Ghostwatch panics BBC1

OCT 31 1992

BBC1 broadcast Ghostwatch on Halloween night, a scripted drama recorded weeks earlier but presented as a live investigation into a haunted house in Northolt. Real broadcasters played themselves: Michael Parkinson anchored in-studio with Sarah Greene, Mike Smith and Craig Charles on location. The BBC switchboard logged roughly a million calls, and the Broadcasting Standards Commission later ruled the programme excessively distressing for cultivating a sense of menace. The BBC did not repeat it on British television for a decade. An 18-year-old viewer, Martin Denham, died by suicide five days later and his family's complaint reached the BSC via judicial review. A persistent rumour that Sarah Greene trailed the show on the children's programme Going Live! is false; researchers found no such promotion in the episodes.