The banned TV show that walked so Late Night with the Devil could run
ShudderA new horror movie is terrifying film fans across the globe, but this deliciously devious flick owes a certain debt of gratitude to a British TV show so terrifying the BBC banned it.
If you’re a fan of things that go bump in the night and banal celebrity stories, you’re in for a treat this week as Late Night With The Devil finally hits theaters (read our Late Night with the Devil review here). This found-footage horror movie tells the story of Jack Delroy, the host of the struggling late-night show Nite Owls, who makes the rash decision to interview a young girl who’s supposedly possessed by a demon.
Obviously, things don’t go to plan, and without spoiling anything, let’s just say there’s a reason you don’t see Satan squeezed between Miriam Margoyles and Ed Sheeran on Graham Norton’s sofa. It’s a bonkers film (possibly one of the best horror movies of the year) that makes great use of its framing device to deliver some really effective scares and thrills.
Still, while watching Delroy try and get a decent anecdote out of Beelzebub it’s impossible not to notice the similarities between Late Night With The Devil and a BBC TV special called Ghostwatch. Both Late Night and Ghostwatch use similar techniques to terrify their audiences, but there’s a chance you’ve never heard of Ghostwatch. So we’re here to right that wrong and explain to you the history of arguably the most controversial TV show the BBC ever aired.
Behind the haunting
BBCReleased in 1992, Ghostwatch was a mockumentary produced by the BBC that saw national treasure Michael Parkinson and a gaggle of B-list celebs from the early ’90s (sorry, Craig Charles fans) investigating an alleged haunting in a suburban London home. As the show progressed, the ghostly goings-on slowly ratcheted up until it reached a harrowing climax where the spirit of a child murderer possessed Parkinson.
Anyone reading that will probably think it sounds a bit milquetoast, but there’s a catch. The show was presented as a live broadcast – viewers were even encouraged to phone in live and tell their own ghost stories – and aside from a quick “written by” credit at the start of the special, it was almost impossible to tell that the events happening on screen were fake.
That’s not all, though. The BBC deliberately cast trusted TV personalities (some of whom were best known for leading children’s TV shows) to present the show, lending it a real aura of authenticity. All of this, combined with the subtlety of some of the scares – the grisly ghost at the center of the haunting, Pipes, makes several blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameos before the film’s climax – led many viewers to think Ghostwatch was a real documentary that had captured proof of the supernatural.
BBCReal-life consequences
Unsurprisingly, audiences were terrified, and the BBC was inundated with complaints about Ghostwatch — Parkinson’s own mum apparently called in to check her son was OK. The day after Ghostwatch aired, there was outrage in the tabloids, and the entire situation was compared to Orson Welle’s fateful War of the Worlds broadcast that caused similar panic across the US in the ‘30s.
Yet, this is where the story takes a darker turn. Martin Denham, a young man with learning difficulties, supposedly took his own life after watching Ghostwatch, and his parents blamed the BBC for his death.
This resulted in the British Broadcasting Standards Commission investigating the show and they ruled that Ghostwatch was excessively distressing and graphic. As a result of the complaints they received, the BBC banned Ghostwatch for ten years, and despite pressure from fans – particularly around the time Parkinson died – the show has never been repeated since its original air date.
BBCThe show must go on
And yet, despite its grisly reputation, Ghostwatch’s legacy lives on in films like Late Night With the Devil. Beyond that, there are claims the show inspired the classic found-footage film The Blair Witch Project (although directors Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez deny this) and Jed Shepherd has acknowledged Ghostwatch’s influence on the brilliant pandemic horror Host.
So, if you watch Late Night With The Devil this week and enjoy it, do yourself a favor and check in with Pipes and the Ghostwatch crew; you won’t be disappointed, but you might be terrified.
If you’re looking for more small screen fun we have a list of the best TV shows of 2023 or catch up with other new TV shows streaming this month.
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