Derek Acorah’s Ghost Towns

The enormous black-and-silver Ghost Truck rolled into town. This was the start of a whole new journey for me. Where would it lead? I felt very excited. I was taking my own show on the road, going out to meet people the length and breadth of the country and using my mediumship to investigate their Ghost Towns…

How did it all start? Since 2001 I had been working on the highly successful Most Haunted television show, but after five series and over 100 investigations I felt it was time to move on. I was asked to stay for one more series and when that was over I was ready for something different. When LIVINGtv offered me the chance to host my own show in a new format, I was delighted.

Richard Woolfe, then director of television for LIVINGtv, and Paul Flexton, managing director of Ruggie Media, who had worked with me on LIVINGtv’s Loose Lips and I’m Famous and Frightened, had a great idea: putting a show on the road – literally. We would go out to the public and investigate their stories. That meant we would investigate shops, offices, pubs, hotels, houses – anywhere in fact where paranormal activity had been reported. Anything could happen – and probably would. I was only too happy to take part.

‘Derek loved the idea. He was ready for a new challenge. He was really excited about the show and he’s loved it ever since. And we’re delighted to be working with the best medium in the country.’

Paul Flexton, executive producer

The show was commissioned in the middle of June 2005 and we had to get moving, as the first series was to go out in October.

Joining me on my journeys around the country would be Danniella Westbrook and Angus Purden. I first met Danniella on Granada Breeze’s Psychic Livetime, though I knew of her work as an actress and, later, as a programme presenter. She had been intrigued by the paranormal ever since she had seen a ghost in her own home and had described presenting a programme on the paranormal as her ‘dream job’, so when the show was put together her name was top of the list.

Strangely enough, Angus also worked as a presenter, was interested in the paranormal and had seen a ghost. As a child he had lived in a house on a hill surrounded by trees, and once he had looked out of his bedroom window and seen a ghostly shape silhouetted there. Later on he had felt guided by his deceased grandmother and had had an accurate psychic reading, but he still didn’t accept everything uncritically.

‘I have always been fascinated by everything from déjà vu to reincarnation, but I’ve always had a certain amount of scepticism too – a healthy scepticism, if you like! I’ve always had to analyse and question everything.’

Angus

When I met him we got on very well and I knew that his open-minded approach would be an asset to the show. And in spite of a few scares along the way, he is loving it!

‘A mad, crazy job that involved working through the night – I had to do it. And it is great fun!’

Angus

Angus and Danniella had never met before, but they also hit it off straightaway and now they enjoy spending time together talking, drinking coffee and going shopping. I have heard a rumour that Danniella has bought clothes in every town so far. She and Angus have even started shopping for colour-coordinated outfits for the show. As we’re usually filming with night-vision cameras, unfortunately the viewing public don’t often get the full benefit!

‘Danniella and I investigate ghosts by night and shops by day. To be honest, I was hoping that I’d be her pet poodle and she’d buy me lots of clothes, but it hasn’t worked out that way!’

Angus

We also work with a very professional and enthusiastic crew. Normally in the fast-paced television world people move on fairly rapidly, but we have the same great team working with us now as at the very beginning, and that’s evidence of the cameraderie that has built up on the show.

My tour manager, Ray, is always with us too, and helps everyone out in so many ways – thank you again, Ray!

In fact we all get on so well that I refer to us as ‘the Ghost Towns family’.

We could go anywhere of course, but so far the towns have been chosen in a number of ways. For the first series it was very much up to the producers where they chose to film. They wanted a variety of settings, not just historic towns but also more modern ones. The only requirements were that there had to be enough people to tell their stories and enough room to get the Ghost Truck in! (This did prove something of a problem in Bedford.) Later on, people started contacting the television company to put forward their own towns. Now we have quite a long list of places to go to…