Ostensibly a night in a "real" haunted house filmed live on Halloween night that tricked many people who were unaware it was fiction while they were watching it (even though it had writing and acting credits).There's a lot of fun to be had here. It feels real enough, though if you know to look for it it can feel a bit staged. Some of the best bits involve the studio which has a real "paranormal expert" on hand to explain the goings-ons. The scares are very Paranormal Activity lite, but considering the time and the fact that it was a TV movie one can see how it would have an impact.As a piece of history this spooky flick is indelible and worth celebrating, as a piece of art it's merely good enough.

Just to sum the entire ban thing up. The ban now is semi lifted. The DVD seems to be available, and the international iPlayer now has it for everyone interested to watch. I don't have to say to much about the show anymore, but I watched it two weeks ago, and despite knowing it was a hoax it kept me after the first slow going 40 minutes on the edge of my seat. All I can say is, that this is a brilliant piece of television, and I would rate it way higher than Blair Witch Project, which I personally found mediocre.So anyone who can get hold of the DVD or has the international iPlayer subscribed should really watch this show. It cannot get any better.

I was 12 years old, just happened to be at home watching TV on Haloween of 1992, Ghostwatch came on and looked interesting so I continued to watch it, thinking it was an interesting bit of fun with maybe the chance of something happening in the most haunted house in England! Then half way through the reality TV show started to turn into a truly scary experience, with things going wrong and the fact the viewer believed it was recorded live (which was later revealed was not) made it an experience that will most likely never be achieved again! There is a part where viewers rang the show live from their homes and reported all kinds of scary things happening, for example their dogs wont stop barking and a Glass table shattering after being touched etc, this all added to the realism and also made all the viewers paranoid that something was going to happen in their own home! (I was one of them) This show was the most scary thing ever created by any production company in the world, and I understand why it was banned for 10 years (due to a couple of people committing suicide for believing it was real apparently) when I watch it now it seems clear that the children were acting, but at the time it was not so obvious! If you plan on letting your children watch this be careful, because they will get scared and may not sleep for a few nights! A real masterpiece!

Having seen two different ghosts on separate occasions in my life, then my answer is, most definitely, yes. And no, I wasn't dreaming. I wasn't allowed to see this show back when it originally aired back in 1992, my mother and aunt were busy keeping the living room for their own drunken yacking. But I did sneak in a couple of times and saw a couple of definitive bits such as the ghost of Pipes appearing behind the curtains. I never knew it was a sham at the time but was intrigued nonetheless. Afterwards, BBC 2 screened Halloween 2 and I was more freaked out by that. But then came Sunday and the whole of Britain was buzzing about it.That particular Saturday night was probably the most iconic Halloween in a long time. The BBC even kept the show hidden away for many years afterwards because of all the controversy it stirred up. So anyone who has memories of being scared back then have not been able to see the show up until recently since the British Film Institute released a DVD. Fifteen years on, in the middle of a reality TV craze and with inattentive audiences, Ghostwatch would certainly not work in 2007. People now are just too cynical and no one really watches TV on a Saturday night now. There are many other distractions. It was the fact that so many people at Halloween parties, kids and adults alike, were fooled by this that made it so notorious. And there was hardly any advertising for Ghostwatch either and the only way people would know what was on is by checking the TV guides. Now we have the internet and almost every element of a production is scrutinized before anyone sees it.You could say that it was part of Ghostwatch's power that despite hardly any advertising and being bookended with 'this is not real' that was taken so seriously. But that would an absurd statement. It's a pretty 50/50 affair. The acting and direction is often stale and clumsy but the subliminal shots of Pipes going unnoticed by the crew make it so brilliant to watch.Set up like a Crimewatch show we have Parkinson in the studio with a Parapsychologist discussing the Pipes phenomena and other ghost stories while Sarah Greene and Craig 'No Talent Whatsoever' Charles are on location in a council estate where Pipes the ghost is making life a misery for the Early family. As you can imagine, there's a lot of hand-held camera action and quick glimpses of the ghost. I've spotted about seven but there may be more.It's rather dated and badly acted but it's still got enough in it to be interesting in these cynical times. Just try to blank out Craig Charles, why he was chosen to be in this I'll never know. I just wish that the BBC went further and push Ghostwatch to the max instead of mainly just playing it safe.