Ghostwatch: Rewatch

Does anyone feel brave enough for a Ghostwatch Rewatch this Halloween at 7:45pm GMT? And what are your memories of the original broadcast? 

The original programme has never been repeated in the UK, but is available for purchase on Apple TV and Prime Video. Alternatively, you might be able to stream it via the Internet Archive, but I couldn't possibly comment.

*After proposing a watchalong via social media, your memories & experiences are coming in thick and fast, so this page will be regularly updated. Read on...

In 1992, on Halloween night, the BBC aired Ghostwatch. Although billed as a drama in the BBC's Radio Times magazine, the majority of its 11 million viewers believed they were witnessing a "live" investigation into the paranormal, and found the events depicted genuinely terrifying. Leaving a large section of the programme's youngest viewers terrified, an estimated 20,000 to 30,000 complaints were made to the BBC's telephone switchboard. In the days and weeks following the broadcast, amid accusations of very real - and in one case tragic - consequences, the BBC issued an apology and vowed never to repeat the programme.

Having the drama fronted by one of UK TV's most respected interviewers in the form of Sir Michael Parkinson, and the popular husband and wife TV presenting team of Mike Smith and Sarah Greene, helped fool viewers into believing the programme's fictional tale of an ungodly poltergeist going by the name of Pipes, terrorising an unwitting family in "the most haunted house in Britain."

More to come...

@druidcat_uk via threads 

" I was a young teen getting ready for a party at a friend's house. Folk started arriving, excitedly telling about this Real Ghost Show on the BBC and nobody knew what to make of it. Word spread like wildfire (without cellphones), it was a mad night! "

@vanessamarlow4698 via threads 

" I was so scared that I left my house and ran to my friends leaving my door open. "

@anandycollin via threads 

" I was 14 and babysitting my 12 year old brother that Hallowe'en. Both fans of the Usbourne Book of Ghosts and Red Dwarf so we watched it, not realising that it was a drama and it was the most terrified I've ever been to the point where I was too scared to use the phone, in case I let Pipes in. This wasn't helped by the fact that we had an open plan lounge/dining room with a huge patio door onto the garden during which the security light kept going off. 

It still gives me that proper terrified feeling watching it today as a 48 year old. "