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"Most Haunted is Britain's most successful cable TV
show, but it's also the scariest. David Lloyd says "boo"
to presenter Yvette Fielding.
It's rare you get a chance to hear an ex-Blue Peter presenter
scream "for f**ks sake, get me out!" (unless they're
in the Blue Peter panto, sharing horse duties with John
Leslie) but, for those already enjoying the cult success
that is Britain's most successful cable TV show, it's practically
a weekly ritual.
Last seen on our screens stroking Goldie (the dog, not
Bjork's ex) and making Tracy Islands from a Kellogg's variety
pack, Manchester-born Yvette Fielding is responsible for
a genuine, everybody's-talking-about-it TV phenomenon. It's
Robbie William's favourite TV show, celebs are gagging to
get on it, and it all hails from a converted mill in Stockport.
Welcome to the weird world of Most Haunted.
It's midway through season five and Yvette has a rare day
between filming to meet up at her production company's HQ.
Maps of ghostly locations line the walls, while mobile phones
blare and researchers scour the press for spooky reportings.
If passports still required you to reveal your occupation,
Yvette and producer-husband Karl could legitimately write
‘Ghostbusters' on theirs. "It's a funny way to
make a living" Fielding admits, fresh from a haunting
in Ireland last night. "I've always been scared of
the supernatural. I can't bring myself to watch The Exorcist.
But last night I deliberately placed myself in a situation
so terrifying that I broke wind on camera!" No doubt
Dennis Norden is scavenging the outtakes already.
For those not blessed with 346 channels (or say, those
who have a life) Most Haunted's premise is simple: Yvette
and her team – a couple psychics, a parapsychologist
and a quivering crew – spend 24 hours in allegedly
haunted locations. Researchers leave locked-off cameras
to capture any paranormal manoeuvres in the dark, ‘psychic
artists' scribble away in corners and, Blair Witch-like
night vision, Yvette and her handheld camera probe draughty
corridors in the dead of night. Meanwhile psychics commune
with the location's previous owners ("My spirit guide
is telling me that if we knock down that wall, we'll find
a body")...Think Changing Rooms meets Poltergeist and
you're getting close.
Ghost shows are hardly genre-busting additions to the TV
schedules. But Most Haunted's brazen mix of high drama (Derek
Acorah, the show's flamboyant psychic, is possessed more
times than Linda Blair), airborne cutlery and serious study
are bubbled together in a cauldron to create a genuinely
spooky brew.
"When a spoon was thrown at me in Stratford was absolutely
terrified," Fielding says, recalling one of the show's
most dramatic – and perception challenging –
sequences when, seemingly from the ether, a silver spoon
hurled itself at the hysterical presenter. Caught on camera,
the apparent poltergeist activity went some way to silencing
those who saw the programme as little more than a camp,
Gothic knockabout.
"We have to remember that we're meddling with things
that none of us really understand. And we've captured some
pretty convincing stuff," Fielding says – listing
levitating tables, strange ‘orbs' of light and phantom
footsteps among Most Haunted's arsenal of evidence."
" "We never imagined we'd be in this position",
Fielding admits, recalling a late conversation four years
ago that lead to the creation of the show, her ‘Antix'
production company and a thriving haunted house industry.
"A friend of ours told us about Michelin Priory in
Eastbourne, really because it was a beautiful location to
use for filming. Only at the end of the conversation did
he say, ‘Oh by the way, they say it's haunted…'
"Karl immediately saw the potential. So we gathered
some friends together, and used all our savings on producing
a pilot, which we then hawked around for six months, gathering
rejection after rejection. The BBC just said that ghost
shows don't work. But Living were keen from the outset.
A wise move. The show's already produced a series of hit
DVD's, and other merchandise is doubtless being considered
(Most Haunted official ouija board?). meanwhile, the show's
occasional live broadcasts regularly trounce all other cable
and satellite output."
" "It's all genuine. No matter how often we do
these, I still get frightened out of my wits." And
some. Yvette's horrified outbursts are, for many, the show's
highlights – the tense trade-ff between Yvette's plea
for the show's unpaid, otherworldly extras ("Please
make a sign, we know you're here…") and her expletives
when a phantom, politely responding to her request, starts
blowing in her ear are legendary.
"I try to be rational and scientific, but sometimes,
when you're alone in a subterranean passage and something
growls down your ear, you just lose it!"
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