Paranormal Television

What would you like to see in a television programme based on the paranormal?

also....

What would make good paranormal television viewing?

The answers may not be the same.

Sadly it probably wouldn't be interesting enough, but a ONElife syle programme on the people in groups investigating the paranormal would be good - not a joky five minute segment on the news but a slice of life as to what these people get up to. After all, ghostbusters it ain't, but there are enough reports to keep people busy. Maybe a club out there needs to get a you tube channel! "Day one in the haunted big brother house and darren is stalking the halls with an axe shouting 'redrum'" well maybe not that bad...

I think horizon did a few good programmes on wierd science, and it feels about time that paranormal TV got a good press again.

A historic 'crimewatch' version would be good - lady of the manor kills herself in the middle ages, then in the 21st Century: "witnesses saw a hooded figure cross the street, were you there that night? Did you see anything strange? etc"

As long as the shows don't "try" and solve the mystery in the space of the half hour/hour long show, only for it to go right full-circle to where it started, with no answers or progress. There's more than a few seem to circulate on Nat Geo channel. They're really quite bad. If it keeps a well-balanced view, and just introduces the viewer to the mystery, then it would fare well I reckon.

Animal X, Fortean TV, Unsolved Mysteries; these were good shows on the paranormal.

'Strange But True' was ok. I have almost forgiven them for throwing me on the cutting room floor.......GURANGA...Therapy is good

I would like to see something that approaches the subject in a sensible fashion. Hi-light what can be debunked and why, then show where the real mysteries are.

You can't really show vigils unless you make them like Most Haunted because they would be boring.

I once got approached by a TV producer about a show that was planned to be a cross between Time Team and Scooby Do. An Invetsigator a medium or two and someone to keep the peace arrive in a van and have three days to solve the haunting. It just wouldn't work without scooby snacks and cowardly Great Dane I feel.

What about something like the Christmas Lectures in a haunted house. Make the subject entertaining and educational at the same time.

I like that idea - maybe a bit like the film events in the UK recently - Show Monty Python and the Holy Grail in the castle, Jaws on the beach, The Descent in a deep cave! So a lecture on ghosts in, say, a location able to cope with an audience, that is thought to be haunted and a roaming camera crew and volunteers to point out the areas of interest. You'd get a history of an area, the location and maybe a few witnesses, done in the laid back Christmas Lectures style. I think the tv aproach of immediate results done in the syle of Big Brother brashness is what's killing tv creativity in involving the paranormal. All everyone thinks about ghosts on tv now is 'most haunted' - it's almost like they are being paid to create a mockery of the subject, just like hollywood has treated ufo's, but milking the subject is what the olden day spiritualists did as well. Maybe Derren Brown needs to get a show exposing the hoaxes more - I'd pay to see the documentary expose of Derek Acora that was done.... and yet still he carries on with the mumbo jumbo - it's like the cults declaring the world will end in 2004, then being proved wrong so they invent something else - Derek seems to go from one 'scary haunting' to the next with nothing at all happening! I loved the you-tube infra-red cam investigation with the guys scaring themselves at nothing "MAKE A SOUND IF YOU ARE THERE!" "BANG!" Hahahaha!

Mysterious Britain tv series - I like it

What about taking a number of reputedly haunted locations and making a series that looks at the ongoing investigations at these locations over a year or six months. Each episode could spend a portion of its time at each location, so you are getting an update on each case, each episode. Look at new witness accounts as they come in. Looking for natural explanations and covering any experiments done along the way. Maybe even have a few re-enactments and some interviews with witnesses. Discuss the relevant theories and how they could apply to each case. Have one central investigation co-ordinator in charge of all cases with a team at each that swap over and help each other out etc.

The above idea sounds ok Ian but it all depend upon how interesting the locations are and how good the presenters are. Tony Robinson is great on Time Team and Michael Aspell was good on Strange But True. Who would make a good presenter? Didn't Dan (Ghostbusters) Ackroyd present some sort of paranormal based programme in America?