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The BBC ghost story that terrified Britain, sparked 30,000 complaints – and was never shown again
The inside story of the notorious Ghostwatch – from those who created the scares.
BBC Photosales
- David Brown
Published: Thursday, 29 October 2026 at 7:00 am
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It was the BBC ghost story that terrified the nation, overloaded the corporation's switchboard and caused such a furore that it has never been reshown on British television.
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When Ghostwatch aired on BBC One on Halloween night in 1992, millions of viewers were left scared stiff by what they believed was a live investigation into paranormal activity. What they hadn't realised was that the whole thing was, in fact, a scripted drama.
Starring Michael Parkinson, Sarah Greene, Mike Smith and Craig Charles, the 90-minute mockumentary prompted thousands of complaints, condemnatory newspaper headlines and a backlash that would see the BBC effectively disown the programme.
Speaking to Radio Times from the safe vantage point of 2026, Ghostwatch writer Stephen Volk recalls the part Radio Times played in promoting his influential fright fest: "Radio Times did its bit for Ghostwatch. Annoyingly (for me, the writer), blowing the gaff by printing the cast list and making it clear it was drama. Hah!
"But it didn't stop our show terrifying the nation and jamming the BBC switchboard. And it's still remembered by its fans – including horror maestros Guillermo del Toro and Mike Flanagan – more than 30 years later. Not bad for a one-off 90-minute ghost story for telly."
But did those involved in making the now-notorious Ghostwatch anticipate such a fallout when they went before the cameras? And how did a one-off ghost story become one of the most controversial programmes in British broadcasting history?
Ahead of a new retrospective, Ghostwatch: The Night That Terrified Britain (airing Halloween night on 5), we revisit our 2011 account of the making of Ghostwatch, featuring recollections from many of those involved in its production, including the late Parkinson and Smith, along with co-stars Sarah Greene and Craig Charles.
Read on… if you dare.
Ghostwatch on the cover of Radio Times. Radio Times Archive
"None of us thought we were creating something that would be one of TV's most remembered programmes," comments Parkinson, just one of the famous faces who starred as themselves. "It was a simple ghost story based on a fairly ordinary premise: there's a show on television and things start to go wrong. It was only when I saw it back that I realised it had a certain kind of power."
Charles, who was the drama's roving reporter, felt that viewers would recognise the precedent: "In many ways it was harking back to Orson Welles and his famous War of the Worlds radio broadcast. I hoped that the public wouldn't figure out that it was fake, but assumed they would."
Real-life couple Smith and Greene also took lead roles: he was in the studio, while she was out at the house in Northolt, Greater London, where poltergeist activity was believed to be taking place. "We had a meeting with the BBC days before transmission," remembers Smith. "And we told them that this was going to cause a fuss. They told us not to worry because it was being billed as a drama in the Radio Times, complete with a cast list. But we felt that wasn't enough."
Greene adds: "We were informed that the BBC was thinking of airing a discussion afterwards that would dispel fears, so that people would understand the genesis of it. But that never happened."
The BBC was warned – but went ahead anyway
For those unacquainted with it, Ghostwatch, written by Volk, purported to be a live investigation into paranormal phenomena at a suburban home. Efforts were made to blur fiction and reality through such devices as a phone number viewers could call, shaky outside-broadcast footage and the use of parapsychology experts who were, of course, played by actors.
Director Lesley Manning explains what influenced the programme's overall feel: "I'd been noticing shows like 999, presented by Michael Buerk, that were dramatising real emergencies. Fact was feeding into drama, so why couldn't it go the other way? I was very strict about the television language of the day, and I remember saying in rehearsals, 'The better we do this, the greater the effect will be.'"
Although the finished piece, which aired at 9.25pm on Saturday 31 October 1992, appears to show two-way conversations between the studio and those on location, the sequences were actually filmed five weeks apart.
"We were shooting the exteriors during the day in July," reveals Greene. "The whole house was cloaked in black felt to make it look like night-time, and there was a heatwave going on outside. There's a fantastic crane shot in one of the opening scenes and, because it was summer, there are leaves on the trees. So there are a few little clues around the place that this wasn't Halloween night."
To make the action more believable, improvisation was encouraged. All the performers were given bullet points that had to be included in their various exchanges, but how they navigated their way through them was very much up to them.
"It's wrong to say that I acted the part," says Parkinson. "I just became myself and played it like I really was in charge of this programme."
Stephen Volk on Ghostwatch: The Night that Terrified Britain. Courtesy of 5
Exploding lights, falling paintings – even the Ghostwatch set seemed haunted
Yet despite efforts behind the scenes to inspire spontaneity, certain "accidents" were enough to give Smith the heebie-jeebies: "I was so thrilled to be working in the same Elstree studio where they'd filmed The Muppet Show. In fact, Statler and Waldorf’s box was still on a wall in the corner. But then odd things started happening. Light fittings exploded, the fireplace that we had as a prop went haywire, and a painting just peeled away from the wall and fell down."
Did these events affect the general mood on set? "I'm not a believer in the paranormal myself," reasons Parkinson. "Others were more sensitive to all that than I was. The disconcerting thing for me was that nobody would tell me how it ended.
"They kept me in the studio once everyone else had left, and these bloody cameras started moving towards me and this red light appeared at the top of the gantry. It was quite chilling to see what looked like large Daleks closing in."
The scene to which Parkinson refers unfolds in the closing minutes, as a malevolent spirit nicknamed Pipes unleashes its power, appears to kill Greene and takes control of the BBC studios, possessing Ghostwatch's host in the process. "I was left gibbering away," Parkinson laughs.
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30,000 complaints, a jammed BBC switchboard – and a woman reportedly went into labour
But as the credits rolled at 11pm, the off-screen controversy was only just beginning. RT's reader services manager David Hodges, who at the time was a BBC information duty officer and therefore one of the few points of contact for viewers, recalls the reaction:
"It was a nightmare. The call counter used to go up to 20, and it was stuck on that level for five days after transmission. It was one of those pivotal moments that I always remember. People were ringing in concerned about Sarah Greene or saying that their pedal bin had just moved across the room or that their dog had gone mad. A man even said that his wife had been watching and had gone into labour because she was so spooked.
"At the time, it did feel irresponsible on the part of the programme-makers, and we must have had about 2,000 complaints. But I also think there was genuine disappointment when people found out that it was fake." The official number of complaints would eventually total around 30,000.
By the Monday, The Sun was running with the headline "Viewers blast BBC's sick ghost hoax", and Greene, the then co-presenter of kids' favourite Going Live!, was forced to make an unscheduled appearance on Children's BBC. "I had to go into the broom cupboard to show that I was alive and that it was all make-believe.
"Yet kids, who shouldn't have been watching in the first place because they were too young, were sending me pictures of what they thought Pipes looked like. I don't know whether my turning up unharmed was for the sake of the children or their parents."
Craig Charles on Ghostwatch: The Night that Terrified Britain. Courtesy of 5
A tragic death, a growing backlash – and the BBC's decision to disown Ghostwatch
The trouble was that reassurances that the show was pure fantasy failed to stem the tide of complaints. By 8 November, the tragic suicide of Martin Denham, who had seen the programme, gave ammunition to those who had Ghostwatch in their sights. The result was that the corporation effectively disowned the drama and, to date, it has never been reshown in the UK.
"Stephen [Volk] and I were completely ostracised," says Manning. "We thought we'd done something terribly wrong."
Parkinson adds: "While feeling sympathy, obviously, for the young man, Mr Denham, who took his own life, it was a knee-jerk reaction to ban it. Ghostwatch was unnecessarily controversial because a lot of the hysteria had been drummed up by, in the main, the media."
From national outrage to cult classic – how Ghostwatch found a second life
What nobody counted on was how this supernatural chiller would continue to resonate with audiences.
Charles, for one, is pleased by the continuing interest: "People often mention it to me and I can see that there's this cult following."
Even now, there are websites devoted to Ghostwatch, while YouTube clips chart the many subliminal sightings of the infamous Pipes. Dig a bit deeper and you'll find that he even has his own Twitter account. In retrospect, was the programme ahead of its time?
"The actual device of cloaking drama in reality would seem to be ahead of the spate of films such as Blair Witch that followed on," says Parkinson. "Just by chance it’s become a leader in its field."
"It certainly foretold films like that," comments Greene. "Even if people were watching Ghostwatch and thinking, 'Oh yes, I've seen this in the Radio Times, I know it's a play,' there's still a desire for it to be real. We want to believe that it's possible. It's sort of like a reverse aspiration: 'I don't want to be in that situation, but God, it's fun watching them in it.'"
However, such storytelling can backfire on those involved. Smith recalls going into hospital for an operation on his shoulder. As he was being prepped for surgery, a smiling anaesthetist in his mid-30s leaned over and said, "You did Ghostwatch, didn’t you? You frightened the f**king life out of me when I was a kid and this is my revenge. Good night." Now that's scary.
Ghostwatch: The Night That Terrified Britain can be seen on Saturday 31 October at 9.15pm on 5.
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Authors
David BrownDeputy Previews Editor, Radio Times
David Brown is Deputy Previews Editor at Radio Times, with a particular interest in crime drama and fantasy TV. He has appeared as a contributor on BBC News, Sky News and Radio 4’s Front Row and has had work published in the Guardian, the Sunday Times and the i newspaper. He has also worked as a writer and editorial consultant on the National Television Awards, as well as several documentaries profiling the likes of Lenny Henry, Billy Connolly and Take That.
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