Most Haunted Live! - Notable Events

Notable Events

Most Haunted Live made its debut in 2002, with their first ever live investigation at Dudley Castle. At the time it was the first ever live ghost hunt on British television.

During the Dick Turpin episode at New Year 2003/4, Derek came up with the quote 'Mary Loves Dick'. Footage leaked onto the internet recorded off the satellite feed from the location back to the studio shows the team falling about laughing after handing back to Dr David Bull in the hub.

In February 2004 the team visited Stratford upon Avon, where a spoon was thrown in Yvette's direction, terrifying her. Derek was possessed.

Derek's possessions continued at their next investigation in Essex, where he was possessed twice in one night.

For Halloween 2004, the team visited Pendle Hill in Lancashire. It is regarded widely as one of the most terrifying investigations so far, with many members of the crew collapsing, being sick with some escorted outside. Furthermore an ouija board was spinning out of control constantly answering to all questions cultimating in the glass flying off the table and smashing on the floor and the table itself collapsing.

In June 2005, the Most Haunted team visited the city of Wakefield in West Yorkshire. Here, Fielding chose to do a lone vigil on the stage at Wakefield theatre, and whilst exiting the stage a series of large moans and groans were heard and Yvette suddenly broke down into tears on the stage. Also in Wakefield at the National Coal Mining Museum, Derek Acorah was supposedly pulled down the mine shaft by a spirit. Most Haunted Live in Wakefield was the most watched programme on television that night.

The 17th edition of this paranormal investigation series took place for Halloween 2005 in London. It was, at the time, the longest live to date and marked the end of an era as fans bid farewell to medium Derek Acorah and the original Most Haunted Live presenter, David Bull who both left at the end of the fourth and final night.

This series returned for its 19th edition in May 2006 where Yvette Fielding and the team spent three nights investigating haunted locations in Portsmouth including an experiment in which two crew members were buried alive. The show changed considerably as everyone welcomed their new presenter Paul Ross and historian Lesley Smith. She replaced Richard Felix. While Ross is still involved, Smith has said on her personal Myspace page that, after the death of her mother she has decided to pull out of Most Haunted indefenetly.

However, Paul Ross wasn't originally the choice for David Bull's replacement. The team gave Jamie Darling a chance to present the show when it spanned 3 nights in Liverpool at the end of 2005; however, he proved not to be such a success.

Halloween 2006 saw the team investigate the series of underground vaults beneath Edinburgh that had been visited in a previous episode in Series 3. This is considered as another of the more unnerving investigations. On the second night, three members of the crew were violently slashed by an unseen force on their backs and legs resulting in excessive bleeding causing the team to cancel the investigation early.

On February 23, 2007, for the first time in a live programme, the team visited an overseas location. This investigation was held in Hunyad Castle in Transylvania, Romania. The team attempted to make contact with the spirit of Vlad III the Impaler thought to be the inspiration behind the legend of Dracula. David Wells did pick up on the entity of Vlad but however he said he only haunts the castle as a residual energy. Yvette Fielding also slapped her husband, Karl, live on air as she thought he was possessed and he was getting out of control. Over the three nights only a small amount of activity was caught however there was footage of an apparent manifestation although this is yet to be proved unanimously.

On June 1, 2007, Most Haunted Live joined forces with the Travel Channel in the USA to broadcast a live show from Eastern State Penitentiary in Pennsylvania. The format was also changed from the usual three night, three-hour format to be a one night special lasting seven hours through to the early hours of June 2. Because of the time differences the show was not broadcast in the UK and viewers in the USA were the sole target audience.

Antix Productions then broadcast live for 5 nights for their Most Haunted Live on Halloween 2007. The studio was set up in Tatton Park, Cheshire. The team visited multiple sites across the country beginning in Northern England and ending on Halloween in Wales with the locations plotted out to the five points of a satanic pentagram (one point down, two points up).

The 25th UK audience event also lasted five nights and was broadcast from Turin in Italy, starting on 26 March 2008. It was the team's third event broadcast from an overseas location. The theme of the event was based on Turin's historic nickname of "Satan's City." With the departure of David Wells, Salisbury native Brian Sheperd a guest medium during series four/five of Most Haunted, served as medium for this show. An American medium, Patrick Mathews, also appeared in the hub to give more guidance and views.

On August 29, 2008, the Most Haunted Live team contributed to the celebration of 15 years of the channel LIVING by conducting the first ever continuous 3 day and 3 night paranormal, underground investigation. The theme of the live event was Total Darkness. Over the three-day period, the team visited the London Tombs, Aldwych tube station (featured in Series 1, 2002) and finished off in the Cabinet War Rooms at the end of the month.

During a webchat, in reply to a question about the show going off air at midnight, Beattie stated: "We are looking at something special for Halloween as we want to do longer investigations in the UK". Indeed the halloween event was their biggest show to date broadcasting from Saturday, 25 October, until Friday, 31 October, making it 7 nights long. The team investigated a derelict Asylum in Denbigh, North Wales. After Most Haunted televised at the asylum, the hall that was used as the studio has been completely destroyed by a fire.

Most Haunted Live returned on January 10, 2009 for another week long investigation where each night the Most Haunted team, led by Yvette Fielding, looked for the seven manifestations of evil. Each night was shot at various locations around Liverpool with the studio based at St. George's Hall in the City Centre. During this event both mediums Brian Shepard and Billy Roberts alleged an evil spirit called Jake was following the team on their vigiles. During a seance the group allegedly made contact with the spirit of Jake, whom Brian expressed concerns over, believing the entity to be more of a demon than a mere spirit. On Night Five the team encountered Jake once again at Salmesbury Hall. During an experiment, Stuart Torevell was seated in a room alone in front of a mirror with a dummy stood behind, then later kicked the mirror shouting "evil bastard". Stuart had apparently frozen in fear just before the incident and later told of how the dummy behind him had developed a face with an evil grin but as he rose, the face changed back to normal. After this, the sound man also conducted a solo vigile in the room and reported witnessing the same thing as Stuart, startled by what he had allegedly seen he shouted for backup. Later on that evening, the crew experienced numerous banging noises around Salmesbury Hall. During the sixth night whilst conducting a seance, the team allegedly made contact with the spirit of Jake's father and it was then that Karl realised the name Jake is another name for the devil, confirmed by historian Lesley Smith and Capel, Surrey's demonologist Fred Batt. He was also the owner of Caesar's Nightclub in Streatham.

In June 2009 it was reported that Most Haunted Live would return for 7 nights for an investigation of Poveglia Island in Italy. Some reports say that a trailer aired once on Living TV before being scrapped. Paul O'Grady was due to take part – announcing on his show, while Yvette Fielding was a guest - 'I'm going off with her again very soon...'

The reported missing live became a two part pre-recorded special called 'Death in Venice' with Yvette and Paul O'Grady.

Halloween 2009 saw Most Haunted Live return after an 8 month wait. It was an eight night investigation broadcast from Morecambe, with the team travelling (usually) to Lancaster. This particular live event saw the return – after almost 6 years – of former Most Haunted paranormal investigator Phil Whyman.

Most Haunted Live returned for its first Live of 2010 on Saturday, 9 January 2010, for a seven night live investigation from RAF West Raynham called Most Haunted Live: The Silent Town, with Dr. John Callow returning as the Historian. Fred Batt didn't return for this live, but he posted on his Facebook networking page, it was due to unforeseen circumstances. Another addition to the live, was Most Haunted Live: Post Mortem which was shown each night 8 pm-9 pm on Livingit (Living2) instead of it being broadcast 8 pm-9 pm on Living. And the Main investigation was shown 9 pm – 12 am on Living. Lighting facilities were provided by television specialists Panalux.

During the 3rd night on the January 2010 live Yvette Fielding and Ciaran O' Keeffe had an on-air argument, due to Ciaran claiming tapping noises were simply members of the crew clicking their toes. Fielding completely dismissed the idea, with Paul Ross defending the Most Haunted team, on the basis that Ciaran was trying to be too sceptical. The shooting of 'The Silent Town' drew national media attention when an internet-based group announced their intention to disrupt filming and offered a reward to anyone who assaulted Yvette Fielding. Another group later announced an intention to firebomb her, causing new headlines and increased security.

It was announced at the start of March 2010 that Most Haunted Live would return at the end of the month for the show's 6th overseas live show, from Prague. The show ran for four nights, returning to the shorter format than the usual 5 to 8 nights of recent times. This was the first ever event to not feature a medium. Local mediums from Prague were used for two of the nights.

It was thought the show would return on Halloween 2010, but Living decided to replace Most Haunted with a new show, Paranormal Investigation: Live. http://www.paranormalinvestigationlive.co.uk/

As of March 2010 'Most Haunted Live' has broadcast 108 live episodes and 35 live events. Thirty One have been broadcast for a UK audience and 3 to a USA audience.