Denbigh Hospital and what price entertainment?
Post categories: Denbigh, Denbighshire, Hot Topics, Music / Entertainment, Ruthin
| 09:13 UK time, Sunday, 26 October 2008
Most Haunted presenter Paul Ross told the audience gathered to watch the opening of the paranormal programme's controversial seven night show live from Denbigh Hospital that they would be sensitive to people's feelings.
After all, in the '90s this was still a working mental hospital, a home to patients and place of work to the staff who cared for them.
But what with talk of planned vigils including people in padded cells and strait-jackets, his words might prove to be empty and locals had started to call the programme bad taste before it even went on air [BBC Local: Will patients be turning in their graves? | 'Damned' TV show under fire | Daily Post: Show blasted as tasteless | Your comments: Helencard and Hydra]
So last night a couple of us went along to see for ourselves.
As 200 or so people queued in the long, dark and damp corridor of the catering area [photo: kitchen staff in 1950 pictured where we queued], the rain came in through the roof and ran along the old electric wiring and formed puddles were we stood watching our breath rise.
A simple wall mounted light box conveyed to us the size of this amazing building, a bank of broken red bulbs and names of ward [photo: typical ward and staff] which once lit up when meals were ready. Even staff in the 'Tailors' Room' had their food prepared for them.
We were ushered into the atmospheric ballroom [photo: recent | Christmas 1935] along more dimly-lit corridors of debris, broken windows and taped-off doorways.
As we entered this once grand room, a rotten collapsing stage in front of us, first we were struck by the peeling walls and then, looking harder, we could see the sketches of entities supposedly in the hospital which had been drawn earlier by Most Haunted's psychic artist Brian.
Enter stage left presenter Paul Ross, as warm and funny off air as he was on. And that's what this was - a stage-managed show.
In the middle of the audience, Yvette [chatty and friendly off air] and her gang of sceptics and mediums gathered around an ouija board on a glass mounted see through table - as if that was to make the 'experiment' authentic.
Before going on air, she stood to chant a Tibetan verse and use a vibration 'singing' bowl - apparently to summon the spirits - as the floor manager interrupted '5 seconds to on-air'. Clearly, she believed in what they were doing.
But as psychic Brian began to hear from 16th century spirit Belle, and told the audience there were 92 other spirits in the room with us, the stage manager piped up again, 'off-air every body'.
And with that the group broke the cirlce around the ouija board without a 'by-your-leave' to the assembled ghosts to move on to the next location. Do spirits of the departed have feelings too?
This is at the heart of the concern of locals; That entertainment should not be at the expense of others, be it the memory of the dead or the feelings of the ones they leave behind.
© MMIX~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~12~RS~)
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Interesting insight.
I should declare an interest by saying that: a) I am - was - a big fan of 'Most Haunted' and b) I am sympathetic to those who claim to be able to communicate with spirit.
With that said, it does occur to me that one of the problems for 'Most Haunted' is that, if they are to maintain their contract with their broadcaster, the show has to contain something interesting to viewers. Generally speaking, in their pre-recorded shows, there is always something curious to report. If there isn't, they seem to resort to wobbly tables and spinning glasses.
The pressures on the live show are different. The live shows generate a large income for the broadcaster. Indeed, there was an outtake on YouTube recently where Yvette Fielding can herself be explictly heard to say that she dislikes the live shows as the momentum is constantly disrupted. Yvette is candid enough with her audience to have declared that she would prefer it if they could cut back on the number of ad breaks. But they cannot. This is commercial television.
I share your reservations if spirits - where they are really present - are being used for dramatic effect and then dumped without as much as a word of gratitude for their messages. Problem is, all too often on Most Haunted Live, the only 'proof' of a spirit comes in the form of a table with a wonky leg being wobbled, a glass being pushed around a table top (and YouTube has some nice footage analysing that), a spoon being thrown at the crew, or people passing out on cue.
I have often felt that Most Haunted and John Major's Tories have something in common - the need for 'back to basics'. In the case of 'Most Haunted', there was a genuine humility and sincerity in seasons one and two which seems to have become more and more diluted in the never ending endeavour for evidence.
Sure, if the show had stayed static with the approach of the first two seasons, it would have probably been as dead a show now as the spirits it tries to provide evidence of. And therein lies the pressure of commercial television. People want to be entertained. 'Most Haunted' is great entertainment. And in a world of entertainment consisting of 'Big Brother' and 'X Factor', the personalities now masquerading under the 'Most Haunted' brand should reflect on what is real, what is necessary, and what is an effected personality bidding to win the star prize.
The aim of 'Most Haunted' is a great one. Some of the personalities associated with the show are very likeable people. The premise is right and very welcome. Yet your reservations about what they are doing and why are shared by me - nowhere moreso than in the apparently 'live' shows which often smack of Victorian parlour game trickery. Indeed, most of the results witnessed on 'Most Haunted' in recent times have been based around the Victorian parlour game 'evidence' that you suggest was taking place yet again.
'Most Haunted' would be much better without the effects and the spirits they seek to witness might be more prepared to come forward if they felt their presence wouldn't become a theatrically degrading instance of humbug.
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