The problem with this BBC tv movie is that it's hard to easily describe the impact for those of you outside this country.
Ghostwatch, which I've been meaning to get hold of for years, is a ghost story done in the style of a live tv documentary. It has the comfortable studio with a slightly over-the-top set, the hotline with supposed calls coming in from viewers, the apparant experts on call and intrepid BBC reporters braving the interior of what is claimed to be "the most haunted house in Britain".
The program replicates the slightly over-the-top 90s tv documentary style perfectly, seeming as safe and cosy as they normally did for quite a while, and then things gradually start to go wrong- shadows pop up that are unnoticed by the presenters but obvious to the viewers, the reporters find strange damp patches in the house, and the calls and interviews from outside start to suggest an increasingly disturbing history to the place. Eventually, both the "live feed" and then the studio erupt into chaos, and the presenter himself is apparantly possessed.
Some years before Blair Witch and its influences or the reality television wave, these things alone would make Ghostwatch unusual (and it's really a remarkably effective and subtle ghost story, too), but the thing that made it infamous was the presentation, whereby although the BBC credited and listed it as a drama, they stocked it with such well-known television personalities of the time as Sarah Greene, Craig Charles and, most convincingly, the veteran interviewer and presenter Michael Parkinson. His presence in particular lent such an air of realism to the proceedings that vast numbers if viewers were entirely taken in by the thing, and the BBC was inundated with complaints of traumatised children and the like.
The experience of watching this now is a decidedly surreal one. The faux-documentary aspects are remarkably effective even when the nature of the program is known- many of these people are still familiar faces on moddern British television, after all. The ghost story aspect is remarkably restrained and understated, with the only manisfestations of the ghost itself being brief and untelegraphed.
Really, I'm not sure there's anything else at all like this out there. It predates reality television by quite a long way, and has an air of authenticity I've never enountered in any other documentary style drama. Very unusual piece of work.
Ghostwatch, which I've been meaning to get hold of for years, is a ghost story done in the style of a live tv documentary. It has the comfortable studio with a slightly over-the-top set, the hotline with supposed calls coming in from viewers, the apparant experts on call and intrepid BBC reporters braving the interior of what is claimed to be "the most haunted house in Britain".
The program replicates the slightly over-the-top 90s tv documentary style perfectly, seeming as safe and cosy as they normally did for quite a while, and then things gradually start to go wrong- shadows pop up that are unnoticed by the presenters but obvious to the viewers, the reporters find strange damp patches in the house, and the calls and interviews from outside start to suggest an increasingly disturbing history to the place. Eventually, both the "live feed" and then the studio erupt into chaos, and the presenter himself is apparantly possessed.
Some years before Blair Witch and its influences or the reality television wave, these things alone would make Ghostwatch unusual (and it's really a remarkably effective and subtle ghost story, too), but the thing that made it infamous was the presentation, whereby although the BBC credited and listed it as a drama, they stocked it with such well-known television personalities of the time as Sarah Greene, Craig Charles and, most convincingly, the veteran interviewer and presenter Michael Parkinson. His presence in particular lent such an air of realism to the proceedings that vast numbers if viewers were entirely taken in by the thing, and the BBC was inundated with complaints of traumatised children and the like.
The experience of watching this now is a decidedly surreal one. The faux-documentary aspects are remarkably effective even when the nature of the program is known- many of these people are still familiar faces on moddern British television, after all. The ghost story aspect is remarkably restrained and understated, with the only manisfestations of the ghost itself being brief and untelegraphed.
Really, I'm not sure there's anything else at all like this out there. It predates reality television by quite a long way, and has an air of authenticity I've never enountered in any other documentary style drama. Very unusual piece of work.
