Karl Beattie (born 2 April 1963) is an English television director, producer, and cameraman, best known as co-creator, director, and executive producer of Most Haunted.[1]
Career
Beattie began his television career as a camera assistant on the BBC's live children's show Parallel 9, before training as a cameraman with outside broadcast company Visions and working on a range of British programmes including Gladiators, Blind Date, TFI Friday, and Robot Wars.[1]
In 2002, Beattie and his wife, Yvette Fielding, founded Antix Productions, whose first commission was Most Haunted for Living TV.[2] Beattie served as the show's director and executive producer throughout its run, and also appeared on screen during investigations, often handling technical equipment and filming alongside the rest of the team. He went on to create, produce, and direct Ghosthunting With... for ITV2 from 2006, and in 2008 he and Fielding launched The Paranormal Channel, later renamed The Unexplained Channel, which ran for two years.[2]
Martial arts and the "samurai" claim
Beattie began martial arts training at age seven under instructor Otsu Maeda, training under him for close to two decades until Maeda's death in 1997, and holds a 4th dan ranking in Ryukyu Kempo and Wado Ryu karate, alongside training in several other disciplines including Iaido and Wing Chun.[1] In 2004, British media coverage reported Beattie's claim to have been awarded a "samuraiship" by his instructor — one of only eight such titles said to have been given to a foreigner — and to be, on that basis, "the only living samurai outside Japan."[1] The claim drew scrutiny: contacted for comment, Japan's Imperial Household Agency told The Japan Times it maintains no practice or system for granting such titles, and noted that the samurai social class itself was formally abolished in 1868 with the end of the Tokugawa Shogunate.[1] Beattie has maintained the distinction was passed to him informally through his relationship with his late instructor rather than through any surviving formal institution.[1]
Personal life
Beattie has been married to Yvette Fielding since 1999. They have a daughter, Mary, and Beattie is stepfather to Fielding's son, William, from her first marriage.[2] The couple live in Cheshire.[1]