Airing on Halloween 1992, Ghostwatch gave kids in Glasgow and across the nation nightmares for weeks. One woman said the show was so scary it induced her labour and even Michael Parkinson's mum called in to complain.
A terrifying TV show way ahead of its time shocked a generation of viewers so much the BBC has never aired it again.
The only broadcast of Ghostwatch was on Saturday, October 31 on BBC1 at 9.25pm in 1992. It was a mockumentary-style show investigating reports of a poltergeist in 'the most haunted house in Britain'. During the show viewers were asked to ring in with their own ghost sightings on 081 811 8181 - the standard number for BBC phone-ins at the time, used on shows including Crimewatch and Going Live! The idea was that when people called up they were greeted with a message that told them the show was fiction.
Scratch marks appeared on the girls' faces, strange noises could be heard and objects seen moving by themselves. Disturbing scenes in the children's bedroom were reminiscent of an infamous photos from the account of the Enfield poltergeist. "It was partly that it scared people, but the complaints were actually more that the BBC had made them feel like mugs. People felt the BBC was something they could trust, and the programme had destroyed that trust."
In 1994, Simons and Silveria published a report in the British Medical Journal that described cases of PTSD in two 10-year old boys caused by Ghostwatch. After watching the show, one boy was said to have suffered a 12-months of nightmares, fear of the dark and of sleeping alone, fear of ghosts, intrusive thoughts and panic attacks which occurred immediately after watching the the broadcast.
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