Most Haunted… Dead

For those of you who like a dash of professional wrestling with your paranormal television fare, Living TV’s Most Haunted is just what you are looking for. Former TV child star Yvette Fielding, footballer turned psychic Derek Acorah, and a gaggle of paranormal investigators traipse the English countryside in search of spectral evidence.

The show begins with a monologue by Fielding spouting the usual clichés about ghostly footsteps, apparitions, and spirits who cannot let go. The team begins its invasion of the haunt of the day with Derek chatting incessantly with his spirit guide Sam, and pointing out all of the ghosts that no one else can see. Yvette questions Derek for names and descriptions and he provides them, often with stunning accuracy. The creators of Most Haunted are adamant that the crew has no advance knowledge of the locations.

Then it's time for lights out. Infrared photography bathes everyone in a creepy, Blair Witchesqe luminescence. Derek is frequently possessed by the “spirit persons” that supply the haunted locations with “residual energies” while Yvette screams at every floorboard creak and window rattle. The various crew are sent by themselves with their cameras into distant corners of the old mansions, flaunting every horror movie convention. If you enjoy watching grown men soil themselves, prepare to be entertained.

As the show progresses we are treated to séances, table tipping and Ouija Boards. When it’s time to wrap things up Ms. Fielding sums up the evening’s activities by highlighting all of the paranormal occurrences.

In sharp contrast to all of the aforementioned histrionics is parapsychologist Dr. Ciaran O'keeffe, professor at Liverpool Hope University and published in peer reviewed journals such as the British Journal of Psychology. Ciaran trails behind the team holding various and sundry electronic equipment and bearing the visage of a sane man locked by mistake into an insane asylum.

Numerous skeptic websites and forums such as my sponsor BadPsychics.com railed against Derek’s antics for months, citing planted anagrams that proved Derek was being fed information on the locations, and film outtakes that showed chicanery among the crew. However nothing seemed to stop Most Haunted’s momentum. Most Haunted had rapidly become Living TV’s most popular program, spawning Most Haunted Live which features the same cast in live situations. MHL offers webcams for the viewers to scour for spooks, and fax machines so that they can send in their own psychic drawings.

MHL was set to begin their four-day Halloween weekend extravaganza during which they would hunt for the spirit of Jack the Ripper through the streets of London. The show was to be aired in the United States (tape delayed) for the first time, with the concluding episode to be aired live - simultaneously in both countries on Monday. Acorah was leaving to host his own program at the conclusion of the weekend and was going to go out with a bang. The show would introduce the new psychic, Gordon Smith, over the weekend. The retooling of Most Haunted was designed to keep the franchise running smoothly.

However, the Mirror, a British daily paper, released a devastating story hours before the show was to air that Friday. Ciaran O’Keeffe, the parapsychologist with the confused air, had revealed to reporter Matt Roper that “I think its time to open the dialogue about what I've experienced on Most Haunted. There have been many incidents with the medium that have been brushed under the carpet. I was put in the show to give a professional slant to it, to give it an element of credibility, but the skeptical argument is just swept away. In my opinion, we're not dealing with genuine mediumship.”

In the article, Roper also claims that O’Keeffe caught Derek red-handed in utilizing knowledge about a location that could only have been gained before the shoot. The team entered an Irish castle and began investigating a bed that allegedly levitated. Acorah touched the four poster bed, and using his extraordinary insight, recited extremely accurate information about the bed. There was just one problem. It was the wrong bed.

According to the reporter the parapsychologist also created another trap for the medium. He created a fictional character named Kreed Kafer, Derek Faker in anagram form. Roper quotes O’keeffe; "I wrote the name down and asked another member of the crew to mention it to Derek before filming. I honestly didn't think Derek would take the bait. But during the filming he actually got possessed by my fictional character!"

There are also instances cited in the article of manufactured ghostly sighs and bumps on the set but the death blow was delivered by Ciaran in the Mirror feature. “I made up stories about Richard the Lionhearted, a witch, and Richard's apparition appearing to walk through a wardrobe - the lion, the witch and the wardrobe!", referring to the famed C.S. Lewis children’s book. Derek used all of these stories at Craigievar Castle.

As soon as the story was published all hell broke loose. Rumors swirled that Ciaran was claiming to be misquoted, that the unedited footage that revealed the manufactured noises by the crew were supplied by Yvette Fielding, and that LivingTV wanted to embarrass Derek since he was leaving the show. Whether any of those rumors were true or not made little difference as the weekend's show continued with Derek seeing the usual goblins, viewers spying mysteries figures on the webcam and O’keeffe following in tow. Just in case you wondered, Jack the Ripper was nowhere to be found.

I had an interview scheduled with O'keeffe for Tuesday, October 1st, for my radio program "Audiomartini" before any of these events transpired. Since this was the day after the concluding episode, I was looking forward to an exclusive interview with the catalyst of the expose. I received an email from Ciaran informing me that the interview was off unless I could clear it with Living TV's public relations people. I was told by PR that no interviews would be allowed, period.

Fortunately, I was able to reach O’keeffe on his office phone the next day and he agreed to appear on the show anyway. In my opinion this was a courageous move because there was obviously enormous pressure being applied by the producers. Ciarin stated that he had not been misquoted by the Mirror and that he had never seen an example of true mediumship in his research. So much for Derek Acorah.

The interviews with both Ciarian O’keeffe and Mirror reporter Matt Roper can be accessed at www.audiomartini.co.uk on demand. There are other great stories regarding Most Haunted that space didn't allow for.

Who would have thought you could have so much fun watching a medium who couldn’t see it coming?

Feedback | Reverse links for this page | Translate this page