Ghostwatch: Behind the Curtains

Greetings, Ghostwatchers! Or, should I say, "Aha!"; short of it becoming a bit of an albatross? Recently, I was asked if anything like Ghostwatch had aired prior to its transmission, and I couldn't really remember much more than just three examples. In an attempt to again answer this age-old question in further detail, it wasn't long before I got slightly bored, and gave up; instead briefly looking forward, post- Ghostwatch , by accident. Now, quite rightly, many who find themselves helplessly immersed in the Cinéma Vérité milieu are often keen to discuss at length, the cutting, 1994 & 1997 News & Current Affairs parodies, The Day Today, and Brass Eye, as being among those nearest to reach the peak of comedic, de-constructive, anti-TV satire. Arguably, despite being consistently-humourous, trailblazing, and largely worthwhile endeavours, both series' weekly chosen topics of debate had the occasional habit of being so divisive, and knowingly-dism...

Greetings, Ghostwatchers! To mark this year's 27th Anniversary for Ghostwatch, and Behind the Curtains' 9th National S é ance, I was very fortunate to speak with yet another extremely-talented contributor to the production; Dr. Iain Macdonald, who as you can see by this handy screen-grab, was listed as 'Graphic Designer' during the programme's eerie end-credit scroll. It was great speaking with Iain, and learning more on how his work influenced the show in 1992, including, its very special teaser trailer...

Greetings, Ghostwatchers! Exciting news, with the recent announcement that director, Lesley Manning is helming the new theatrical production, DELIVERY , which shall be playing at The Lion & Unicorn Theatre from 15th – 19th October, 8:00pm. Written by award-winning animator, Andy Walker, ( The Tracy Beaker Story, Show Me Show Me, The Great Rock & Roll Swindle ), the piece stars, Alex Walton (Best Actor, Behind the Arras Theatre Awards) Gordon Peaston (2019 Best Supporting Actor, FilmQuest Int. Film Fest.) Lizzie Aaryn-Stanton (Best Actress, Be Prepared and Drama ), and Barnaby Taylor (2017 Overall Winner Monologue Slam). A production packed with emotion, laughs, and subtlety, selected from hundreds of applicants, DELIVERY is described as, "A journey that travels a road lined with humour, humanity and hope. A life-affirming comedy-drama featuring depressed fruit flies, an amorous slug, and existential sheep." Considering the following, very moving syno...

Greetings, Ghostwatchers! At last, another twelve months have passed, and National Séance 2019 is now officially less than... well, one further month away, I reckon..? And, you know what that means... National Séance 2020 is now officially less than thirteen months away ‒ so, get those Cheese & Pickle sandwiches on stand-by, 'cause we're only 34,214,400 seconds away from a full, uninterrupted decade of séancing, nationally! But first things, first. Will the doc be made available in time to mark the slightly sooner of those upcoming two events? Regrettably, most likely, not. A re-release is still something we're looking into, but so far, the stars have yet to realign since selling-out on DVD, now a fair while back [insert legitimately-plausible, though encouragingly-vague excuse here]. It will happen eventually, though; and with some luck, not too far down the road. x

Greetings, Ghostwatchers! It's happened, again. Yes, Ghostwatch has very kindly been given a mention, this time on ITV's third series of, Harry Hill's Alien Fun Capsule. Which no doubt means the inevitable Foxhill-Xenomorph-crossover-preboot-sidesqual is mere moments away from being green-lit. If that wasn't enough to make or break many a Ghostwatcher's week, Saturday's installment of the popular, satirical, yet inexplicably-futuristic, TV Burp spinoff also saw special-guest appearances by Warwick Davis, Kelly Brook, Charlie Dimmock, and wouldn't you know it, Sarah Greene.

Greetings, Ghostwatchers! Unscrew your Blue Alert bulbs, and get ready to replace them with some red-tinted push-fits, as you guessed it, I'm about to talk about Red Dwarf , again. By now, you no doubt must have realised that I'm a fan. Watching the show is one of my earliest memories, and following the series in the nineties ranks among the most enjoyable past times of my entire life, not counting of course, angling, golf, and the all-time number one. I worked on-and-off for the production company for a number of years, I've sat down for a biryani with one of its creators (after pretending to be a vicar for them), I've currently one of the most comprehensive sets of official trading cards in the world (no, really), and not long back, I redesigned the official magazine Back To Reality, for which I even wroted my first and only fan fiction, exploring a long-mooted suggestion of the cast's to bring back guest actor extraordinaire, Clayton Mark as Elvis.

In one sense, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine was a microcosm. A big microcosm. At its height, the series' parent TV franchise embodied four multitasking programmes that successfully built upon a measured mix of speculation and contextualisation. In broader terms, Star Trek as a whole, dramatically explored the disparate notions of belonging and isolation, love and loss, and the militarisation of peace-keeping. Its very premise was a fascinating contradiction; a series that presumed a future without conflict, but where gunboat diplomacy was part of the day job for an exciting star-fleet of exploratory vessels, each busy combing the cosmos for answers to Life, the Universe, and Everything. Earlier this week, for the first time and in most eager anticipation, I caught a limited, theatrical screening of, What We Left Behind - Looking Back at Star Trek: Deep Space Nine . This new, feature-length retrodoco, revisting the classic television curio (sound familiar?), discusses both th...

Greetings, Ghostwatchers! Seeing as we're still getting quite a few messages coming in via social media pertaining to the return of Behind the Curtains on DVD, download, or some other medium ('8 Track' still being the rank outsider), it finally seems time for as best an update that can be mustered, re the current status of the doc.   You might recall, in October, the @Ghostwatch Twitter account ran a poll enquiring as to the preferred medium for the doc to return, after selling out... ooh, ages ago, now. 'Blu-ray' won the vote with 44%, and we immediately looked into setting up an Indiegogo campaign to help make this happen. Despite some rousing support, the crowdsource/pre-order came up a bit short of the minimum required, so we took a moment to pause and rewind...

Greetings, Ghostwatchers! Bringing you a brand-new GHOSTWATCH mention of note, courtesy of yesterday's afternoon edition of ITV's The Chase, hosted by the perpetually-effervescent, Bradley Walsh. If you haven't seen the highly-popular game show before, a small team of contestants engage in often, unenviable battles of wits against a rotating team of leading quiz masters for the chance to win a cash prize split upwards of four-ways. Its recurrent, inescapable airing typically follows the channel's sister show, Tipping Point; which, opposed to navigating a high-stress environment built on answering rapid-fire questions against the clock, mostly relies on the well-timed jabbing of a silver-sprayed, disc-dropping, plastic plunger, wired to a heaving shelf.

Greetings, Ghostwatchers! I have a theory. Overall quality is measured by complexity of coding. An admittedly simplistic view, perhaps, but if true, one potential reason why some of us have such megalithic aversions to even the barest of spoilers, ahead of our latest, upcoming, un-screened installment, marked on the calendar in red felt pen.