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For people of a certain age, the sound of clunking water pipes in the middle of the night is cause to pull that duvet a little tighter. Pipes – named for the sounds he made while contacting his young victims – was the smock-wearing bogeyman in the BBC’s Ghostwatch, screened on Halloween night 25 years ago, a drama mistaken by many viewers for live entertainment – and which was so terrifying to the audience the corporation has never repeated it.
Presented on location and in the studio by cosily familiar faces of the day – Red Dwarf’s Craig Charles, CBBC’s Sarah Greene, her husband Mike Smith and TV icon Michael Parkinson, Ghostwatch told the story of a suburban London family being terrorised by a malevolent spirit. By the climactic finale of the feature-length programme, Pipes had made his way to the TV Centre and all hell had broken loose.
Following 30,000 complaint calls in one hour and a subsequent tabloid uproar, the BBC distanced itself from the broadcast – but its cult appeal has grown. Eventually released on video in 2002, Channel 4 listed it in the top half of its 100 Greatest Scary Moments countdown, and a documentary film about the impact of the programme, Ghostwatch: Behind The Curtains, was released in 2013.
This Halloween night, Live Cinema are marking the anniversary with a special screening of Ghostwatch, including a Q&A with key creators and cast members. Director Lesley Manning and writer Stephen Volk tell us about it here.
In the best possible way, people of a certain age are still scarred by Ghostwatch. What’s the best personal story you’ve heard about it?
Stephen Volk: “The woman who wrote to our producer, Ruth Baumgarten, after the broadcast in 1992, asking to be reimbursed by the BBC for the cost of a pair of jeans because her husband, a veteran of the Falklands war, had shit his pants.”
Lesley Manning. “The…
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