Ghosts & Hauntings

Ghostwatch: the BBC's terrifying 1992 Halloween 'documentary'

By T.K. Randall
October 31, 2025

Image: AI-generated (Midjourney) You will probably be familiar with at least some of the plethora of ghost hunting reality TV shows that have cropped up on television over the last couple of decades, from Ghost Hunters in the US to Most Haunted in the UK - these shows aimed to bring paranormal investigation to the masses.

But all of these show are likely to (at least partially) owe their existence to a bizarre and experimental show that the BBC broadcast on October 31st, 1992 to a totally unwitting British audience.

Entitled Ghostwatch, it was a supposedly live and genuine broadcast documenting efforts to investigate a haunting very similar to the Enfield Poltergeist case.

The studio segments, which featured viewer phone calls and interviews with supposed experts, were presented by Michael Parkinson and Mike Smith - two well known BBC presenters who nobody would have ever expected of being involved in any kind of spooky chicanery.

Craig Charles, who is best known for his role as Lister in Red Dwarf, headed up the 'on the street' live segments while Sarah Greene, another well known presenter, broadcast from inside the home of a single mother and her young children who were the focus of an alleged poltergeist haunting. What made the show stand out was the fact that it was presented as a factual show and it featured several sequences, including background appearances of a ghost and the alleged possession of a young girl, which at the time terrified younger viewers and generated numerous complaints.

At the end of the show, those still tuned in were even lead to believe that their collective viewership had enabled the poltergeist - named 'Pipes' - to take over the studio.

While Ghostwatch would have been pretty uneventful if it had premiered today, for something like this to be shown in a primetime slot on the BBC (with 10+ million viewers) in the 1990s was completely unheard of.

Even to this day, the show has never been repeated (at least not in the UK).

It remains one of the most notorious shows ever broadcast on British television.




Tags: Ghostwatch, Haunting, Halloween