen passed on six years ago I lost the only joy in life that I ever wanted. She was my whole life and without her there is no meaning.

I am simply killing time, so to speak, until that wonderful day when we are together again.” In his autobiography, he implies that he attempted suicide the night that his wife died, by running up and down stairs in the vain hope that it would induce a heart attack. He later stated that this was a hysterical reaction to his wife’s death, and that he was not consciously trying to end his life - his strong religious beliefs prevented him from attempting suicide “for real”. In 1986, Cushing appeared on the British TV show Jim’ll Fix It. His “wish”, “granted” by Jimmy Savile, was to have a strain of rose named after

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his late wife. Cushing’s letter to the show, in copperplate handwriting, was shown, as was the identification and naming of a rose named “Helen Cushing”. Peter Cushing appeared in

were carol singing in front of Number 10 Downing Street. He actually made them give him money and finally coming out to say “at last, I have been paid!”.

“Since Helen passed on I can’t find anything; the heart, quite simply, has gone out of everything. Time is interminable, the loneliness is almost unbearable and the only thing that keeps me going is the knowledge that my dear Helen and I will be united again some day. To join Helen is my only ambition. You have my permission to publish that ...really, you know dear boy, it’s all just killing time. Please say that.” a comedy play written by Ernie Wise (Play what I wrote) in the Morecambe and Wise Show on BBC2 in 1969.

Throughout the BBC era of the shows Peter would appear often with Eric and Ernie on stage looking to be paid for his very first appearance on their show. This comedy skit continued when the comedy duo left the BBC and moved to Thames Television in 1978.

Peter appeared in their first special for Thames Television on the 18th October 1978 still looking to be paid with Eric and Ernie trying to get rid of him, at the end of the show Ernie placed money in a wallet and connected to a bomb, to try and blow Peter up in a huge comedic style. Finally Peter got the better of Eric and Ernie in the 1980 Christmas Show. He pretended to be the Prime Minister when Eric and Ernie

Star Wars In 1976, he was cast in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, which was shooting at Elstree Studios, Borehamwood. He appeared as one of his (now) most recognized characters, Grand Moff Tarkin, despite having originally been considered for the role of Obi-Wan Kenobi. Cushing found accepting the role in a science fiction fantasy easy. “My criterion for accepting a role isn’t based on what I would like to do. I try to consider what the audience would like to see me do and I thought kids would adore Star Wars.” Costuming difficulties resulted in a piece of trivia about Star Wars. He was presented with ill-fitting riding boots for the role and they pinched his feet so much that he was given permission by George Lucas to play the role wearing his slippers. The camera operators filmed him above the knees or standing behind the table of the conference room set. Also, during filming of Star Wars, a star-struck Carrie Fisher found it hard to deliver her lines to him and seem terrified in the presence of a charming, polished man who smelled of ‘linen and lavender’ when in their first scene together, her character speaks of Cushing as having a ‘foul stench’. For Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, Lucas wanted Cushing, by then deceased, to reprise his role as Tarkin through the use of archive footage and digital technology, but poor film quality made this impossible. Besides, the scene required a full-body appearance of Tarkin, which was unavailable due to Cushing’s use of slippers instead of boots when

performing. Instead, Wayne Pygram took the role. Pygram was cast because it was felt he strongly resembled Cushing, but even so, he underwent extensive prosthetic makeup for his brief cameo.

Later career After Star Wars, he continued appearing in films and television sporadically, as his health allowed. He was diagnosed with prostate cancer, but without surgery managed to survive several years, though his health was precarious. In 1989, Cushing was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire, though his close friend Christopher Lee publicly opined that this was “too little, too late.” He retired to Whitstable, where he had bought a seafront house in 1959, and continued his hobby of birdwatching, and to write two autobiographies (during this time, his legendery career and enigmatic persona was made into a song by local

Death Cushing died of prostate cancer on 11 August 1994, aged 81 in Canterbury, Kent, England five years after he was made an Officer of the British Empire

“When Helen passed on six years ago I lost the only joy in life that I ever wanted. She was my whole life and without her there is no meaning. I am simply killing time, so to speak, until that wonderful day when we are together again.” band The Jellybottys, “Peter Cushing Lives in Whitstable” is now a very well known pop anthem and was the band’s own humorous celebratory dedication to Peter Cushing whom they would often meet and chat with around Whitstable Town. Local primary schools in Kent actually teach children the first verse of the song as poetry. Cushing also worked as a painter, specialising in watercolours, and wrote and illustrated a children’s book of Lewis Carroll style humour, The Bois Saga. He was also the patron of The Vegetarian Society from 1987 up until his death.

His final professional engagement was as co-narrator of Flesh and Blood, the Hammer Heritage of Horror, produced by American writer/director Ted Newsom. As co-narrator, Cushing thus took his “last bow” with friend Christopher Lee, the BBC and Hammer Films. The narration was recorded in Canterbury near Cushing’s home. The show was first broadcast in 1994, the week before Cushing’s death.

in recognition of his contributions to the acting profession in Britain and worldwide. In an interview on the DVD release of The Hound of the Baskervilles, Christopher Lee remarked on his friend’s death: “I don’t want to sound gloomy, but, at some point of your lives, every one of you will notice that you have in your life one person, one friend whom you love and care for very much. That person is so close to you that you are able to share some things only with him. For example, you can call that friend, and from the very first maniacal laugh or some other joke you will know who is at the other end of that line. We used to do that with him so often. And then when that person is gone, there will be nothing like that in your life ever again”.

Trivia • Peter Cushing turned down a role in The Wicker Man offered to him by his friend Christopher Lee, the part went to the man with three wooden heads, Edward Woodward • Peter was the first choice to play “Dr. Sam Loomis” in Halloween, but turned down the role. Christopher Lee also rejected the role.

• Peter considered The Blood Beast Terror (1968) to be the worst film he ever made.

• Peter’s last ever on screen

appearence before he died was on This Is Your Life.

• Prior to being cast as Tarkin in Star Wars (1977), George Lucas considere using Peter as Obi-Wan Kenobi (which ultimately went to Sir Alec Guinness) • Carrie Fisher said in an interview that doing her scenes with Peter in the Star Wars (1977) were difficult for two reasons: she thought the lines were ridiculous and she found Peter to be so polite and charming off camera that it was hard to project the sense of disdain that her character, Princess Leia, held for his character, Tarkin.

“Television is rather a frightening business.But I get all the relaxation I want from my collection of model soldiers.”

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Filmography 1969

1970 1971 1972

1973

1974

1939 1940

1941

1947 1948 1952 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960

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The Man in the Iron Mask Hidden Master (short) Dreams (short) Laddie Women in War A Chump at Oxford Vigil in the Night They Dare Not Love We All Help (short) The New Teacher (short) Safety First (short) It Might Be You (short) Hamlet Moulin Rouge The Black Knight The End of the Affair Magic Fire Alexander the Great Time without Pity The Abominable Snowman The Curse of Frankenstein Violent Playground Dracula The Mummy The Hound of the Baskervilles John Paul Jones The Flesh and the Fiends (Mania) Psycho Killers The Fiendish Ghouls)

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1961

1962

1964 1965 1966 1967

1968

Code of Silence Suspect The Brides of Dracula Sword of Sherwood Forest Fury at Smuggler’s Bay The Naked Edge The Hellfire Club Cash on Demand The Devil’s Agent Captain Clegg (Night Creatures) The Man Who Finally Died The Evil of Frankenstein Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors The Gorgon She The Skull Dr. Who and the Daleks Island of Terror Daleks - Invasion Earth A.D. 2150 Frankenstein Created Woman Torture Garden The Mummy’s Shroud (as narrator) Some May Live Night of the Big Heat Caves of Steel The Blood Beast Terror Corruption

1975 1976

1977 1978 1979 1980

1982 1983 1984

1985

Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed Scream and Scream Again One More Time The Vampire Lovers The House That Dripped Blood Incense for the Damned Twins of Evil I, Monster “Poetic Justice” ep. of Tales from the Crypt Nothing but the Night Michael Carmichae Asylum Dr. Phibes Rises Again Dracula A.D. 1972 Horror Express The Satanic Rites of Dracula Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell The Creeping Flesh And Now the Screaming Starts From Beyond the Grave Legend of the Werewolf The Golden Vampire ( The Seven Brothers Meet Dracula The Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires Madhouse La Grande Trouille (as voice) The Beast Must Die Call Him Mr. Shatter The Ghoul Shock Waves The Devil’s Men Trial by Combat At the Earth’s Core The Great Houdinis The Uncanny Die Standarte Star Wars Hitler’s Son The Detour Touch of the Sun Arabian Adventure A Tale of Two Cities Monster Island Mystery of Monster Island Black Jack House of the Long Shadows Sword of the Valiant Top Secret!

The Silent Scream Sherlock Holmes and the Masks of Death Helen Keller: The Miracle Continues Biggles: Adventures in Time

ZOINKS, JEEPERS AND JINKIES And now it’s that time in the magazine where we pay homage to two guys, two girls and a dog, not just an ordinary dog, no siree!! We have received lots of e-mails (okay, okay – two) from Haunted readers asking why is Scooby-Doo in a paranormal magazine?

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It’s simple from our perspective – 40 years ago an intrepid bunch of American kids (and a dog) set out on a road trip like no other, to investigate the paranormal in their souped-up Mystery Machine transit van. They were curious, as I guess most of us are, and stopped off at various locations to unmask the unexplained, to seek out the supernatural, to pry into the paranormal… You get my drift? It was not their fault that the Black Knight happened to be Bill the Janitor, or the Ghost with the white sheet over his head was revealed as the next in kin of the old man who lives in the house and was to inherit a fortune should the old man have his clogs well and truly

popped. Maybe this is the answer to all the paranormal investigation teams out there – get yourself a big talking cartoon dog and maybe all the answers will be revealed. Only teasing, we just think that this feature is cheesy and tongue in cheek and features some great paranormal stories, all be it revealed to be a hoax at the end of the show, and we love it, as do hundreds of people who have emailed us saying what a great feature it is (okay, okay – five). So, Mary from Neath and Alison from Leeds, I hope that answers your questions?

The New Scooby-Doo Movies (sometimes called The New Scooby-

Doo Comedy Movies) was the second incarnation of the Hanna-Barbera Saturday morning cartoon ScoobyDoo, Where Are You! It premiered on September 9, 1972 and ran for two seasons on CBS as the only hourlong Scooby-Doo series. Twenty-four episodes were ultimately produced (sixteen in 1972 and eight more in 1973). This was the last incarnation to feature Nicole Jaffe as the voice of Velma Dinkley due to her marriage and retirement from acting. Each of the episodes of this series featured a special guest star, who would help the gang solve the mystery of the week. Some of these guest stars were living celebrities who provided their

own voices (Don Knotts, Jerry Reed, Jonathan Winters, Sandy Duncan, Tim Conway, Dick Van Dyke, and Sonny & Cher, among others); some were dead or retired celebrities whose voicing was done by imitators (The Three Stooges and Laurel and Hardy), and the rest were present or future HannaBarbera characters: the characters from Harlem Globetrotters, Josie and the Pussycats, Jeannie, and Speed Buggy all appeared on the show during or after their own shows’ original runs; The Addams Family and Batman and Robin both appeared on the show a year before they were incorporated into Hanna-Barbera shows of their own, The Addams Family and Super Friends.

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SEASON ONE 1972

THE GHASTLY GHOST TOWN FEATURING: THE THREE STOOGES ORIGINAL AIRDATE: SEPTEMBER 9TH 1972 The gang are forced to seek help in the desert after their van is forced onto a sand dune by a low-flying, kingsized bat. They come across the Three Stooges whose amusement park is in need of some help.

VILLAINS UNMASKED: Amos Crunch as the Robot Gunslinger, Rhino as the Cigar Store Indian SCOOBY FACTS: This is the only New Scooby-Doo Movie which has a “teaser” sequence. The main title theme song would become the universal theme tune until 1985.

SCOOBY BANTER: Fred: This desert reminds me of a woman Daphne: How so?

Fred: It goes on, and on, and on

Uncle Fester: I invite you to break bread.

Shaggy: [tries the bread] Break bread? He means break your teeth on this bread, this stuff’s hard as a rock.

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THE DYNAMIC SCOOBY-DOO AFFAIR (aka THE CROOKED COUNTERFEITERS) FEATURING: BATMAN & ROBIN ORIGINAL AIRDATE: SEPTEMBER 16TH 1972 The gang team up with the Dynamic Duo to help locate their missing vehicle. The trail leads to an abandoned carnival and a counterfeiting ring run by the Joker and the Penguin VILLAINS UNMASKED: Mrs. Baker as the Hooded Figure.

SCOOBY FACTS: Velma and Batman’s discussion of how counterfeiting will “undermine the national economy” and “for the sake of the world’s stability, we must capture this crook here and now” was edited from the Cartoon Network version.

SCOOBY BANTER: Shaggy: Batman, what’s that?

Batman: A car press, when the crane drops a car into the hole, powerful walls close in on it and pulverize it.

What you’re sitting on could easily have once been a four door sedan.

Shaggy: Whoa, talk about your compact cars.

Fred: [sees two people come in the front door] It’s Batman and Robin!

Daphne: What’re you doing here?

Velma: Have an accident?

Stan Laurel: No thanks, we just had one.

SCOOBY-DOO MEETS THE ADDAMS FAMILY (aka WEDNESDAY IS MISSING) FEATURING: THE ADDAMS FAMILY ORIGINAL AIRDATE: SEPTEMBER 23RD 1972 The gang’s van breaks down near the Addams Family mansion and they end up staying with the creepy and spooky family after a ransom note is discovered in the house. Their daughter, Wednesday, has been kidnapped and will meet an uncertain doom if the Addams’ estate is not given over to a mysterious stranger. The gang spend the weekend as housekeepers in the Addams Family haunted mansion so that Morticia and Gomez can take a much needed holiday in Okeefenokee Swamp (nice!!)

VILLAINS UNMASKED: The housekeepers as the Giant Vulture SCOOBY BANTER: Uncle Fester: I invite you to break bread.

Shaggy: [tries the bread] Break bread?

He means break your teeth on this bread, this stuff’s hard as a rock.

THE FRICKERT FRACAS

A GOOD MEDIUM IS RARE

FEATURING: JONATHAN WINTERS ORIGINAL AIRDATE: SEPTEMBER 30TH 1972

FEATURING: PHYLLIS DILLER ORIGINAL AIRDATE: OCTOBER 14TH 1972

The gang, in need of a break from haunted houses and spooky characters, spend the weekend at Maude Frickert’s farm. The place is soon overrun with vandalising scoundrels and living scarecrows that are after a secret growth formula devised by Maude.

The gang are locked in a mystery that is out of this world when they accompany Phyllis Diller, who had lost her poodle in a theatre, to Magic Manor for a séance under the leadership of Madame Zokar

VILLAINS UNMASKED: Simon Shakey as the Scarecrow SCOOBY BANTER: Mrs. Frickert: You ever see a six-foot-tall chicken?

Scooby: Yeah. [points to Shaggy and giggles]

GUESS WHO’S KNOTT COMING TO DINNER? FEATURING: DON KNOTTS ORIGINAL AIRDATE: OCTOBER 7TH 1972 The gang enter Moody Manor in need of directions and they’re mistaken for relatives of the estate’s late owner by Don Knotts who as the word’s greatest detective, or so he thinks, suspects that one of them has done away with the late Captain Moody VILLAINS UNMASKED: Captain Moody’s crooked nephews as the Ghosts of Captain Moody

VILLAINS UNMASKED: Alberto the Mansion’s receptionist and an unnamed partner as the Phantoms SCOOBY BANTER: Phyllis Diller: This is my living room, I don’t know why I call it that, nobody in here is living anymore.

Shaggy: What’s that?

Batman: A car press, when the crane drops a car into the hole, powerful walls close in on it and pulverize it. What you’re sitting on could easily have once been a four door sedan.

Shaggy: Whoa, talk about your compact cars.

SANDY DUNCAN’S JECKYLL AND HYDE FEATURING: SANDY DUNCAN ORIGINAL AIRDATE: OCTOBER 21ST 1972 The gang are asked by actress Sandy Duncan to investigate the mysterious appearance of a wolf-like creature on the set of her new film.

VILLAINS UNMASKED: Shelby as Mr. Hyde, the Phantom, the Pirate, the Freaky Sheik, the Dragon, the Grizzly Bear, the Mummy, Chief Blood-in-the-Eye, and the Wolfman SCOOBY BANTER: Fred ‘Freddy’ Jones: [stuck on a set with Shaggy and Scooby in one behind them] We’re in the bank.

Shaggy: Great, you can bail us out, we’re in jail.

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THE SECRET OF SHARK ISLAND FEATURING: SONNY & CHER ORIGINAL AIRDATE: OCTOBER 28TH 1972 The gang decide to investigate the mysterious disappearance of a freight ship and they give Sonny & Cher a lift when their car blows a tyre and floods in a howling storm, who take them to the Hideaway Hotel where they plan a long awaited honeymoon.

VILLAINS UNMASKED: Mr. Meekly as Pescado Diabolico, the Shark God SCOOBY BANTER: Sonny Bono: [Cher stomps her foot and the resort falls into the ocean] That’s my little Indian Sphinx, when she brings down the house; she REALLY brings down the house.

Sonny Bono: Doggone, we were travelling incognito. How’d you recognize us with my sunglasses on?

Velma: Easy. We just read the monogram on your door: ‘Sonny Bono and Mrs. Sonny Bono’.

Daphne: What’s that?

Milo Meekly: What?

Daphne: That unearthly moaning.

Velma: G-sharp I believe.

Freddy: Come on, Mr. Bono, you don’t believe in ghosts, do ya?

Cher: Yeah, what are you, a man or a mouse, squeak up!

Sonny Bono: No, I don’t believe in ghosts, like any other sensible person, I’m afraid of them.

Cher: There it goes again, that same sound that Mr. Meekly claimed was a signal for the sea monsters to rise up and chase all you men into the sea.

Sonny Bono: Check, when he said ‘man’, he meant all of us, mankind.

Cher: All right, but I’m a woman, kind man, and that lets me out.

Sonny Bono: But this is our delayed honeymoon. You should be enjoying it.

Cher: I am enjoying it, or my name isn’t Barbra Streisand.

Sonny Bono: Your name isn’t Barbra Streisand.

Cher: You catch on fast, Big Boy.

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Sonny Bono: Well don’t worry; nothing’s going to happen to you while I’m around.

Cher: I know. Seems like a terrible waste of a honeymoon.

Sonny Bono: Oh, come on, Cher; don’t let the weather get you down. You know what, my E.S.P. tells me that tomorrow will be a beautiful day, and we’re gonna have fun, fun, fun.

Cher: Yeah, well, something tells me in your case E.S.P. stands for Extra Stupid Personality.

Milo Meekly: The story goes that one night, when the sea winds moan, old Shark Face will walk upon the land and all his man-eaters will leave the grimy deep and follow him, driving all of us humans back into the sea.

THE SPOOKY FOG OF JUNEBERRY FEATURING: DON KNOTTS (2ND APPEARANCE) ORIGINAL AIRDATE: NOVEMBER 4TH 1972 The gang visit Juneberry to help Officer Don Knotts to solve a fiendish mystery involving a ghostly fog and spend the night at the best hotel; the local jail VILLAINS UNMASKED: Gene Haltrey as the Cackling Skeleton SCOOBY FACTS: Unusual split up sees Fred and Velma investigate together, leaving Daphne with Scooby & Shaggy SCOOBY GOOFS: When the black cat walks by in the fog (when Fred is with Velma), Daphne’s voice gets mixed with Velma’s and you hear Daphne’s voice say “Bad luck” when it should’ve been Velma’s

SCOOBY-DOO MEETS LAUREL & HARDY (AKA THE GHOST OF BIGFOOT) FEATURING: LAUREL & HARDY ORIGINAL AIRDATE: NOVEMBER 11TH 1972 The gang meet Stan & Ollie, newly appointed bell-boys at the Vermont Ski Lodge, to track down an abominable Snowman called Bigfoot VILLAINS UNMASKED: Mr. Jonathan Crabtree as the Ghost of Bigfoot SCOOBY FACTS: Parallels can be drawn between this episode and Scooby-Doo Where Are you episode “that’s Snow Ghost” SCOOBY BANTER: Velma: Have an accident?

Stan Laurel: No thanks, we just had one.

THE GHOST OF THE RED BARON FEATURING: THE THREE STOOGES (2ND APPEARANCE) ORIGINAL AIRDATE: NOVEMBER 18TH 1972 The gang re-team with the Three Stooges to ground the Ghost of Baron Von Richtofen, the Red Baron, and an evil-doer who has scared off all Mr. Sawyer’s crop dusting pilots’ to make the farmer leave his land VILLAINS UNMASKED: Siegfried as the Ghost of the Red Baron SCOOBY FACTS: Follows the same basic plot (only with more substance to the story) as the Scooby-Doo Where are you episode “Kooky Space Kook”

THE GHOSTLY CREEP FROM THE DEEP FEATURING: THE HARLEM GLOBETROTTERS ORIGINAL AIRDATE: NOVEMBER 25TH 1972 The gang meet the Globetrotters at a dog grooming convention on the eerie banks of a swamp VILLAINS UNMASKED: Oil Pirates as Redbeard and his crew SCOOBY FACTS: This episode uses the exact same ghost as Scooby-Doo Where Are you episode “the Ghost Ship”. A sequel maybe?

THE HAUNTED HORSEMAN OF HAGGLETHORN HALL FEATURING: DAVY “HEY HEY I’M A MONKEE” JONES ORIGINAL AIRDATE: DECEMBER 2ND 1972

THE PHANTOM OF THE COUNTRY MUSIC HALL FEATURING: JERRY REED ORIGINAL AIRDATE: DECEMBER 9TH 1972

The gang must prove that the Ghostly Horseman who haunts Hagglethorn Castle is a fake so that Davy Jones’s uncle won’t have to forfeit the Scottish fortress.

The gang’s night at the Grand Old Opry turns out to be a haunting experience when they search for their friend Jerry Reed

VILLAINS UNMASKED: The Duke of Strathmore as the Haunted Horseman and Cyrus Wheatley as the Moat Monster

VILLAINS UNMASKED: Ben Bing as the possessed Viking Mannequin, Bertha (aka the Phantom) as the possessed Davy Crockett

SCOOBY FACTS: In a Monkee type romp, featuring Velma, Daphne & the Moat Monster, Davy sings “I can make you happy”; a remake of the tune first heard in Scooby-Doo where are you episode “Mystery Mask Mix-Up”

SCOOBY FACTS: Jerry sings “Pretty Mary Sunlight”; a remake of the song first heard in Scooby-Doo where are you episode “Don’t fool with a Phantom”

SCOOBY GOOFS: After the chase scene where Davy Jones sings, the clock in the room where Fred, Shaggy, and Scooby fall down the trap door says its 4:00. Then the clock says 3:00 when a secret is revealed next to the clock. And then the time changes again when Shaggy, Scooby, and Fred fall through the trap door.

SCOOBY GOOFS: When Scooby is digging in order to get to the other side of the stalagmite gate, it shows him sinking down but no hole is shown.

THE CAPED CRUSADER CAPER (aka THE SYING FLUIT er…

THE FLYING SUIT) FEATURING: BATMAN & ROBIN (2ND APPEARANCE) ORIGINAL AIRDATE: DECEMBER 16TH 1972 The gang meet up with the Joker & the Penguin on a camping trip and enlist the help of Batman & Robin when they learn that the J & the P are about to steal Professor Flakey’s latest invention, the Flying Suit.

VILLAINS UNMASKED: the Joker & the Penguin

THE LOCHNESS MESS FEATURING: THE HARLEM GLOBETROTTERS (2ND APPEARANCE) ORIGINAL AIRDATE: DECEMBER 30TH 1972 The gang travel to a small New England town to visit Shaggy’s Uncle Nathaniel and walk into the middle of a mystery.

They enlist the help of the Globetrotters, who are holidaying, nearby.

VILLAINS UNMASKED: Morgan as the Ghost of Paul Revere, Winslow and Selby as the Minuteman Ghost and the Redcoat Ghost SCOOBY FACTS: Shaggy drives the Mystery Machine for the first time; it would be 4 years before he drives it again.

Freddy: Come on, Mr. Bono, you don’t believe in ghosts, do ya?

Cher: Yeah, what are you, a man or a mouse, squeak up!

Sonny Bono: No, I don’t believe in ghosts, like any other sensible person, I’m afraid of them.

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SEASON TWO 1973

THE MYSTERY OF THE HAUNTED ISLAND FEATURING: THE HARLEM GLOBETROTTERS (3RD APPEARANCE) ORIGINAL AIRDATE: SEPTEMBER 8TH 1973 The gang finds themselves at a deserted cabin where The Harlem Globetrotters are resting. They decide to rest at Picnic Island where statues come to life.

VILLAINS UNMASKED: the owner, coach and trainer of the Scorpions as the Three Hooded Ghosts

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THE HAUNTED SHOWBOAT FEATURING: JOSIE AND THE PUSSYCATS ORIGINAL AIRDATE: SEPTEMBER 15TH 1973 The gang make an unexpected pit-stop in front of the Dixie Queen showboat, where they bump into Josie & The Pussycats and join forces with when a couple of ghosts are haunting the boat VILLAINS UNMASKED: Jack Canna (aka Captain Canaby) and partner as the Ghosts of Captain Scavenger & Injun Joe SCOOBY TRIVIA: This is the first “Scooby-Doo” adventure with a supernatural element. Before this, the ghosts and other fantastic elements were always revealed to be hoaxes and frauds.

SCOOBY-DOO MEETS JEANNIE (aka MYSTERY IN PERSIA) FEATURING: THE CAST OF JEANNIE ORIGINAL AIRDATE: SEPTEMBER 22ND 1973 The gang join forces with the cast of Jeannie and go to Persia (now lovingly known as Iran) and help a young Prince fight evil ghosts.

VILLAINS UNMASKED: Jadal the Evil Djinn & Uncle Abdula SCOOBY TRIVIA: The Supernatural character in this episode is REAL & the gang are supposedly transported back in time.

(I fear a Pamela Ewing / Dallas dream sequence beckoning)

Dick Van Dyke: Would you be interested in buying this amusement park?

Velma: You already asked us that.

Dick Van Dyke: The price just went down.

THE SPIRIT SPOOKED SPORT SHOW FEATURING: TIM CONWAY ORIGINAL AIRDATE: SEPTEMEB 29TH 1973 The gang learns that a ghostly athlete is haunting Velma’s former school.

VILLAINS UNMASKED: Jesse Finster & Mr. Griffith’s brother as the Spirits of Fireball McPhain

THE EXTERMINATOR FEATURING: DON ADAMS ORIGINAL AIRDATE: OCTOBER 6TH 1973 The gang meets Don Adams, a bug exterminator. Don is tasked to go to a famous horror actor’s mansion where the gang decide to go, unaware of the dangers waiting for them at the mansion.

VILLAINS UNMASKED: Lorne Chumley as the Creatures

THE WEIRD WINDS OF WINONA FEATURING: THE CAST OF SPEED BUGGY ORIGINAL AIRDATE: OCTOBER 13TH 1973 The gang are stuck in Winona, after an accident leaves them stranded. Trouble starts when nightly winds seem to haunt Winona.

VILLAINS UNMASKED: Mr. Peabody & three henchmen as the Windmakers

THE HAUNTED CANDY FACTORY

Do you see the end yet, Freddy?

Fred ‘Freddy’ Jones: No, not yet.

Shaggy: [beat] How about now?

Fred ‘Freddy’ Jones: No. Shaggy: Boy, you guys must be 10 floors down. [sees Scooby eating the rope] Give me that, [lowers the rope] Fred ‘Freddy’ Jones: Now I see it, you must’ve just started feeding it.

SCOOBY-DOO MEETS DICK VAN DYKE (aka THE HAUNTED CARNIVAL)

FEATURING: CASS ELLIOTT ORIGINAL AIRDATE: OCTOBER 20TH 1973

FEATURING: DICK VAN DYKE ORIGINAL AIRDATE: OCTOBER 27TH 1973

The gang decides to help singer Cass Elliot after they find out about many problems in her candy factory.

The gang take a night off from ghost hunting to go to the carnival and end up helping Dick Van Dyke, who had just bought the carnival, uncover the ghosts who are scaring the people off.

VILLAINS UNMASKED: Mr. Crink & Sterling Smith as the Cotton Candy Globs SCOOBY BANTER: Shaggy: [Scooby bites down on a toffee bar and screams] What’s the matter, Scoob, don’t you like toffee? [finds a key in the candy wrapper] Shaggy: [Shaggy lowers a liquorice rope down a vent but Scooby puts the end in his mouth and starts eating it]

VILLAINS UNMASKED: The Masked Marvel as the Ghostly Strongman SCOOBY BANTER: Dick Van Dyke: Would you be interested in buying this amusement park?

Velma: You already asked us that.

Dick Van Dyke: The price just went down.

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Lee Roberts: Paranormal Investigator

Me, myself and the

UNKNOWN! I started looking into the paranormal at the age of six. Up until that point I had only heard of monsters, werewolves etc but never life after death and spirits.

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I was at home with my parents, older brother and younger sister. I woke up early one morning probably around 2am. I needed the toilet but as usual had to pluck up the courage to leave my warm bed to enter the darkness of the bedroom and landing before reaching the bathroom. For some reason I was one of those kids that on entering my bed I had to jump from about two feet away in case someone, hiding underneath, was going to grab me. It wasn’t as if I was alone in there as I shared a room with my brother who was two years older than me.

As usual at this hour my brother was asleep and I had to do my usual run to the bathroom, do the business and get back to my bed all on my own in the dark. I jumped out of bed and ran for the door, on leaving the bedroom the bathroom door was immediately to my right. I entered the bathroom and checked behind the door to make sure no monsters were hiding behind there waiting to pounce, all clear. I finished my business and turned to return to the bedroom. I was amazed what was

in front of me. As before I had to enter the landing to go back into my room but unlike on my way to the bathroom the path was not clear.

A boy roughly around my age was knelt on the landing directly outside my bedroom door. He was knelt looking up at the window that was at the top of the stairs and the moon light coming through was shining down on him. I remember the boy had blue pyjamas on and had a book open in both hands as if he was reading or prying from it. I can also remember a red cushion he was knelt on, not one I had seen in the house before or again but then again the cushion wasn’t what I was scared of!

I must have stood in shock for only a matter of seconds with all this information being stamped on my brain. I eventually ran by the boy and jumped into bed and put the covers over my head. I then did what I thought I would have done long before now and screamed... MUM!!! My mum came

STILL TO COME FROM LEE ROBERTS: • INVESTIGATING – THE BEGINNING · CLIFTON HALL – THE TRUTH · THE UPS AND DOWNS OF RUNNING A PARANORMAL INVESTIGATION TEAM • WHAT NEXT?

in after I had probably woke all the house up and after I had managed to explain in a scared, hurried and tired manner my mum as you can expect tucked me in and said in her usual calming voice “don’t worry, its just a dream, nothing to worry about”. I didn’t sleep that night and now 27 years on I still believe that was not a dream.

From that point on in my life I have been intrigued to find out who that boy was, where did he come from and had I really just seen a GHOST? A few years later again at my parents house I saw something again that would baffle me to this day. This story I kept to myself and didn’t make a big thing of it, as by now I was around eight and that just wasn’t how I did things.

From a young age I have managed to keep my feelings to myself and try not to open up to too many people. This has served me well over the years and later as I found myself investigating the paranormal I found the less emotion I showed my team the better, that way I could not influence their feelings or judgements.

Anyway back to me as an eight year old. It was a Sunday and around 3pm, it was a clear sunny day and I found myself up in my bedroom playing on my Amiga computer with my older brother. For some reason I had to go down stairs for something but I cannot recall what for now. I went down stairs and into the living room. There I found my mum on the sofa dozing after one of her lovely Sunday dinners. My father was out, probably taking my mamma home as she always came over on a Sunday to spend the day with us and my sister was sat playing with her dolls in the living room.

As I said I don’t recall why I came downstairs but as I was leaving the living room I looked to my right into the kitchen and into the oven door which was reflective. There I saw was looked like a shadow on the back wall of the kitchen, the shadow looked as though it belonged to a man or teenage boy. As I moved closer the shadow quickly moved across the wall and out of sight. I looked in the kitchen

an there was no one there. As an eight year old I did not stay around to investigate as to whether the shadow came from someone outside (this was highly unlikely). I ran upstairs and sat beside my brother, out of breath with sheer panic and my little heart beating so fast I could feel it. Again this was something that stuck with me.

Around the same time, but after that event, I attended Newstead Abbey in Nottinghamshire. I can remember thinking what a great place the Abbey was and how amazing the grounds were. As we went into the Abbey we had the chance to look around on our own before being took on a tour with a guide. The Abbey was so well looked after and I can recall looking at pictures of Lord Byron and thinking to myself “that man actually lived here”.

The group of around 20 children, 2 teachers and a guide entered an empty room which was strange as every other part of the hall was furnished.

The guide started to tell the story of the white lady that used to sleep

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PROFILE Lee better known in the paranormal world as Bobby has been interested in the paranormal since the age of 6.

He had several experiences which triggered his obsession with the paranormal at a very early age and has not let go since.

Lee born in Sutton-in-Ashfield, Nottinghamshire was a middle child with an older brother and younger sister, it was not until in his twenties that he realised that some of the experiences he had witnessed had also happened to his Sister.

Throughout his schooling he took every opportunity to work on projects to do with Ghost hunting and spirits and loved to go on historical school trips.. while the other kids where learning about the history of the locations Lee was off “Ghostbusting” forever getting lost in historical buildings on his own in an attempt to find the spirits of the place!.

Lee ran a local Football side for 8 years but knew that he wanted to run something a little different. It was at the age of 28 Lee decided to set up a local Paranormal investigation team focusing on local dwellings and public houses to see if as a team they could uncover anything. Lee named the team The Ashfield Paranormal Investigation Team (T.A.P.I.T.) The team was set up of family and friends including his wife Mary-Anne and his sister. Lee wanted to get people in the team he knew and trusted. In the months ahead T.A.P.I.T. was in demand and visited many large establishments across Britain researching the paranormal. During this time Lee had some pretty scary times and in his words “loved every minute of it”.

In 2007 and again in 2008 the team investigated Clifton Hall in Nottinghamshire which made international news. The team was thrown into the media headlights and for 2 whole months Lee was in demand to write for magazines, papers and TV interviews. Although Lee spoke on TV and to some papers he never got to tell the real truth around Clifton Hall and what happened on those nights. Those months took its toll on Lee and in February 2009 he decided to walk away from T.A.P.I.T. and leave it to be run by his sister Sarah and brother in law Paul Nunn.

Lee is now married to Mary-anne and has 4 children including his 2 year old twin boys which alone takes up alot of his time. He started TAPIT as a hobby and with his family life, full time work and the pressures of the media Lee had to let something go. He had got to the stage where he wasn’t enjoying it anymore and needed a break.

He has since helped other teams on investigations and has arranged many charity events around the paranormal all trying to share with other teams his experiences and knowledge, not just on how to set up a Paranormal investigation team but the problems behind it. He is still enjoying his family life and work as well as keeping his love of playing football going. He often describes it as a juggling act but now knows his limits.

Lee has now agreed to share his experiences with Haunted starting with his first experiences as a child.

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in those quarters and how she had come to her death whilst trying to catch the attention of Lord Byron as he left the Abbey only to be run over by a carriage. He carried on telling us how people had been affected in that room and how when customers stood in front of the fire place they felt as if something was draped over their shoulders and started pulling them into the ground. At that point everyone moved from the fire place. I took the opportunity to go and stand right in front of it and shout out “come on then can you do it to me”. My teacher laughed it off and made a comment of how I was always the joker. I wasn’t joking and I wasn’t affected! As we turned to leave the room the guide tried to open the door but it seemed to be jammed. I could see him getting more and more panicked as he tried to get a college on the radio to let us out.

I over heard him saying to the teacher “this has never happened before, there isn’t even a lock on that door”.

After around 20 minutes the door eventually swung open and we left the room. That single incident made me realise that maybe there is spirits or ghosts out there, some kind of unknown that can affect us in someway. I got back to class and we were asked to write a project with words and pictures about our experience of the Abbey. A week later everyone handed in a book with how they loved the gardens, the abbey and its history. Mine was called Newstead Abbey and it’s Ghosts. I had filled a whole school book with ghost stories, some I had made up and others I had researched from the library. Coincidentally that also was about the same time Ghostbusters was released at the cinemas. I was hooked and started looking for more and more ghostly tales and even at my primary school, was that haunted, if so could I find the ghost and make contact?

Little did I know that 20 years later I was going to be running my own Paranormal Investigation Team and maybe uncover the biggest haunting that Britain had ever seen?

Lee Roberts

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EmilyBoot h 20 Questions with

Hi Emily, many thanks for taking time out of your busy schedule to talk to Haunted. We consider you to be the UK’s scream queen and the first lady of the UK horror film industry; it really is a pleasure to have you in Haunted. Right, now we’ve got the bum-kissing out of the way, here are your 20 questions:-

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1) Right from the off, tell us what you are currently up to and what you’ve got coming up that we should all be looking forward to. Here’s your chance to plug whatever you’ve got going on right now before we get stuck into the questions OK! Well for a while now I’ve expressed my desire to get my teeth stuck into a gritty serious film role, and a director heard this and has offered me the lead role in a film called Brutal, an urban drama in the same vein as Adulthood.

I play a teacher in an inner city school trying to make a difference, a strong woman who goes through hell when she gets caught up in gang culture. So that’s really different, not horror or Sci Fi or anything! But it is nasty! I’m also doing much more for Gorezone now; we’ve started our own DVD film show called ‘Emily Booths Movie Massacre’ it’s a bit like Elvira where I play a demon princess and each month I tear apart a ‘So bad its good’ horror movie. It will be on DVD every month with the magazine and it’s very camp and fun and sexy and silly. Its great fun we shoot it at Bolebroke Castle, said to be very haunted, they run fantastic ghost hunting nights there. I even felt Henry the 8th himself ruffle my skirt and have a cheeky fumble when I was prancing about on his bed (it was Henry the

8ths hunting lodge) Also – I’ve started to produce, present and edit my own online TV show which is my own format called ‘Behind the Screams.’ Its basically different reports on the horror industry. It’s great I’m learning loads of new skills like editing and am in charge of what goes in it! So it doesn’t make me money but it’s a fab professional hobby! It will launch in early 2010 on my website; episode one is a report on Abertoir Film Festival and episode 2 is an exclusive diary of my time on the set of Doghouse!

There – is that enough?!

2) When you were busking the streets, playing the violin can you remember the most that you earned in one day, and did people pretend to pay you by leaving buttons and / or foreign currency, the rascals.

Buttons?! How very dare they if they did. Hmmm I can’t remember buttons, maybe the odd bit of trouser fluff and a safety pin though. I used to busk in Hastings where I grew up with a friend of mine and the most we made was £20 in one day – which was really good at the time – only did it for 2 hours and was only about 15. So £20 was probably like £100 back in them old days!

Emily Booth Image (c) www.beckphotographic.com (c) GoreZone Magazine.

3) When did your interest in all things horror start and have your opinions changed on the paranormal since it became a focal point of your career.

I fell in love with horror at a very young age, about 5. This was due to my brother who’s 5 years older loving horror films and making me watch them with him. He was also absolutely obsessed and fascinated with the paranormal. So much so he made up the most outrageous stories and convinced me they were all true; like at midnight he would sleep walk to the very back of our huge garden and be able to walk into his dreams! I believed that for bloody years! He also did Ouija board with me to contact our grandma and told me he was clairvoyant – all sorts! So I grew up loving and believing in ghosts, the supernatural and also watching horror films! I guess I have become a tiny bit more cynical as the years went by, but basically I still believe we know very little about ‘the other side’ and it intrigues me. I’m not religious so it’s the closest thing I have to spirituality.

4) Your grandad built one of the first cinemas in the UK, to us that should get you free popcorn, nachos (with jalapenos) and a large coke every time you go to the cinema. Have you ever used your “do you know who I am” card?

Well consider the fact that most people who work in cinemas don’t give a poodles piss about the art form or the history of it – so no! And I’m not the type to do the whole ‘don’t you know who I am?’ That feels so wrong! Not unless you’re mega can you ever say that. And even then it’s a pretty awful thing to say – makes you look like an arrogant arse!

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”I fell in love with horror at a very young age,about 5. This was due to my brother who’s 5 years older loving horror films and making me watch them with him.”

5) Imagine... you’re a vampire in need of some blood, you attend a showbiz party and when you walk into the room you’re met by a series of celebrities.

Would you sink your teeth into:The Chuckle Brothers….? YUK Madness…..? NO Simon Cowell…..? YUM! Four poofs and a piano…..? NAH Girls Aloud….? OOH DEFINITLY James Corden & Matthew Horne…..?

WOULD DEFINITLY FILL ME UP – nice ménage a trois!

6) Your favourite drinks are Tea, Champagne and Vodka – right time to narrow it down... you’re on a desert island where strangely enough there is one of those drinks machine thingies, and even stranger there is a hot tea, a small bottle of champagne and a bottle of vodka, you only have one coin, what’s it to be?

Emily Booth Image (c) www.beckphotographic.com (c) GoreZone Magazine.

Oh dear – I want to say champagne.

If survival looks likely then Tea. If not definitely go out with a bang and pop the champagne.

7) If you could get into a time machine and visit any period in time, past, present or future, where would you go and why?

I’d probably go backwards, cos we can all go to the future in a way. I have always been quite fascinated with the costume and ceremony of the Georgian and Regency periods, as it seemed very over the top! Huge white wigs, men in heels and make up, big bosoms, amazing dresses, gorgeous architecture – Prince regent made the Brighton Pavilion and I adore that. So I think that era might be fun, but of course only as a rich lady being invited to orgies and decadent parties; not some poor old harlot with syphilis. Or an era closer to home that’s still celebratory and decadent. Like hanging out with Oscar Wilde or going to Bohemian parties in the 20’s – or being there for the sexual revolution of the 60’s! I think the current times seem a lot less innocent and exciting.

Everything now is about digital technology; and that’s about it.

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Emily Booth Image (c) www.beckphotographic.com (c) GoreZone Magazine.

8) Describe an average, normal, nonworking day at home with your family and friends At the moment I’m staying in a lot as its cold and I hibernate! So a log fire, a bottle of red wine, cooking a fabulous weird meal and probably watching a horror flick with my cat and my fella. If its nice weather I go for a walk down the old town or round the fishing huts of Hastings – it’s very atmospheric. I’m pretty mellow actually! Though even if I’m not ‘working’ I’m improving my website or editing or twittering!

9) Word association game – match the following people’s personality to a paranormal type (poltergeist, screaming banshee, zombie etc) Quentin Tarantino – WIZARD Edgar Wright – GREMLIN Noel Clarke – DEMON Danny Dyer – INCUBUS Emily Booth – SUCCUBUS 10) Which would you prefer and why?

• Tea with the Queen or a vodka/ champagne fuelled night out with Prince Harry?

• BITS or BANZAI reunion show?

• Evil Aliens 2 or Doghouse 2?

Royals do not do it for me in any way.

Would definitely have to be Evil Aliens or Doghouse 2 – but if it was Doghouse I’d want it to be a prequel so I could have some dialogue and not wear the prosthetic make up! Unless he makes the zombirds mutate again and talk and have feelings! However – soooo many people want a Bits reunion, so I guess that would be more interesting and rewarding!

11) What is the scariest horror film that you have a) starred in b) watched and c) wish that you had starred in?

The scariest film I’ve been in would probably be Cradle of Fear as all the others are horror comedies! In fact that’s something else I’d love to do – be in a genuinely creepy film. The scariest film I’ve seen….? There are lots! I remember The Others actually creeped me out a bit; I prefer the ghostly jumpy hauntings to slashers in terms of scary moments. The Shining

still rates incredibly high in making me feel unnerved and freaked out. But also the ending of Friday the 13th part one has got to be the most classic scare! Oh and c) When I was a teenager films had a much bigger impact on me – I think they do for everyone, especially clever horror films about sexual awakening.

My favourites were (and still are) Cat People – 80’s version and Company of Wolves. I really wanted to play the lead female roles in those flicks – I guess I like my mythological animal transformations – I’m very animalistic!

12) Tell us a joke?

My jokes are terrible written down they really are. I’m much more of an impressions girl or a classic ‘pie in face’ slapstick kinda girl. But ok here’s a crap joke: What do you call a 3 legged donkey? A wonkey.

13) Describe the last time you…

Shouted at someone - I don’t really shout much – probably at my cat or fella – they get the brunt of my anger.

So do stupid people who can’t drive properly.

Air-guitared to rock music - Hmmmm I’m sure I did it the other night drunk – but the last most significant time was doing a scene for Bits! – years ago for Channel 4 – I was probably reviewing some kind of music game.

Didn’t get the job you wanted - Well you have to get really used to rejection in this industry – its part of the job and the worst thing about it. I used to take it pretty hard but now it’s just a bit frustrating! The last time I was sorely disappointed was about 5 years ago when I auditioned to be the co host of a regular Sci Fi night on Sky One. They made it sound like I practically had the job in the bag (media types do that A LOT!) and then the show never even got made!

Was genuinely scared - Oh my god, the other night I woke up in bed, convinced that something was in the room, but as I wear an eye mask, I was suddenly too scared to take it off as I really felt and thought that something was watching me sleep and I was too scared to see what it was! So I laid there for ages with my eyes covered up by the eye mask getting more and more frightened of this unknown

unseen force. It was because I’d seen Paranormal Activity recently and some of the moments from that film has stayed with me! I hope that’s all it was!

Bawled your eyes out All the time. I’m incredibly emotional!

14) I bet not many people realised that you once released a single, if you could duet with anyone, who would it be, and what song would you sing?

Gosh that’s tough! I’m not a singer really, I was briefly in a self made girl duo called Jezebel with Eileen Daly – another scream queen and we did a song with Steven Severin from Siouxsie and the Banshees! I’m a bit retro and 80’s so it would have to be something really quirky and from that era I grew up in! Oh I know – I’d love to cover and sing ‘Love Cats’ with The Cure. One of my all time favourite songs.

15) I loved BANZAI; I bet you had fun doing it? (See what I did then, I bet…)

Yes I did – was great to be asked, it put me right up there with various other Z listers and Has-beens! No it was great fun though a little risqué!

I had to re-enact a scene from Pretty Woman where Julia Roberts is scouting for business! So the challenge was to wear the iconic sexy prostitute outfit – complete with blonde wig and thigh high PVC boots, and go to one of London’s most notorious street walking zones – Old Street, and hang around on street corners encouraging customers to ask for rude things! Thing was – I was all on my own! I didn’t have a visible camera crew with me – they were hidden parked up the road and filming from inside a car secretly! So there’s this new girl on the old gals territory and there were a couple of pimps really giving me the angry eye.

After they started to approach me I was told to quickly leave the area as it was getting dangerous! It was actually a real buzz and thrill – but it totally gave me an insight into prostitution that I didn’t like. Men really believed I was one and the amount of customers I got in the space of 15 minutes was unreal.

About 10 cars pulled up asking for rude things, one guy even had a baby carrier in the back. Hmmmmm lucky wife eh.

But it was fun! A bit of an experiment.

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LONG QUESTION ALERT!!!

LONG QUESTION ALERT!!!

16) There are always going to be non-believers in subjects, such as the paranormal, we believe that whatever your beliefs, people should respect those beliefs. Do you think that shows like Most Haunted are getting closer to proving that there are ghosts and life after death, or do you think that no matter what you reveal some people will never be convinced? And, if so, do you think that horror movies, haunted theme parks etc just add fuel to the fire and that ghosts are something that will never ever be proven, one way or another...

Shows like Most Haunted are fun and can indeed be illuminating or sometimes revealing but I don’t think they are ‘proof’ that ghosts exist really. It’s obviously a very different experience for the people involved in the show, then for the people watching however! I actually filmed a TV pilot for a Ghost Hunting show myself in 09 and I was pretty sceptical at first, but then during a séance I felt myself being shook violently by something that simply wasn’t there and a huge sudden rush of fear and sadness came over me.

Very peculiar, it’s all caught on camera too. But of course there will always be a big divide between believers in Science and believers of faith or religion or Spirituality. I am not religious, I find it detestable unfortunately – my opinion on it has been marred by all the war and violence and greed it seems to have attracted. What I am really more interested in is when there comes an age where science and the paranormal meet. Because I do think it’s just a matter of time. Something is only paranormal or supernatural (I’m thinking ghosts, clairvoyancy – that kind of thing) when it can’t be seen or measured by the three main sciences.

As soon as ‘science’ can quantify, measure or ‘prove’ something it shifts from being paranormal to ‘normal’ I suppose. Look at some of the amazing laws in Physics! I’m sure there was a time when believing in the existence of other planets was deemed ridiculous and supernatural until it was able to be seen and measured. I think that perhaps one day, ‘ghosts’ or traces of a sudden death will be able to be

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measured. Then all non believers insistent that these things can’t exist will have to open their minds up a bit.

I do also think that we need to believe in things. With the loss of religion as our main belief system we need to listen to peoples experiences of near death, angels, of ghostly sightings to remind us there’s still so much we don’t know. It actually adds a bit of beauty to the world I think. The fact that it’s so very common and normal to have some kind of supernatural experience speaks volumes to me. There must be something in it; it may be as simple as some people being more tuned in to that kind of thing than others. Of course some people will never want to believe in anything other than what they can see and touch because the unknown equals chaos and not being in control. Humans don’t like the idea of not being able to control something!

17) QUIZ TIME. I am going to shout out some character names that you have played over the years, tell me which films or programmes they were from?

Denise Clarington Semi-Skimmed Arthurs Amazing Things! Short film with big titted wonder Linsey Dawn Mckenzie Michelle Fox Evil Aliens Eve. Oh god that’s the most embarrassing thing I’ve ever done. The most tacky (and thankfully unavailable!) drama called ‘Threesome’ – say no more!

18) Your agent calls to say that you’re going to be on a celebrity reality TV show, which one would you prefer to do … and why?

• Celebrity Come Dine With Me • Strictly Come Dancing • Celebrity Big Brother • I’m a Celebrity...Get me out of here • Dancing On Ice Oh I love fantasising about that! I think everyone does don’t they? Well I’m not a household name yet so I’m not sure I’d make it into one of those shows – though I was asked to be in ‘5 Go Dating’ – a celebrity dating show which I had to turn down due to boyfriend at the time going mad about the idea of it! So, well I love watching Come Dine With Me but I wouldn’t do it as I’m not the best cook and they’re all so fussy! I think Big Brother is just embarrassing now and probably boring to be stuck in the house. I like challenges so I’d definitely do the dancing one or the ice skating one – when else would you be able to have the time and money to learn a whole new skill to a near professional level with intensive 3 – 6 month training!!! Plus I kind of wish I had trained in dance as I love it so much and have got a few moves down…..! I’m currently doing Burlesque classes!

19) If there was one spirit that you could contact, who would it be, and if you were allowed to ask just one question, what would that be?

The Snipper My most recent role in Doghouse

Jesus. Are you really the son of God and is Mary Magdalene really the Holy Grail?!!!! That would be the ultimate chalice for feminism!

Sally Munro A role in the Canadian / UK horror ‘Fallen Angels’ – great fun to shoot and I got to work with one of my heroes Michael Ironside – he’s a genre actor and was amazing in the original ‘V’ and of course Total Recall

There’s loads of dead people I’d like to question – but if its just one spirit and one question, I want some concrete answers to religious fact / fiction – that might help settle the whole ‘meaning of life’ and stop people bloody bickering all the time!

Melissa Ah – the messed up drug taking Goth girl who took the wrong man home one night – and ended up being impregnated by a demon in the death metal film Cradle of Fear by my good friend Alex Chandon.

20) And finally, more of a plea than a question, can you give us something special to give away as a prize in this issue of Haunted, please?

Of course! I’ve had a scout around and I’ve definitely got a couple of really

Emily Booth Image (c) www.beckphotographic.com (c) GoreZone Magazine. Special thanks to the Mad House

good film stills from Doghouse not available to the public and a copy of Evil Aliens – I’ll sign them all. I also have a very weird mould of my face taken for the prosthetic department at Doghouse, it’s not the most flattering of things but it is a total one off! Is that ok? You’re not getting knickers that’s for sure – and I don’t own much else except a cat, I don’t believe in consumerism.

Emily, thank you very much for talking to us…..

Cool, find out more about me on my website www.emilybooth.net and on www.twitter.com/emmybooth To win signed Doghouse film stills, a signed copy of Evil Aliens and a very weird mould of Emily’s face email info@hauntedmagazine.co.uk

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Jason Karl’s

Scarezone

The Girly Ghost Train

Marisa Carnesky is an award winning theatre maker, burlesque performer and scare entertainment producer, her latest project ‘Carnesky’s Ghost Train’ was in residence at the historic Victorian ‘Winter Gardens’ heritage building in Blackpool, just down the road from Pasaje Del Terror from October 2008 - March 2009; it has been the most challenging project of her career so far.

The attraction is a unique and clever crossbreed mixing Pepper’s ghost illusions, theatrical live performance and a multi-levelled backstory which delivers a good ‘scare’ coupled with a subtle cultural message.

The ‘Ghost Train’ is a technically and artistically elaborate masterpiece of theatrical accomplishment. For the last two years it has toured around a variety of European venues and entertained thousands of guests who, while seated in a moving train, come face to face with a variety of skilled performers including aerialists, mime artists and dancers. Like myself, Marissa is a fan

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of Disney’s Haunted Mansion, and was inspired by this and other old fashioned ‘ghost houses’, including one on Coney Island – New York, to create something of her own. The concept for the ‘Ghost Train’ attraction was inspired by a TV documentary about the dismantling of an old dark ride in an American fairground, where it was discovered that one of the figures in the display was not a waxwork, as had been previously thought, but a mummified human body! This was the seed that lead Marissa to create an old fashioned ‘Ghost Train’ which hides dark secrets of real horror within.

For its incumbency in Blackpool the attraction was upgraded with new effects and technology which ensured it could cope with up to 1000 guests per day. To date £400,000.00 has been invested in the project which has been a huge success at other temporary venues; it is due to re-open in Blackpool later this year at another venue.

During the ride Marissa sends her guests on an ‘emotional rollercoaster’ as they perambulate around the moving sets and effects – towed by a former airport tug. The Ghost Train includes elements of typical scare attractions

melded with classic theatre to impart a story quickly through imagery and a unique musical score. A Funerary Violinist created the haunting tune which echoes through the attraction as the train drags guests through haunted hallways and abandoned stations, the twisted tale of a mourning mother seeking her disappeared daughters is central to the plot, which was inspired

by Marissa’s own Eastern European heritage.

The impressive illusions, which include the entire cast vanishing at the end of the ride, were created by renowned stage illusionist Paul Kieve, who has been involved with the Ghost Train since it was first imagined in 2004.

These illusions combined with vintage costumes, props and animatronics combine to create a highly complex 10 minute scare attraction experience which is unique in the UK. Marissa describes her achievement as a ‘girly

ghost train’, using a cast which appears to be entirely female, to entertain new and repeat guests. Controversially she said “I’m for a bit of touching personally” allowing cast members some freedom to make decisions about how to perform for each guest group. A gentle touch on the shoulder combined with a well timed shriek does work extremely well in the darkness of the sets, and Marissa has experimented with other forms of contact – including a stick with a silk stocking on it! Having found its true spiritual home in Blackpool the Ghost Train enjoyed a successful 2009 run, and returns to Blackpool as part of the Showzam Festival in February 2010 when it will come to life once again and delight new audiences – if you get the chance to pay a visit you will not be disappointed..

For further information visit: www.carneskysghosttrain.com

Jason Karl is one the UK’s most experienced location based scare entertainment producers and currently Creative Producer for AtmosFEAR! Scare Attractions www.atmosfearuk.com the UK’s oldest and most experienced scare entertainment company; he is also a freelance journalist, author and TV presenter, you can contact him through his website at www.jasondexterkarl.com In each issue of ‘Haunted’ he will explore different aspects of the UK scare entertainment industry in this exclusive ‘Scare Zone’ feature. In this issue he looks at ‘Carnesky’s Ghost Train’ – a large scale theatrical fairground ride experience which mixes live theatre, storytelling and illusions.

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The history of British

Supernatural Television PART ONE 1936-1959

THE supernatural has a long history on British television. Many still recall that early episode of Play School when Jemima was hurled across the studio by an irate poltergeist (or was it an utterly peeved off Derek Griffiths who wanted to look through the round window but Floella wanted to look through the arched window so they ask their colleague to make a decision but Brian Cant)....

A History of British Supernatural Television takes a look at how ghosts have been portrayed on the small screen down the years, we shall take an in depth look at controversial shows and celebrate classic ghost stories. We will also examine the recent explosion of interest in the paranormal. How did television become the ‘medium of the medium’?

Becket in Canterbury Cathedral in 1170, first performed in 1935. Eliot drew heavily on the writing of Edward Grim, a clerk who was an eyewitness to the event. The play, starring Robert Speaight, which contained a ghost scene was broadcast live on British television by the BBC in 1936 in its first few months of broadcasting TV.

haunts of drama eschewed with comedy and crossed over into a factual and reality television world.

1937 December The Ghost Train was a BBC truncated version of a popular stage play written

by Arnold Ridley (later to be Dad’s Army’s Private Charles “oh sorry I think I may have dozed off for a while” Godfrey) about a fake haunting at a railway station. It is surpisingly the only TV adaptation of this often filmed sto

1936 Murder in the Cathedral was a poetic drama by T. S. Eliot that portrays the assassination of Archbishop Thomas

1938 January The Monkey’s Paw was one of the first British television dramas to tackle the traditional spine-chiller was indeed

We will chart A History of British Supernatural Television from Hamlet to Most Haunted and how the apparitions have abandoned their traditional

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a one-off production. The BBC’s 1938 adaptation of WW Jacobs’ The Monkey’s Paw establishes a number of the most important elements that would come to characterise television spine-chillers throughout the next 30 years or so, and all of these are present in Jacobs’ original text. The story consists of a tantalising set up (that of the hero learning of the power of the eponymous paw to grant three wishes) and establishes an impending sense of doom right from the first moment (when we learn that an earlier recipient of the appendage used his third wish to ask for his own death). This format of set-up and resolution is integral to any drama, but for a spine-chiller such as this, the explicitness of the initial question – and of its final resolution – are integral to the form. Indeed such is The Monkey’s Paw adherence to classic spine-chiller structure, it has been recycled countless times on

screen (with another television version showing up as soon as 1954). The tale survives to this day with perhaps the most recent example being The League of Gentlemen Christmas special in 2000 (which retold the story as part of a portmanteau of similarly chilling, albeit comic, tales).

1938 May Tobias and the Angel was a live broadcast drama about a man called Tobias, his dog and the Angel Raphael, who was in disguise who encounter trials and tribulations during a long journey.

1938 July Julius Caesar is based on Shakespeare’s historical play and features an appearance by the Ghost of Caesar. A penumbra scope was used in the live broadcast to create backgrounds. The Times credited the

ambition of BBC television drama in its review of this modern dress version, while also criticising some of the production’s technical failings.

“From the moment when Mr. Sebastian Shaw and Mr. Anthony Ireland were discovered sitting at a café table, discussing the political situation over a glass of beer, looking like two Fascist officers, yet speaking the lines assigned to Brutus and Cassius, the attention of the audience was riveted...

The penumbra scope, a device for providing a background by means of shadows, which came into play for the first time in this production, was used so carelessly that its edges were often visible. The essence of stagecraft is illusion, which must not be shattered by such accidents. Caesar’s ghost was also very unconvincing, nor did the handful of people listening to the funeral orations suggest an excited mob.”

1939–1945 war broke out and the BBC Television service was abruptly closed (until 1946) down in the middle of a Mickey Mouse film (it was feared that the single London transmitter - pumping out a then-unique signal - could be used as a beacon to “guide in” German bombers).

1948 Dr. Angelus starred George Cole and Alistair Sim in James Bridie’s play with supernatural elements and was based on the famous case of Dr. E. W. Pritchard, of Glasgow, who poisoned his wife and mother-in-law, and was the last man to have a public hanging on Glasgow Green on 28th July 1865.

The point that intrigued Bridie was that at Pritchard’s trial another doctor alleged that he knew Pritchard was poisoning his relatives, but had not informed the police because it would have been unprofessional!

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grant its owner three wishes. A family uses it to wish for money but with devastating consequences.

1948-1949 Saturday Night Stories was a series of supernatural tales read by the author Algernon Blackwood (18691951). Algernon was a British author, adventurer, newspaper reporter, factory owner, “psychical researcher” — Blackwood’s career and interests were varied, although he is best known now as one of the foremost authors of ghost stories in the early 20th century, perhaps one of the best ever. His own interest in and understanding of “spiritualism” as well as of human psychology is responsible for the impressive power and effectiveness of his ghostly tales. Much of his supernaturalism has mystical undertones.

1950 December A Christmas Carol was a dramatisation of the famous Charles Dickens Story, I am sure you know the plot but here goes: Miserly London businessman Ebenezer Scrooge is visited on Christmas Eve by the ghost of his dead business partner, Jacob Marley, who warns him that three more ghosts will appear during the night trying to show Scrooge the error of his ways.

As the night wears on, he’s visited by the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come. But will even they be enough to soften old Scrooge’s heart? Duff Duff Duff Duff Duff Duff… A classic rendition of this story, although not with the best cinematography as when Scrooge talks to himself in his mirror at the end you can actually see a member of the crew in the background. Bransby Williams who played Scrooge in this version also

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played him in a silent version back in 1928.

1952 February The Wonderful Visit was a television play adapted from an H.G. Wells novel about an Angel suddenly appearing in the village of Siddeford, where the rector, Mr. Hillyer, takes him in and looks after him. Everything is new and strange to the Angel, who as well as taking in concepts such as cutlery, clothes and furniture begins to learn and reflect on the darker side of human life and nature with such things as pain, cruelty and snobbery. Kenneth Williams, played the Angel (stop messin’ about!!). No, I’m serious!!

1954 February The Bespoke Overcoat was an adaptation of Nikolai Gogol’s classic short story, The Overcoat. Comic actor Alfie Bass plays a clothing-store clerk who’d like to own one of the sales items in his store. He is denied this pleasure by his hardhearted boss, so the clerk persuades a tailor friend, David Kossoff, to whip up a duplicate overcoat.

When the clerk dies of pneumonia, his ghost materialises before the tailor, persuading him to steal the overcoat the clerk had wanted in the first place.

Written by Wolf Mankowicz and directed by Jack Clayton, the 33 minute short won the 1953 Academy Award for “best short subject”.

1954 May The Monkey’s Paw was another adaptation of the short story by W W Jacobs, written in 1902 and is about a Monkey’s Paw that has the power to

1954 October Two Ghost Stories by M.R. James are read out with the occasional special effect added to create ambience.

Produced, directed and adapted by Tony Richardson. The stories are “Canon Alberic’s Scrapbook” read by Robert Farquharson and “The Mezzotint” read by George Rose. Canon Alberic’s Scrapbook was originally published in the National Review in 1895 and tells the story of a visiting Englishman being given Canon Alberic’s Scrapbook by the “verger” of St. Bertrand’s Church. Is his willingness to give the scrapbook away connected to the depiction of a “hairy demon” on one of its pages? The Mezzotint, first published in 1904, is about a mysterious print that reveals a tragic tale of rural revenge.

1955 January / February The Creature was written by Nigel Kneale and produced by Rudolf Cartier and starred Peter Cushing and Stanley Baker. Kneale’s gripping tale of a party of explorers who arrive in Tibet, in search of the legendary Yeti was inspired by the then-current 1950s craze of establishing the existence of the Yeti.

During the 1950’s there had been extensive searches of the Himalayas, and in 1954 one particular Fleet Street newspaper has dispatched a team to track the creature down. In this dramatisation, a party of explorers led

by Tom Friend (Stanley Baker) arrive at the Rong-Ruk monastery because one of their team had seen a Yeti’s footprints in the snow on a previous expedition. They are joined by Dr. John Rollason (Peter Cushing) who is investigating some “special evidence” that he claims to have found. Kneale’s script draws together elements of mystery, suspense and betrayal as the expedition turns out to be more than they bargained for, and they are attacked one by one. It was broadcast live, with pre-filmed inserts, on January 30th, with a second live transmission on February 3rd but no recordings were made and only the 1957 film remake (again starring Peter Cushing) survives.

ALL THE ABOVE WERE SHOWN ON BBC, NOW IT WAS THE TURN OF INDEPENDANT TV TO SHOW HOW TO SCARE...

Episode 8 – The Sorceror: Colonel March investigates the murder of Dr. Patten, a psycho-analyst, under apparently inexplicable circumstances, and discovers some interesting facts about the doctor.

1955-1956 Colonel March of Scotland Yard starred Horror legend Boris Karloff as the urbane eye-patched sleuth Colonel March, head of D3, The Department of Queer Complaints, whose mysterysolving ranged from the unnatural to the supernatural. There were 26 episodes in all, five of which forayed into the realms of the supernatural.

These were shown on ITV, so these would technically be the first ITV shows to feature the supernatural. The relevant episodes were:

Episode 22 – Present Tense: A young wife, Emily, about to tell her husband Ernest that she intends to divorce him, sees the plane she thinks he is on crash into flames at the airport. When she begins to believe that she is in spiritual contact with him Colonel March becomes interested but finds much to disturb him.

Episode 6 – The Abominable Snowman: The members of the Himalayan Mountaineering Club are worried. They are being threatened by a weird creature resembling the famous Abominable Snowman, reputed to have been seen on the slopes of Mount Everest, and even the good old Colonel has been visited by a mysterious footprint.

Episode 7 – The Case of the Lively Ghost: Madame Richter, a professional medium is terrified when her fake methods seem to raise a spirit. Colonel March takes an interest in her.

Episode 26 – The Talking Head: Several attempts have been made on the life of Harold Hartley, former partner of the late John Barton. While looking around Barton’s old laboratory Colonel March discovers that Andrew, Barton’s son has been acting on the instructions of what he believes to be the spirit of his dead father, speaking through marble bust on the mantelpiece.

1955 December The Last Reunion is about a group of WWII veteran airmen who meet annually for dinner, for a general meet up, chit-chat and reminisce. However, at the latest dinner, there is a ghostly presence and the revelation of a shocking secret. This was an episode of ITV’s Television Playhouse, which ran from 1955-1964.

1956 September Days of Grace A one of Scottish Ghost story by the BBC 1957 June – September Hour of Mystery was an ITV anthology series of 10 mystery and fantasy plays linked by Donald Wolfit, featuring some supernatural episodes. It was originally billed as 13 plays.: • DUET FOR TWO HANDS (15/06/1957) • The MAN IN HALF MOON STREET (22/06/1957) • The WOMAN IN WHITE (29/06/1957) • CONFESS, KILLER (13/07/1957) • The MAN WITH RED HAIR (20/07/1957) • NIGHT MUST FALL (27/07/1957) • SOUND ALIBI (10/08/1957) • SPARE YOUR PITY (17/08/1957) • A MURDER HAS BEEN ARRANGED (24/08/1957) • PORTRAIT IN BLACK (07/09/1957) .. Starring familiar british actors such as • • • • •

Denholm Elliott Anton Diffring Leo Mckern Deryck Guyler Leslie Phillips

1958 October Voodoo Wedding – White Hunter was episode 35 in the series White Hunter, about a big game hunter called John Hunter and his African assistant Atimbu. It is about a young woman who believes she may have become the victim of a voodoo spell.

1958 November The Witching Hour was part of the classic ITV drama series “Armchair Theatre” and starred Dennis Price and Thora Hird.

1959 The Crucible was a dramatisation of an Arthur Miller drama about the Salem Witchraft Trials, starring Sean Connery and Susannah York and was produced

by Rediffusion, remember them.

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EXCLUSIVE G H O S T

Here at HAUNTED we are always excited when we are contacted

by Joe and Joanne Public with their ghostly stories, experiences and pictures.

I M A G E S

We have had two images in the office of late, that we can’t get out of our heads. The power of persuasion* is a wonderful thing, that is why we are not going to tell you what we think that we can see on one of them BUT tell you what we think we can see on the other one, a kind of socio-experiment, and that we can’t be accussed of (crystal) ball tampering or of any wrong doings by para-psychologists who would say that “subliminaly we are implanting

what we want you to see”. Oh, and look out for the pink giraffe in the top left hand corner of the first picture and Willie Thorne, Mr. Maximum, abseiling down the building in the second picture. * not as wonderful as the Power of Love as Huey Lewis (and the News), Jennifer Rush, and Frankie Goes to Hollywood would have you believe.

EXCLUSIVE 1 The first “EXCLUSIVE” was taken by Dave Whitehouse, during a Halloween Ghost Walk at Dudley Castle. I first saw these images a few months ago, and I am the most sceptical of sceptics when it comes to things caught on camera BUT I must say that I can see something. See for yourself.

Dave, himself, says

“We were on a Ghost Walk, myself and the wife, just walking around the open bit of the castle, taking random shots. It was a cold night. We couldn’t believe it when we first saw the pictures, you always tell yourself that it is your eyes playing tricks, but we have showed it to a few people and the majority of them are as convinced like us as to what we can see”.

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So, you’re now sat there thinking a) what’s so wonderful about a picture the walls of an old castle or b) WOW!! I really can see something and I haven’t even had one single Ben Shaw’s Shandy yet.

Like we said, with this image, we don’t want to tell you what we can see, we hope that we can create some coversation and maybe split the nation.

EXCLUSIVE 2 The second “EXCLUSIVE” comes from The Falstaff Experience in Stratfordupon-Avon, which Television ghost hunter Derek Acorah described it as “one of the most frightening places he had ever encountered” while Horrible Histories author Terry Deary said it was “the most haunted building in England”.

There have been hundreds of “sightings” at The Falstaff Experience in Stratford Upon Avon - but has this picture captured one of the building’s most famous ghosts peering through an upstairs window?

The picture was taken on a mobile phone by a couple who had been on a tour of The Falstaff Experience in Stratford’s historic Sheep Street.

The visit itself was frightening enough but nothing was to prepare the couple for the shock they got when they downloaded and enlarged the pictures.

“I took two pictures, one straight after the other,” said Glen Ewart, who was visiting Stratford with girlfriend Tracey Bailey.

“When I enlarged them there was no-one in the first photo but then, in the next one, we could see a young child looking through the upstairs window.”

Falstaff Experience owners John and Janet Ford have no doubt at all who is in the photograph. They say it is Lucy – a seven-year old pickpocket who lived in Stratford about the same time as Shakespeare. “It’s not the first time Lucy has been spotted,” said Janet.

“In fact she’s one of our best-known ghosts because she still carries on her pick-pocketing tricks and several visitors have lost jewellery and trinkets because of her.”

Indeed, it was Lucy who was spotted by former Crossroads actor and now documentary film-maker Gavin Prime when he visited the Sheep Street premises.

“We were making a pilot documentary for a series we are going to call ‘Look What I’ve Just Bought”, explained Gavin.

“We were featuring John and Janet because they left good jobs in London to buy a house that is supposed to be haunted by at least 45 different spirits!

One of the first times I was there I saw a little girl playing on the stairs. When I asked Janet if they had relatives visiting or something she just laughed and said “I think you must have seen Lucy””.

In a television programme, this one commissioned by TV’s Most Haunted presenter Yvette Fielding, a thermal image of what looks like a crouching child was captured by investigators.

Well-known spiritualist medium Bongo, who appeared on the same programme, said she saw spirit of a little girl standing just outside the building. She described her as being around seven or eight years old.

The Falstaff Experience building has been known as the Shrieves House for the last 500 years having been given to Royal archer William Shrieve by King Henry VIII. By the 16th century the property was a tavern and the tavern keeper, William Rogers, is said to have been some of the inspiration for Shakespeare’s famous comic character John Falstaff.

It was while it was a tavern that it would have been frequented by another of its famous ghosts - John Davies, a rapist and murderer from the 1750s who is nicknamed The Stratford Ripper.

As for Glen and Tracey, they are now hoping to build up the courage to another visit – this time with a Medium leading proceedings.

Says Tracey:

“There is certainly something very haunted about the place – we felt it during our tour and even more so when we saw the picture. Now we plan to visit on one of the special Medium ghost tours – if we ever dare to!”

Further information It is thought that Lucy was caught up in the fire of 1595 which swept through the oldest part of town. Lucy was in the tavern at the time and was so badly burnt she slipped into a coma. She was sold to a local doctor for his experiments – a not uncommon practice amongst poor people trying to make extra money - however, as the doctor start to dissect her, Lucy awoke!

So, can you see a) anything b) nothing c) something d) Willie Thorne. Please do let us know and send us your images in, you never know, they might just make it into HAUNTED.

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LIBBY’S LAST RITE What is your spirituality?

Oh I know that there are thousands of books out there that tell us what it is and where you can find it, how to develop it by doing this exercise or that practise.

For years I have heard about the wonderful ‘new’ things that ensure instant spirituality, classes that promise you the best possible way forward, workshops to allow the spirituality that you have been searching for to be found and achieved. And I can promise you this, none of them work, seems a little harsh I know but your spirituality is not something that anyone else can hand you on a plate like chocolate biscuits.

The sugar coating, sorry chocolate coating of the offer simply covers over the fact that the biscuit is really just a bunch of crumbs held together and they are as fragile as, well, as a biscuit.

How does this relate to your spirituality, the analogy is perfect because your spirituality is something that is found in crumbs throughout your life?

• A reading or poem that touches your mind and soul and opens your heart.

• A piece of music that fills you with emotion and power.

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• A picture or photograph that makes you feel humbled at the power of nature.

• A few words that lift and inspire you.

• A simple touch that makes you feel protected loved and cared for.

• A look from a loved one that makes your heart soars with the joy of love.

• The feel of a child’s hand in yours, so trusting in your ability to protect them against all the ills of the world.

• A smile on the face of a stranger as you rush through your busy day.

• A class that for once makes you truly feel present in the moment.

• A workshop that actually works for you, and moves your thinking and understanding forward.

• All of these things and so much more help your spirituality grow and develop in small seemingly insignificant ways, one crumb at a time.

And then at some point in your life you discover the peace within you, that God essence, space, whatever name

PROFILE

ES you use for your God, he is the spark of your being that is present in this world and for all eternity. You search out the magazines, books, CD’s, classes, churches, groups that offer you the opportunity not to change in an instant as many claim , but to begin to piece together the crumbs of information, emotion, knowledge and truth that is available to everyone.

Your spirituality is an amazing gift to you and to the whole world; you owe it to yourself to become the light within the world that can truly make a difference. As you grow and develop your spiritual gifts in whatever form they take you should always remember this. – You and you alone are the person that builds Gods crumbs into the offering that you make to the world, don’t chocolate coat it, make it real.

Biscuit anyone?

It is with great pleasure that Haunted has managed to “acquire” the services of Libby Clark.

Libby will be giving her thoughts, her views, and her opinions on love, life andthe un iverse in each edition of Haunted, for those that have their head in the sand for the last umpteen years, here is a short but informative profile on Libby.

Libby has been aware of the spirit world from being a small child, but with her paternal grandmother being mediumistic and her grandfather being a working trance medium there was always going to be a strong potential for mediumship within. It was never strange if her grandmother said she had been talking to “Mrs Smith”, it would just be the thought, “Oh yes she is one of the dead ones”. Communicating with spirit was just like coming home and although Libby was 16 before she entered a Spiritualist Church it was for her a very natural and simple continuation of her pathway. Within 18 months she was taking her first church service and has never looked back. In those early days she was guided by some of the UK’s finest mediums: Gordon Higginson, Glynn Edwards and Robin Stevens to name just a few.

Based in Nottinghamshire, Libby has worked as a Spiritualist Medium, travelling the length and breadth of the UK. Throughout this time she has gained a great deal of experience and a higher profile within the Spiritualist movement serving Spiritualist Churches groups, organisations and private individuals, undertaking Church services, demonstrations of Mediumship, private sittings, healing, workshops, seminars and teaching groups. In more recent years she has been working extensively overseas including: Italy, Holland, Germany, Switzerland, Denmark, Spain, Southern Ireland and the USA. Teaching a range of subjects from relaxation and meditation skills through to all aspects of Mediumship, Healing, Trance, Awareness and Sensitivity. She enjoys teaching for Philosophy, Public Speaking and presentation skills and over the last 15 years has gained experience and skills in the fields of stress management and personal development and is a fully qualified Counsellor and Life Coach.

For several years Libby has been privileged to be a Course Organiser and Tutor at the Arthur Findlay College and thoroughly enjoys teaching and sharing with her students, many of whom return again and again to continue their spiritual and personal education under Libby’s expert guidance. Libby undertakes Private Sittings to allow individuals the opportunity for a closer communication with their loved ones in Spirit on a one to one basis. Libby has appointments available for clients for Spiritual Healing and Trance Healing and has many testimonials to confirm the help and healing that has been received from the spirit world.

You can read more about Libby on her website www.libbyclark.biz

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