Pipes

Ghostwatch is a British mockumentary supernatural horror television film, first broadcast on BBC1 on Halloween night, 1992. Written by Stephen Volk, and directed by Lesley Manning, the drama was produced for the BBC anthology series Screen One by Richard Broke, Ruth Baumgarten and Derek Nelson. Despite having been recorded weeks in advance, the narrative was presented as live television . During and following its first and only UK television broadcast, the show attracted a considerable furor, resulting in an estimated 1,000,000 phone call enquiries to the BBC switchboard on the night of broadcast, comprising a mixture of complaints and praise for the programme's unique presentation. This outrage is often compared to Orson Welles' 1938 The War of the Worlds radio broadcast and the 1994 Without Warning television film, both of which also allegedly caused nationwide panic in the United States.

Ghostwatch has never been repeated on UK television. It has been repeated internationally, on stations such as the Canadian digital channel Scream for Halloween 2004, and the Belgian channel Canvas in 2008. It became available on the American streaming video service Shudder in 2017, and it was made available on the Internet Archive the same year. There have been three UK home video releases. In 2002, the British Film Institute released a 10th Anniversary edition on VHS and DVD, and 101 Films issued a DVD release in 2011 and a 30th Anniversary Blu-ray release in 2022. In 2016, the BBC Store made the film available as part of the Frightmares collection, marking Halloween.

A retrospective documentary, Ghostwatch: Behind the Curtains, based on the film's lasting impact, was released on DVD in 2013 (having been in production between 2007 and 2012), featuring interviews with many of the original cast and crew. It too was made available as part of the BBC Store Frightmares collection, and shortly after release, the BFI Mediatheque.

Ghostwatch is presented as a live broadcast, hosted by Michael Parkinson, in an attempt to present concrete evidence of paranormal phenomena. To achieve this, the programme launches an on-air investigation into a house in the fictional Foxhill Drive, Northolt, Greater London. Pamela Early (Brid Brennan) and her daughters Suzanne (Michelle Wesson) and Kim (Cherise Wesson) are tormented by a poltergeist referred to by Kim as "Pipes", his name originating from knocking noises attributed to the house's plumbing. Pipes routinely possesses and harms Suzanne, and is said to dwell in a room under the house's stairs.