Most Haunted

Most Haunted

Most Haunted series logo.

TYPEParanormal documentary / reality series

NETWORKLiving (2002–2010), Really (2014–2019)

PRESENTERYvette Fielding

FIRST AIRED25 May 2002

STATUSEnded

Most Haunted is a British paranormal documentary reality series that followed a team investigating locations reputed to be haunted across the UK and, occasionally, abroad. Created by presenter Yvette Fielding and her husband Karl Beattie through their production company Antix Productions, it first aired on Living TV on 25 May 2002 and became one of the channel's highest-rated original shows, running across seventeen series and several hundred episodes before its original conclusion in 2010, and returning for further series on Really between 2014 and 2019.

Format

Each episode followed the team — typically including a presenter, a parapsychologist, and a resident medium — as they carried out an overnight investigation of a single location, using night-vision cameras, EVP recordings, and on-camera "readings" from the medium to document reported activity. Derek Acorah served as the show's original resident medium from its launch until 2005, when he was replaced by David Wells; Ciarán O'Keeffe became the show's semi-regular parapsychologist during this period, having replaced Phil Whyman. A companion live event format, Most Haunted Live!, ran alongside the main series for much of its history, typically as extended multi-night specials around Halloween or other calendar events.

Locations

Over its run, the show and its live specials visited several hundred locations across the UK and occasionally overseas. Notable locations investigated include:

Castles and fortifications

• Chillingham Castle, Northumberland — marketed as one of England's most haunted castles, associated with the "Blue Boy"
• Dudley Castle, West Midlands — site of the show's first Most Haunted Live! Halloween special, filmed before a live audience of 500 people, October 2002
• Dover Castle, Kent — subject of a Most Haunted Live! Christmas special, December 2002
• Culzean Castle, South Ayrshire
• Bamburgh Castle, Northumberland
• Castle Keep, Newcastle upon Tyne
• Leap Castle, County Offaly, Ireland
• Charleville Forest Castle, Tullamore, Ireland

Prisons and places of punishment

• Bodmin Jail, Cornwall — site of the 2005 "Kreed Kafer" incident involving Derek Acorah (see Controversies, below)
• Derby Gaol, Derbyshire, built in 1756, formerly used for executions

Historic houses and estates

• Woodchester Mansion, Gloucestershire — an unfinished 19th-century Gothic mansion, "never truly been a home", associated with sightings of a grieving woman and laughing children
• Michelham Priory, East Sussex — filmed as the show's pilot episode
• Mains Hall, near Blackpool, Lancashire
• Athelhampton Hall, Dorset
• Chambercombe Manor, Devon
• East Riddlesden Hall, West Yorkshire
• Warwick Castle, Warwickshire

Transport, industry and public buildings

• Aldwych tube station, London — the disused Underground station, formerly used as an air-raid shelter during the Second World War
• Souter Lighthouse, Tyne and Wear
• Chatham Dockyard, Kent — subject of a 2011 Ofcom ruling over scheduling (see Reception and criticism, below)
• Coronation Street set, Manchester — investigated with cast members Sue Cleaver and Simon Gregson
• South Bridge Vaults, Edinburgh

30 East Drive, Pontefract The show returned repeatedly to 30 East Drive, Pontefract — associated with the "Black Monk of Pontefract" poltergeist case — including a two-part investigation and, in October 2015, the first live Most Haunted Live! broadcast since the show's 2010 hiatus.

This list represents a small selection of the several hundred locations the show investigated across its run; a comprehensive location index is maintained by fan sites such as Higgypop.

Controversies

The 2005 Kreed Kafer incident

In 2005, the show's on-set parapsychologist, Ciarán O'Keeffe, tested Derek Acorah by inventing a fictitious spirit — a South African jailer named "Kreed Kafer," an anagram of "Derek Faker" — and feeding the fabricated backstory to Acorah ahead of an investigation at Bodmin Jail. Acorah went on to describe contact with the invented spirit on camera as though it were genuine, and the incident — widely reported at the time — became one of the best-known controversies in British paranormal television. Acorah left the show shortly afterwards.

Reception and criticism

Most Haunted was, by any measure, a substantial commercial and cultural success — running for the better part of two decades across its original run and revival, becoming one of Living TV's flagship shows, and prompting a parody sketch on French and Saunders as a marker of how deeply it had entered mainstream British culture. Its longevity and the show's popularity with audiences is cited by supporters as evidence that, whatever the status of its paranormal claims, it succeeded on its own terms as entertainment television, and some viewers and commentators have maintained a more open, agnostic position on whether specific incidents captured on the show reflect a genuine unexplained phenomenon.

The programme also attracted formal regulatory and critical scrutiny. Ofcom investigated the show following viewer complaints that it misrepresented staged or exaggerated content as genuine; the regulator cleared the production of fraud but ruled that Most Haunted was "not a legitimate investigation into the paranormal" and contained "a high degree of showmanship that puts it beyond what we believe to be a generally accepted understanding of what comprises a legitimate investigation." That ruling is widely credited with establishing the "for entertainment purposes only" disclaimer now shown before most British paranormal-investigation programming. Ofcom separately ruled in connection with a Chatham Dockyard episode that an early-evening broadcast slot could have frightened younger viewers, given its depiction of "possession" and descriptions of malevolent spirits.

Psychologist Chris French, a specialist in anomalistic psychology, has been among the show's most consistent academic critics, arguing that programmes in this genre "want it to look like they are doing science" without adopting basic scientific method, such as running control conditions to compare a "haunted" location against an ordinary one. French has specifically highlighted "orbs" — a recurring feature of the show's photographic evidence — as most plausibly explained as dust, insects or moisture reflecting camera flash, rather than as unformed spirit energy as some investigators claim. Long-time viewers have separately noted that specific "evidence" associated with the show, such as disembodied footsteps and knocking sounds, became more frequent over the years in a way some attribute to post-production editing rather than a change in genuine on-location activity.

Home media

The show's episodes have been released across numerous individual series box sets on DVD in the UK. Most Haunted: Complete Series 1 was released on 27 October 2008, collecting the show's debut series, which included investigations of Blackpool Pleasure Beach, Chillingham Castle, Culzean Castle, Derby Gaol, Aldwych tube station, and Athelhampton Hall.

See also

• Derek Acorah
• Ciarán O'Keeffe
• Yvette Fielding
• Anomalistic Psychology
• Paranormal Egypt

External links

• Most Haunted on IMDb
• Buy Most Haunted on DVD (Amazon Associates affiliate link — purchases made through this link help fund The EERIE Files)