Village Of The Damned: Most Haunted or Most Faked?
Fans of Most Haunted will doubtless have been watching at least bits of the show’s unprecedented seven nights of four hour broadcasts this week from Denbigh. Well, the question we’re asking is this; is Most Haunted the Most Faked show on TV or are the ‘paranormal events’ literally that? What do you think?
I personally believe it is almost entirely faked and if something genuinely paranormal happens, it’s entirely by accident!
Here’s a link to a much-viewed YouTube video that many claim is categorical proof that it’s all faked.
And here’s another where Yvette tells Paul Ross that Derek Acorah is a fake…
Finally, here’s a video in which it’s claimed Karl can be seen faking whistles…
As both a cynic and an ex-paranormal researcher, I have to say that I believe the show has many levels, but none of them are genuinely to do with the serious investigation of the paranormal. As far as I’m concerned, it’s primarily entertainment and can’t in all honesty be considered a ‘real’ and scientific approach to true paranormal research, so on the one hand, the fact that it is an entertaining and fun show is good enough. Does it really need to be real?
Then there’s the fact that at almost every location there’s whistling, stone throwing and often coin throwing; isn’t that just a tad too convenient and coincidental? I personally think so. How many viewers would tune in each time if nothing ever happened? Not many, so in fairness, they probably have to make things happen just to keep the show on air. I think the stones, coins and whistles are simply explained in that the team have pretty much perfected setting up these events so they’ve stuck to a theme that seems to work. I don’t believe that if spirits exist all they do is stand around whistling, chucking coins and stones… but maybe that’s just me.
I don’t think spirits need total darkness to do their thing either, but it is kinda handy if you’re trying to ‘set up’ a few paranormal events. The other night during the live show, a window was heard to break, stones seemed to be thrown and so on, but I don’t think I’ve ever, ever seen any of these things actually caught on camera in the show. It’s always after it’s happened. If I’d seen the window explode/implode unaided or watched a stone go from the ground, into the air and land, all without a human hand, I’d be convinced.
Likewise, after that stone throwing incident, Cieran hovered the thermal imager over a stone and lo, it was giving off residual heat. Well it would if it had been in someone’s hand for while – a living someone that is.
I watch Most Haunted to see the moments when something that’s ‘unscripted’ really does happen. The difference between planned occurrences and something happening that the team didn’t bank on are profound and usually characterised by swearing, shaking uncontrollably and everyone standing around not quite knowing what to do and/or running off at high speed.
The next issue is I guess is this; what the team are doing is in fact ‘dabbling’ with the paranormal. There are many people who believe this is immoral and wrong and quite possibly dangerous. My thoughts on it are that if spirits exist, they’re probably having a good laugh at the whistles, stone throwing and unearthly coin tossing, but what if it really does in some way ‘disturb’ spirits? Is that justifiable for the sake of television entertainment?
Next on my list of gripes about the show is issue of our – the viewing public – being duped. That said, I personally accept that it’s only entertainment and don’t expect it to be ‘real’, so it doesn’t bother me, but a lot of people were enormously angered by an investigation that The Mirror carried out in 2005. In it, it was claimed that Cieran O’Keefe had exposed Derek Acorah as a fake but it further claimed that Karl and Yvette routinely caused what they later claimed were paranormal events. The article is a lengthy one but here’s a brief extract from it…
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/tm_objectid=16303507&method=full&siteid=94762&headline=spooky-truth–tv-s-most-haunted-con-exposed-tv–name_page.html
“One of our clips, later edited out, shows Karl push an unwitting sound man in the dark and pretend it was a poltergeist attack.
In the remaining footage he says (after surreptitiously hitting the soundman): “S**t, did you feel that?”
Yvette: Are you all right? What’s happened?
Karl: I felt something touch me on my shoulder.
Soundman: I felt something hit me.
And in another edited clip with medium Ian Lawman, Yvette is seen on camera making a deep sigh. In the scene that eventually went to air, Ian (after Yvette sighs) says: “What’s that noise?
Yvette: What noise? Like a moan?
Ian: Breathing or something.”
Now, I’m prepared to be open minded on this, as I know many people are. For every one person who, like me, thinks the show is 100% fake, there are just as many who believe it in its entirety. If one assumes there hasn’t been some camera trickery, the team have had some extremely convincing moments on the show which many believe proves conclusively that spirits do exist.
There’s also the issue of some of the facts that the mediums or psychics come up with. Assuming again that they genuinely have no prior knowledge of their destination and don’t have the opportunity to research it, then one would have to say that their accuracy is at times amazing. Me? I think they either have ear-pieces feeding them info or have researched the locations beforehand.
So what do you think? Is Most Haunted faked but fun anyway or real and a serious series of investigations into the paranormal? Let us know your opinions!
Chat about this on the Unreality TV Forum »
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If Brian or Stewart told me today was Wednesday I would want a second opinion as they are both full of flannel. funny that stuff always happens when there is no one to varify, come on brian you are making a mokery of the gift that we genuine people have and can prove and demonstrate a patent ability.
I spoke to Most Haunted ex-historian Richard Felix once and he also said that it’s all staged. He was maybe a bit bitter about getting sacked by them but I do think that he was saying the truth.
And that broken link to the Mirror’s article should be: http://www.mirror.co.uk/celebs/latest/2005/10/28/spooky-truth-tv-s-most-haunted-con-exposed-tv-115875-16303507/ Mirror must have changed it.
hi last nights voodoos dolls investigation was well good. i dont useally get scared because im a goth but last night freaked me out quite a bit but me mate ian thinks dat u were makin it all up bt i dnt fink u were it was really good. by da way im only 12.
was bit perturbed when Paul Ross was ’selected’ by the ’spirits’ via the ouija board to go on a vigil yet the next night both Yvette and Karl made it perfectly obvious they had chosen him and that they wanted him to go!! they should try a bit harder to keep it ‘real’ if they want to be taken seriously plus how lame are their mediums getting??? what happened to the awesome Gordon Smith does anyone know???
Hi
Love most haunted but im i the only one that saw the medium Brian Sheperd touching his legs and falling around Before they even held the doll or stuck a pin in it, my daughter phoned me just after the experiment and said the same thing…..but nobody has even mentioned this….am i wrong would be interested to see if anyone else saw this, or if you have taped it look back at the voodo doll experiment, just as they hand the doll to Yvette before even saying anything or sticking the pin in, Brian is falling over and lifting his leg, if someone was telling him the doll had arrived they got the timing out of Sync.
But i do love the show and watch it though ive got to say i was really disapointed that nobody has mentioned this…well not that i have read anyway
I too saw the moments when Brian got hurting legs before his cue. He truely is a terrible actor. I am amazed that the show has kept him. I don’t think he is doing them any favours.
Oh at last some people with some sense! I have enjoyed the previous shows especially with medium David Wells – I think he is very good, but what a shambles this week has been. Please, please, please if anyone from Most Haunted Live reads this get rid of that idiot Brian – they must all think we are thick to believe his stupid antics and ridiculous acting he drives me mad! Everynight he has been on and startd up his performance and every night I turn off the telly early. He is doing no favours to this show and making them look like a bunch of fakes, and us for a bunch of fools. I wish I could find the email address for the show as I would email them direct and tell them. And yes I also watched him have pains in his legs before they had even put the pins in the voodoo doll – I think he should earn an oscar for his getting dragged into the room trick when nobody was watching! I wish the spirits would take him away then we could all get back to enjoying the show!
Oh thankgoodness im not alone in seeing this, thought i was going round the twist!
Its a shame because i do enjoy the show and will be watching again tonight.
Also i wish they would shut up when they ask the question, just see what happens instead of..did you hear that! Kath are you alright, if i heard that once i heard it 100 times!
Ive watched this show from the begining like many others, but i noticed they do have a high turn over of staff and that in itself makes me wonder, even the psychologists from the past have gone, its a shame really cause i like yvette and the gang, but hey i will still be checking in at 8pm in the hope they will get something on air.
I also noticed that yvette kept her gloves on for the seance for the first few nights didnt think she could do that, but last night took them off, hmm.
Anyway good luck to them tonight,and i really hope we get something cause im a believer.
But how many times will they say
Kath you Ok?
Karl doesnt feel well
Are you ok stewart?
Brian’s collapsing
hehe oh well all in th spirit of the thing.
But yes please no more of that acting.
hi glad too see so many of you saw the vodoo doll with brain .she never put the needle in him and he started to dance a round could not beleave my eyes .we have sky + and could watch it again and again if your going to fake it get it right .and on the subject please get rid of brain he was crap at the airbase and is still crap .they should use billy he was better
Its definetly Fake! although I have too say…I used to
believe it wasant, and scare the life out of myself.
it has made us laugh all week, all the mistakes are embarrasing, at least its good for a laugh and nothing else…….
if you were watching the webcams on voodoo night you would of seen brian practising his hurt leg acting……
wouldnt you just love real spirits to come and really scare them all!!!!!!
yvette didnt seem too happy when she was alone in the chair
This show is exhausted. It’s full of nothing but lies and fakery. They keep Brian Shepard because he does as he’s told. Whether David Wells is the real deal or not Karl and Stuart treat him terribly. I would have walked long before he did. I feel really sorry for the serious investigators out there who get classed the same. One thing I’d love to do is read interviews from ex crew members. I wonder if they’ve been told to keep quiet because if anyone is going to know things they will. They used an asylum where mentally ill patients once resided in an attempt to boost ratings. I’m sorry but that’s selfish and inconsiderate. As for the voodoo experiment that was classic. But will all the dangerous and disrespectful things that MH do they are also dangerous. It may sound extreme but just imagine someone trying it themselves and what could happen. I wish true and genuine investigators all the best. As for MH…..enough is enough.
Did you also note that before the experimemt started Karl said something like “only stick the pin in the legs so there is some control” It was also as if he knew something the rest didn’t. I am not sure the whole crew are aware, but I am sure Brian, Stuart and Karl are setting things up behind the back of the rest of the crew.
Yes chris I did. I thought it was suspicious and the next day I realised that Karl, Brian and Stuart may have just set something up. I don’t know whether you noticed but Cath actually stuck the pin into the dolls hand not the leg. It proved yet again that it was a farce. Karl and Stuart are master tricksters and I agree that not all the crew know what’s happening but they’ll have their suspicions I’m sure. The fact that so many have left over the years suggests something’s not right. I mean it seemed highly suspect for him to tell Ciaran that in the first place. They’re just getting away with so much. The other snag is that after viewing the clip on Youtube when I tried to find it the day after and ever since it seems to have been removed. I’ve tried several ways of finding it but to no avail I’m afraid. Do you know of any helpful links showings the voodoo clip. I’d be very grateful if you did. Thanks.
Gordon Smith left because he did not agree with the level of “fake” claims and being asked to make up too many stories that he was fed before the investigation.
Someone with some morals has worked on most hunted!!
I’ve said this so many times. How and why are MH getting away with all these lies and fakery? Why aren’t ex crew members speaking up? It doesn’t make sense to me. Living TV are bombarding their channels with barrel dredging programmes and Yvette Fielding laps it up when someone tells her she started it. I just don’t get. Other programmes would’ve been ousted years ago with all the lies and tactics they use. There’s so many people who could help to expose them and get it stopped but they won’t. I’ll say it again I just don’t get it. I wish I did.
MH is obviously faked. They were entertaining until they brought that absolute idiot of a clown, Brian, the man can’t even get a whole phrase out at once, he’s just torture to watch, which is why I only do it in snippets. That voodoo experiment was hysterical, though. Fake medium, fake historian, come on. David Wells was much more convincing (and he did slap Yvette, which I’m sure many of us have felt like doing),Derek at least gave us that priceless “Mary loves Dick” moment, I enjoyed Ian Lawman for the single reason that he once yelled at Karl to shut up. They should at least get better actors, but I think that the current cast shows the series is on its way out.
I think it is fake.
Anyone who has done ghost hunting for real will tell you that incidents are rare.
Also I have noticed the incidents on most haunted are getting stronger and stronger.
It used to be just the odd book falling of a shelf now its voices and bangs every time.
its like they have gotten away with the faking so often that they have now grown over confident.
Some of the earlier shows had more of a feeling of realness about them and I do wonder if the show originally started of as genuine investigations but over time due to its popularity has become fake to keep the ratings up.
After all people wouldn’t keep watching the show if nothing ever happened.
I don’t see the fact it is good entertainment as being a justification for the faking, even WWE admits everything is faked now.
If most haunted is going to be a faked show for entertainment6 purposes then the makers should come clean about rather than trying to con people into believing the program is for real.
foornote Yvette Fielding would make for one of the most useless ghost hunters ever since she screams at every little noise.
[...] really hope though that it’s nothing too serious because for as much as I take the mickey out of Most Haunted, I admire Yvette and Karl a great deal. They’ve both clearly worked hard to [...]
I think most haunted has well passed it’s sell by date when you watch other shows like ghost hunters (taps) they carry out a proper investgation in MH any noise they hear at all is a definate ghost, that idiot stuart always hears every single noise he must have the best hearing in the world then he gets attacked, every show is the same!
Hi – re Ghosthunters, you obviously haven’t read the articles and YouTube clips on how fake this program is. Evidence on YouTube videos
I do believe that there is ’something’ out there ! … but I don’t think that they talk through Derek Acorah and I have seen Derek push a table on his ghost towns programme, when all the othere were looking away from him (I think it was in Sailsbury)…
Also if you look at the second visit they did to Pendle Hill where Karl is rocking backward and forward repeatedly you can see that when the table moves his hand has gone completely under the table when it stayed on his knee before hand… they are just two of many and yes I am dissapointed that they con people and live in a huge grade 2 listed 16th century manor house paid for by the likes of us !