Did you watch Ghostwatch?

[Charlavail]

It aired 30 years ago today and has never aired in full since. I have been reading the Wikipedia and it sounds very spooky but also seemed such a good trick that people actually believed it was true. I was only 1 at the time so I haven't seen it.

Oh that's interesting. I do enjoy that podcast and always thought it was real. Real in the sense that the stories covered actually happened to people, it's just that whatever happened wasn't paranormal and people are really gullible.

I always thought Danny Robbins was a believer himself but maybe that's me being gullible 🤣

I was 22, my mistake was switching off when I saw Pipes standing by the curtains, so I went to bed believing it. According to friends next day, it got a bit silly further on and less believable.
Not sure how I missed the intro which said it was a drama.
I do believe in paranormal things, have had a few odd moments. I'd much rather be a skeptic like some on here.

If you like Danny Robins I highly recommend the Battersea Poltergeist podcast series on BBC Sounds. Both Battersea and Enfield were an influence on Ghostwatch. He has a new one called Witch Farm but I haven’t listened to it yet.

I have just re watched the start (thank you to the poster who added the link) but I don't think they said it was drama/fiction?

They didn't make it clear it was drama/ fiction. I watched it at 15 with some mates as we were having a camping sleepover in my garden. We honestly believed it was real. The presenters were serious presenters of the day - Michael Parkinson, Sarah Greene etc and there was no reason not to think it real.
OfC my parents said it was a load of tosh but we were 15 and knew better! Lol
Someone actually took their own life after watching it. In retrospect I don't think it was responsible television. But as teens we loved being genuinely scared!
Same with Blair Witch - loved all the hype that made you believe it was real, although there was some "is it or isn't it?" sceptics at the time there was no Google to reliably confirm.

I didn't get on with The Battersea Poltergeist (well, who would get on with one?) as I found it too drawn out and repetitive after the first couple of episodes and the music was scarier than the story.

His other series Uncanny though is really worth a listen. A bit too much focused on the paranormal explanations perhaps but some really good stories and at least some attempt to explain what happened.

Personally I find the "normal" explanations just as interesting, if not more so.

Witch Farm first episode is interesting, just hope it won't be drawn out over too many episodes.

The vital thing that the "how could people have fallen for it" brigade is missing is that there was a film on ITV that finished about five minutes after Ghostwatch started, so a lot of people switched over after the opening credits had already run - thus missing the "BBC Drama" sting that was shown at the beginning. I was at a Halloween sleepover, aged about 12, and we did exactly that, so we didn't realise it wasn't real for about the first hour! Very little happened during that time anyway, so it wasn't as if we were sitting there watching things flying around and Parky getting possessed and thinking it was all real. I think it was only when the oldest daughter started "speaking in tongues" that we twigged, and when we went downstairs to consult the Radio Times, there was a cast list 😆

I think you also have to remember that this was all pre-Internet and I feel like a 12-year-old back then was a lot "younger" and less worldly than they are now. No doubt Ghostwatch would look rather shonky and daft if I were to watch it now, but it was quite naturalistic and convincing at the time, and I had no real reason to think that the BBC would try to trick me like that!

I can understand kids being upset but not any adults (assuming normal mental age) thinking it was actually real. The fact that it's about ghosts should be a clue... 🙄But I guess this is why they have a plethora of warnings before programmes now.

Re Danny Robbins - he did an earlier podcast series called Haunted which was as good as / better than Uncanny. I think it's pretty clear he is an "interested sceptic"...

He must be raking it in, the male character in his new podcast Witch Farm is played by Joseph Fiennes. Having said that I'm not really enjoying the acting in it, sounds a bit amateur.

i love when Ciaran o'keeffe does his sceptical debunking bit, I can practically hear him rolling his eyes 🤣

Yes! I must have been about 12, I was utterly terrified, honestly more so than I've ever been by anything on TV before or since! I completely believed that it was real!

I was 14 and it terrified me. I believed it and was scared for ages afterwards. I'd love to see it again

When Blair Witch came out I certainly had home internet and search engines...

By the time Blair Witch was released in the UK the ‘found footage’ thing had been debunked but it really was convincing when it was first screened at Sundance. The actors were listed as ‘missing, presumed dead’ on IMDB.

I’ve only ever seen the end of Blair Witch, please can someone tell me what are they frightened about?

That is fortunate for you. I didn't have home internet until 2006.