Ghosts at the BBC (Part II of II)

CAN WE EXPLAIN THE POLTERGEIST? (1965)

40 MINUTES: GHOST TRAIN (1989)

Cambridge University's George Owen is our stilted guide for CAN WE EXPLAIN THE POLTERGEIST?, a meandering half-hour which questions orthodox science and the components of historical and contemporary noisy spirits. Owen had written a book under the same title, which won the 1963 Parapsychology Foundation Award for Original Treatises.

BATTERSEA in the 1950s and Enfield in the 1970s are two cornerstones in UK poltergeist activity. This type of paranormal event is harder to define than ghosts; even parapsychologists can't agree on its nature: are they entities which prefer physical disturbances, such as knocking, throwing cups across a room and upturning furniture, or rather unknown energies driven by stress? They certainly like to mess with your stuff, but so do attention-seeking adolescents intent on pranks. The pointed question CAN WE EXPLAIN THE POLTERGEIST? was asked by George Owen - Fellow and Mathematics lecturer at Trinity College, Cambridge - an academic archetype who quickly reassures the viewer that "poltergeists are even rarer than murder." 

Hardly Fox Mulder, Owen investigates three occurrences, beginning with the then topical case of Swansea housewife Mrs Marcia Howell. Secondly, events from the early 1960s are recounted from the famous Sauchie, Scotland story of Virginia Campbell. Here, family physician William Logan is given extended screen time in reading from Virginia's diary, and his own experience in seeing "puckering" bed sheets and pillows. For our final tale we are off with George to Northfleet, Kent, for what the presenter intriguingly refers to as "another type" of poltergeist. However, after he describes footsteps, strange smells, female apparitions and a glowing, levitating bed, he probably means haunted house.

Despite its haphazard nature, GHOST TRAIN and its ilk are certainly preferable to modern documentaries and YouTube ghost hunters.

You could travel by Intercity into GHOST TRAIN, an episode of the 40 MINUTES documentary strand which ran on BBC2 from 1981 to 1994. We open with four nurses setting up to spend the night in "the most haunted house in Britain" - Chingle Hall near Preston - to raise money for their hospital. Then a cut to Helen McCormick - who has "always seen ghosts" - living in Chorley. She recounts a large crucifix being found in her cellar; soon after, Mrs McCormick starts to see a monk - who she calls Dominic - walk past her kitchen window. While sketching the figure, which is now seen frequently inside the house, Helen is clearly not worried, calling him a "lovely" ghost who once did a little dance.

Next up is Reverend Jack Richardson at Harnham Hall in Northumberland. Here he blesses the earthly remains of Kate Babington, who died as a prisoner in 1670, in the hope of putting her spirit to rest. This uninspiring trip is followed by a bus driver telling of how he rescued his aunt after a warning from an apparition, and a schoolgirl seeing her deceased grandmother. Lastly we have civil engineer and part-time clairsentient Eddie Burks summoned by RAF Linton-On-Ouse to contact the ghost of an airman. Burks describes his abilities in releasing forms from their predicament as "like turning a key and letting someone out of prison."

Built in the shape of a cross, Chingle Hall has suffered almost every type of paranormal phenomena over its long history, from apparitions and poltergeists, to EVP and spontaneous combustion of wooden beams.

As the train speeds through the countryside we see a number of disembodied talking heads, with snippets of creepy tales and spooky facts adding to the random feel. The credits roll with a nurse's catch up, who discuss their time at Chingle Hall with the current owner. Unfortunately there is nothing too interesting in their draughts, door knocking and a stopped watch. In the end, as our impromptu train passenger himself turns to the other side, the carriage cleaner fittingly puts a newspaper report about the nurses in the bin.

Chingle Hall was a long-held fascination for author Peter Underwood and occultist Dennis Wheatley. Originally known as Singleton Hall, Eleanor de Singleton was born in 1567, and both of her parents died before she reached the age of six. Eleanor was then reputedly imprisoned by her guardians, whereby the two uncles repeatedly sexually abused her. Eleanor's harrowing story ended when she either gave birth to a Hydrocephalic baby, or she survived only to be murdered. Together with this understandably tortured soul, there is also the story of Franciscan priest John Wall, born at the Hall in 1620. Hung, drawn and quartered for not forsaking his religion, a group of nuns were said to have brought his head back to Chingle and buried it somewhere within its boundaries.

GHOST TRAIN illustrates the needs of the human mind as much as what lies beyond. Like all supernatural compilations, it is a casebook for wishful thinking and personal yearning.

If you are told a house is haunted, chances are you will amplify every noise, creak and temperature change into an unnatural situation. Even though we can hallucinate under a variety of scientific notions - sleep deprivation, high stress, infrasonic waves et al - it is easier to tell a spooky yarn. This sense of unnerving historical and psychological baggage truly haunts the human psyche. We are hard-wired to make sense of the nonsensical, and to present narratives to relieve repressed anxieties. Still possessing a predatory fear, ghost stories are linear in their make-up, retreading the same elements because we refuse to accommodate scientific advancement. Be it William Logan's moving pillows or Helen McCormick's friendly monk, they are imprints of vulnerable locations and reassuring religion. Unfortunately, brain chemistry will remain the biggest mystery of all, as we fail to accept the eternal abyss.