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Josh Widdicombe's Archive of Pop Culture

Ghost Watch (Part 1)

49 min

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About this episode

Halloween night. 1992. Britain was settling down for an evening in front of the television. There were only four channels. And the BBC was the one you could trust. A national treasure. A beloved children's presenter. And a perfectly ordinary house in suburban London. What followed would become one of the most notorious nights in British broadcasting history… It was called Ghostwatch. A ‘live’ investigation into the supernatural. Or at least... that's what millions of viewers thought they were watching. But as the cameras rolled... The noises grew louder. The children became terrified. And something... began to emerge from the darkness. Families watched in horror. The BBC's switchboard was overwhelmed. And across Britain, viewers began to ask the same question... Was this really happening? By the time the credits rolled, the damage was done. There were complaints. Newspaper outrage. Accusations that the BBC had betrayed its audience. And a television programme that would become a broadcasting legend. But how did a fictional ghost story convince a nation it was real? Who was the mysterious figure hiding in plain sight? And how did one Halloween broadcast become a