Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie
Help Keep Boards Alive. Support us by going ad free today. See here: https://subscriptions.boards.ie/

Derek Acorah

  • 29-01-2006 01:01PM
    #1
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,845 ✭✭✭


    Hi guys,

    I was totally enthralled by Most Haunted and I always really liked and believed Derek Acorah. I have a couple of his books and I find him very interesting.

    However, I was surprised to read recently that alot of people are convinced and claim to know that not only is the show a fake but so is Derek Acorah.

    Does anybody have any insight into this or any thoughts on it?

    Thanks


Comments

  • Posts: 6,219 ✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    28 October 2005
    SPOOKY TRUTH: TV'S MOST HAUNTED CON EXPOSED TV
    By Matt Roper
    THE TV show that has spooked millions with its footage of hauntings and poltergeists is today exposed as a fake - by one its own stars.

    Resident parapsychologist Dr Ciaran O'Keeffe has sensationally lifted the lid on the ghosthunting series, Most Haunted ... and claims that the public are being deceived by "showmanship and dramatics."

    He accuses the show's medium Derek Acorah of hoodwinking viewers by pretending to communicate with spirits and obtaining information about locations prior to filming.

    The Mirror has also obtained unedited footage which appears to show presenter Yvette Fielding and her husband faking 'paranormal' occurrences such as ghostly bumps and knocks.

    Most Haunted has quickly achieved cult status since it was launched in 2002 and is LivingTV's most successful programme.

    Millions of viewers tune in regularly to watch Ex-Blue Peter girl Yvette and her team of ghost hunters spend the night in some of Britain's most haunted locations.

    It has made Acorah - who claims to be guided by an Ethiopian spirit guide called Sam - into one of the country's best-known psychics.


    Tonight the show will start its biggest ever live vigil, a four-night Halloween special from East London following the murderous trail of Jack the Ripper.

    Yvette Fielding has said of the show - which is made by her husband Karl Beattie's production company Antix Productions: "There is no acting in this programme, none whatsoever. Everything you see and you hear is real. It's not made up, it's not acted."

    But our investigation reveals how the programme uses careful editing to mislead viewers and, on at least one occasion, has even lied about the location of filming.

    Ciaran, a lecturer in the paranormal at Liverpool's Hope University, knows speaking out will probably put an end to his media career... but he believes viewers should know the truth.

    He says: "I think it's time to open the dialogue about what I've experienced on Most Haunted. There have been many incidents with the medium that have been brushed under the carpet.

    "I was put in the show to give a professional slant to it, to give it an element of credibility, but the sceptical argument is just swept away.

    "In my opinion, we're not dealing with genuine mediumship."

    He says he isn't the only member of the crew who feels viewers are being cheated.

    "Other crew members have been irked by Derek and what's going on, because it turns what should be a serious investigation into a laughing matter."

    And our exclusive footage shows other members of the team occasionally forget they are on camera.

    One of our clips, later edited out, shows Karl push an unwitting sound man in the dark and pretend it was a poltergeist attack.

    In the remaining footage he says (after surreptitiously hitting the soundman): "S**t, did you feel that?"

    Yvette: Are you all right? What's happened?

    Karl: I felt something touch me on my shoulder.

    Soundman: I felt something hit me.

    And in another edited clip with medium Ian Lawman, Yvette is seen on camera making a deep sigh. In the scene that eventually went to air, Ian (after Yvette sighs) says: "What's that noise?

    Yvette: What noise? Like a moan?

    Ian: Breathing or something.

    Yvette: I heard like an 'arrggh'.

    Ciaran, who joined Most Haunted in April 2004 became suspicious of Acorah's antics on a shoot at Castle Leslie, Co Monaghan in Ireland where a 17th Century four-poster bed has been claimed to levitate.

    Ciaran recalls: "As we walked into the bedroom, Derek touched the bed and came out with extremely accurate information.

    "He insisted he got all the information just from touching the bed. But it was the wrong bed."

    Antix Productions claims the mediums have no idea where they will be filming or know any details about the history of the locations.

    But Ciaran says: "Derek must have had prior knowledge of the locations."

    He devised a plan to see if Derek was deliberately deceiving the public.

    While on a shoot at Bodmin gaol he invented a long-dead South African jailer called Kreed Kafer - an anagram of Derek Faker.

    "I wrote the name down and asked another member of the crew to mention it to Derek before filming.

    "I honestly didn't think Derek would take the bait. But during the filming he actually got possessed by my fictional character!"

    On the next shoot at Prideaux Place, Cornwall, Ciaran made up another fictional character, highwayman Rik Eedles - an anagram of Derek Lies. Sure enough, Derek made contact with the dead outlaw.

    Ciaran says: "In my professional opinion we're not dealing with a genuine medium.

    "When Derek is possessed he is doing it consciously - all we are seeing is showmanship and dramatics."

    Ciaran went a step further at Craigievar Castle, near Aberdeen.

    "I made up stories about Richard the Lionheart, a witch, and Richard's apparition appearing to walk through a wardrobe - the lion, the witch and the wardrobe!" True to form, Derek mentioned all Ciaran's stories - even though Richard I reigned 500 years BEFORE Craigievar Castle was built.

    The final straw came last month when Most Haunted presented a three-night special from Manchester.

    On the second evening, the show claimed to be broadcasting live from the site of Cheadle's Victorian asylum, a place where - according to presenter David Bull - thousands died in torment. In fact they were in the derelict remains of Barnes Convalescence Home - where nobody died in torment.

    Ciaran remembers: "Derek was communicating with spirits that sounded as if they'd been in an asylum, but it was never an asylum."

    Yesterday the Mirror confronted Derek Acorah with Ciaran's allegations. He told us: "I've worked with Ciaran for many shows and he's got every right to say what he says.

    "However, it does shock and surprise me. Not only do I believe that I am a genuine medium - I live my work 24 hours a day. If I thought that I wasn't a true medium, I wouldn't work as one."

    A spokesman for LivingTV said: "Ciaran O'Keeffe has worked as the programme's official sceptic for 18 months and during this time has not brought any of his concerns to our attention.

    "LivingTV has not seen any of your filmed evidence, but will fully investigate your claims."


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,845 ✭✭✭py2006


    Hmmmmm interesting!


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,484 ✭✭✭Quackles


    Aww, I'm devastated. I thought Derek was cool. It used to be about the music, man...


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,388 ✭✭✭Kernel


    Ah, another Derek 'The Bull****ter' Acorah thread. Nice. When's the next 'Good psychic or medium' thread coming? :rolleyes:


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,845 ✭✭✭py2006


    Kernel wrote:
    Ah, another Derek 'The Bull****ter' Acorah thread. Nice. When's the next 'Good psychic or medium' thread coming? :rolleyes:

    Not all of us live on the net and not all of us live on boards.ie

    I aint knocking Derek at all! I actually think he is legit!


  • Advertisement
  • Posts: 6,219 ✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    py2006 wrote:
    Not all of us live on the net and not all of us live on boards.ie

    I aint knocking Derek at all! I actually think he is legit!

    nor am i, i just posted up report for people to read and make up their own minds. personally i don't know whether he's a fake or not but one thing i can be sure on is that i miss him on Most Haunted, it's not the same without him.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,845 ✭✭✭py2006


    hellboy99 wrote:
    nor am i, i just posted up report for people to read and make up their own minds. personally i don't know whether he's a fake or not but one thing i can be sure on is that i miss him on Most Haunted, it's not the same without him.

    I haven't watched it in a while! Has he left it completely? I know he has his own show now but it looks kinda crap!

    I think he has a very good presense and personality! Even if he is a fake you can't help but be engaged by what he has to say!

    I like John Edwards aswell!


Advertisement