Most Haunted Live: A Nightmare On East Drive - Halloween Special 2015 Review 🎃
This article is more than nine years old and was last updated in August 2018.
For the first time since 2010 Yvette Fielding and the Most Haunted team embark of a live interactive investigation. This Halloween special follows on from the two-part investigation of 30 East Drive, Pontefract.
The location has already proved to be a formidable one for the team and Yvette swore never to return to this seemingly ordinary three-bedroom house on the Chequerfield Estate. The team were joined by a special guest and friend of the show, Paul O'Grady and for the first ever the broadcast extended into the witching hour, beyond midnight.
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Is 30 East Drive Haunted?
The house is said to be haunted by the Black Monk of Pontefract who was executed on the site long before the house was built. He's sometimes also called Father Michael or simply Fred. The haunting started in 1966 when Jean Pritchard moved in to the house with her husband Joe, 15-year-old son Philip, and 12-year-old daughter Dianne. The strange phenomenon started on a hot summer's day, a fine layer of chalk-like dust appeared from just below the ceiling, and from this moment on the inexplicable paranormal events escalated.
Pool of water mysteriously formed on the kitchen floor, and all attempts to dry it were thwarted. The council visit the house to investigate and even dug up the kitchen floor.
Green foam oozed out of taps after the water was turned off, lights were turned off and on, plants leapt out of their pots and landed on the stairs, cupboards shook violently, doors banged, photographs were slashed by sharp blades, and countless object were witnessed levitating or being thrown.
Some of the reported incidents were much more violent. On once occasion a large grandfather clocks at the top of the stairs was pushed over causing it to tumble down the stairs and smash. But even this is tame compared to the night it dragged Dianne up the stairs. The young girl was standing at the bottom of the stairs when she felt a strange sensation, as her long hair started to stand on its end. Without warning she was suddenly flung to the ground and dragged kicking and screaming up the stairs. After the event the seriously traumatised girl was being comforted and finger marks were clearly visible on her throat.
The family eventually left the house but the hauntings didn't stop, some say they got worse.
The Story So Far...
The new series of Most Haunted started on Really a couple of weeks ago, it started with a two-part investigation of 30 East Drive. In this first visit to the house, the team were already given a rough ride.
They experienced marbles being thrown at them, an experiment with ping pong balls resulted in an unseen force moving the balls across the floor, Karl Beattie collapsed in one of the bedrooms, and the spirit even communicated its name as Carl Anthony.
Most scarily Karl and Stuart Torevell both had identical marks made across their arms which looked like rope burns, and a knife was seemingly moved of its own accord.
Studio Host: Rylan Clark
The studio elements of the show were presented by 'X Factor' finalist and 'Celebrity Big Brother' winner, Rylan Clark. I've never really seen Rylan in anything before, but I thought he did a really good and professional job of pulling the show together.
He started off by making a big deal of the fact the team are continuing their investigation through the midnight hour until 12:25am, apparently broadcasting live past midnight is a first for Most Haunted. Although, I'm pretty sure they've broadcast past midnight before, most memorably when the team broadcast live from York on New Year's Eve 2003 and the sound of fireworks could be heard in the background at midnight.
Rylan set the scene by reminding us, this is "not a Georgian manor, not an old museum. This is a straight forward semi-detached house. This one is said to be the lair of the most violent poltergeist that has manifested anywhere."
Rylan introduced us to the Most Haunted team and found out how they're feeling ahead of tonight's investigation. Yvette said she's only going back in for the fans of the show and because her husband, Karl has bribed her with shoes, handbags and jewellery.
Although he didn't really want to go back into the house, Karl said, "it's a great place, we've gotta go back. There's too many unanswered questions, you can't leave that, that's a house we have to continue investigating in." Rylan hands over to Jamie East.
Your Reactions: Jamie East
I wasn't familiar with Jamie East, he began his television career presenting the Big Brother spin-off show 'Big Brother's Bit On The Side'. Jamie's role on Most Haunted was collate all of the messages being sent in from viewers via Twitter.
Jamie was bombarded with the usual madness. Most of the messages he read out were people who thought they saw something in that background during the show, usually faces of shadows. One tweeter said she saw a face through a window and "thought I was seeing things" ...she probably was.
Another who contacted the show claimed everything from a coal fire turning itself on, I mean who even had coal fires nowadays? Someone else said their printer was making noises despite not being turn on, a tumble drier started on its own and jumped forward, and pets were reported to be going "apeshit."
Jamie did a pretty job of dealing with this madness, he did keep saying that perhaps the producers could look back at footage to validate the audience's claims, "maybe we can get someone to go back and have a look at that." But we never got a rewind.
Jamie also explained the live webcams which were supporting the night's investigation. There were three cameras placed in the most active parts of the house.
The first is in the coal hole, a small room near the front door where a negative force is said to lock in the unsuspecting.
Another locked off camera was placed in the dinning room overlooking Eamonn Van-Harris's EVP experiment.
A third static camera was places at the bottom of the staircase, where the young girl was once dragged by unseen hands and a clock toppled over and fell down the stairs. Dark shadows and moaning have been witnessed here.
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The Team Enter The House
Then it was time to enter the house, and Yvette was first in followed by camera man Gregg Smith and sound recordist Darren Hutchinson. As Yvette walked through the door, Rylan wished her luck, "be safe babe."
Upon entering number 30 was in total darkness, the lights were off and all the windows had been blacked out. The first room they entered into was the kitchen where Eamonn was waiting to talk Yvette through his impressive looking EVP machine.
Of course, the aim of an EVP experiment is to capture sprit voice in audio recordings, a technique known as electronic voice phenomenon. Eamonn then went off on a bit a pseudoscience techno rant. Pointing to a bit of the kit, he said "we usually use a scaler antenna, because we're on a housing estate I want the most minimal intrusions we can get."
Instead Eamonn said he's using something he'd tried a while ago, "so we've got UV lights, prisms, solar panels. The lights are actually being transferred into electricity, so that's our modulated wave. That goes through to the machine. We've got a white noise generator, that drives it, that's its carrier frequency."
Sounds complicated right? Well, put simply, all you need to know is that "any interactions with the light gives us speech patterns in the machine" and it wasn't long before they heard a laugh over the speakers.
Upstairs
Karl has now joined Yvette in the house and the team are upstairs in the master bedroom. They were now fully into calling out to the spirits, "make it louder" Yvette called out, "come on do something."
Karl then chipped in, "if you don't want us here, make us leave, do your worst."
Next, Yvette asked how many people were in the room, the spirit tapped six times. There were in fact six of them in the room, as well as Yvette and Karl, there was Gregg, Darren, Stuart, and the show's resident skeptic Glen Hunt.
Like last time the gang were in the house, several members of the team reported feeling drained of energy and weak. During an ad break the bed in the small bedroom moved on its own, unfortunately this wasn't caught on camera.
The Special Guest Arrives
As the team headed back downstairs, the show's special guest, Paul O'Grady was just entering the house. Paul greeted the Most Haunted team, "I was just passing on my broomstick and I thought I'd pop in and see my mates."
The team were gathered around the EVP in the dining room. Karl was in the kitchen with the pesky knife which moved around the house in the previous episodes, they put it in a box and placed in front of the locked off camera so that this time it couldn't surprise them by appearing around the house.
With the knife safely boxed, the gang start chatting again. Paul says it's quite a nice house and with the housing shortage it's a shame it's going to waste, speaking to the spirit he says "do you mind going so people can live in this house in peace, thank you very much. Go on piss off to the 16th century, or wherever you're from."
The team moved through to the living room, Stuart was obviously feeling brave, he called out "do something to me, do something evil to me."
Séance Upstairs
Up in the middle bedroom, the team gathered around a table where they tried performed a séance and tried to encourage the poltergeist of East Drive to try to move or lift the table. Yvette called out, "get under the table and lift it really high."
According to those sat around it, at first the table started vibrating. Then it looked as it it was rocking, then suddenly the table leaped toward the left.
Paul taunted the spirit, "come on, lift the f**king table now. You call yourself a poltergeist? You're a disgrace to the forces of evil," which has to be the quote of the evening.
At one point the table jumped up, quite violently at least a foot in the air. Stuart jumped up and Yvette said to him, "come on Stu, we've seen worse than that, what are you affaird of?"
Karl again reported feeling drained as if the energy had been sucked out of him. He then moved through into the master bedroom, where he spotted the knife on the bed. The very same knife that they had previously locked in the box.
Yvette screamed and shouted "oh feck off, feck off!"
Karl went downstairs to the dining room where he and Glen opened the box to find the knife had gone. Karl reminds us that the knife has been in shot on the webcam since they put it there.
We then hear the voice of Arch Dyson the show's producer from the broadcast truck outside, "it's Arch in the van here, I want that knife secured."
Karl went back upstairs to collect the knife but came back down moments later saying, "the knife is not there."
Arch advices them to be carful but stay put until the next ad break when they can conduct a proper search. Yvette insists they put the lights on and find the knife. They search the rooms, under beds, on counter tops but still, there's no sign of the knife anywhere.
They cut to an ad break and minutes later, the knife did show up again. One of the team spotted it after hearing a crash in the living room, the knife was on the floor against the skirting board. After this it was removed from the house for good, along with the whole cutlery drawer from the kitchen.
"I Want Paul"
The team then gather with Eamonn around the EVP experiment once again as what sounds like words start to form.
A couple of phrases seem to come out of the speakers, the first says "what do you want?" and eerily, this is followed up by "I want Paul."
Fred Enters The House
Karl returns to the house after taking the knife away and returns with the show's demonologist Fred Batt. He says he's been outside doing incantations and thinks this is probably the reason why the knife has been moving around the house.
Karl headed off to another part of the house, as Fred then starts doing what he does best, he reeled off a few of his incantations aimed at the spirit of East Drive. The team had established that the spirit's name was Carl Anthony during their previous visit to the house.
Fred chanted, "in the name of Satan, ruler of the Earth, come forward Carl Anthony where I can see you. Touch one of us. Touch Yvette, touch Paul."
The team then heard a commotion and Karl screaming, they found him upstairs in one of the bedrooms where he said "something just pulled me up those stairs."
Karl told the rest of the team how he was standing on the stairs, "something pulled me up the stairs and I couldn't get away from it."
Stuart said it couldn't have been him, "I didn't see it Yvette because I was in the back bedroom sat on the bed."
Although Karl didn't have a camera man with him at the time, the stairs did have a locked off static camera on them and Arch was able to play back a clip from the camera which showed exactly what Karl has described. He was near the top of the stairs, looking down, presumably talking to another member of the team. Then without warning he is pulled backwards up the stairs.
As Karl recovered from his shock, he said "my neck's hurting." Now out on the landing they switch the camera to day vision and shine a torch on Karl's neck to find it is glowing red, as if he's been strangled.
Arch is then heard from the broadcast truck again, he asks for Karl to be removed from the house, "can we get Karl out of the house please, clear the door let him get out."
But before he exits, they gather around the monitor in the dinning room and they watch back the clip of Karl being dragged up the stairs. Paul says he is "pretty shocked to tell you the truth, that is pretty shocking. There's no way for him to fake that. To go back like that, he's being pulled."
Karl then eventually leaves the house and joins Rylan in the studio. He tells Rylan that "it was like something was here," clasping his neck with his hand, "but it was like pulling from my chest more than anything and I just fell back."
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Rylan Enters The House
Karl was ready to re-enter the house and Rylan was dragged along with him. The show's studio host has already been into the house with Jamie earlier in the day, he found it pretty terrifying and didn't last long.
At first Rylan refused to step through the front door, but Jamie literally dragged him in as the crowd cheered.
Once inside the terror was stepped up a notch for Rylan when the team performed a tapping board session. As the house's owner doesn't allow visitor to use ouija boards, Yvette used a large board with the alphabet printed on it and then ran her finger across each letter, asking the spirit to spell out a word of phrase by tapping as her finger reach the relevant letter.
The spirit spelt out the word d... i... e... "die all." Rylan was relieved when soon after he and Jamie were asked to leave the house.
The Master Bedroom
The team moved up to the master bedroom where Fred treated us to some more of his incantations, "in nomine Dei nostri Satanas Luciferi excelsi. In the name of Satan, Carl Anthony come forward, come and show yourself."
Yvette suddenly gasped and said that she'd just heard running the sound of footsteps running right in front of her.
Fred continued, "in invoke thee Lucifer from the East, Beelzebub from the West, get this man Carl Anthony to come forward. Show him to us." This was followed by tapping sounds coming from the walls around them.
Fred repeated his chant, as Yvette screamed saying something moved behind the bed. Fred chanted some more, "I invoke thee, Beelzebub from the North, Astaroth from the West, come forward, bring Carl Anthony to us. The scum of the Earth, come forward."
Yvette whispered, "everybody, completely still and quiet," the room remained silent for now. From behind the camera, Gregg said, "this room every time we come into this house just freaks me out, every other room is kind of alright, but this room, there's just something wrong about this room."
The Living Room
Darren and Eamonn were in the dining room listening to EVPs recordings, while Paul, Glen, Fred and Gregg were in the master bedroom trying scrying, a technique where you gaze at yourself in the mirror in the hopes of catching a glimpse of a ghost.
This proved unsuccessful so Glen and Paul came downstairs to join Yvette, Karl and Stuart in the living room, where they heard taps and felt bangs beneath their feet.
Yvette said she was starting to feel dizzy, and felt like like she could fall over, "something is effecting my balance, I feel like I could faint." They also reported a foul stench, which Yvette describe, "it's the smell of death."
Stuart then noticed the light fitting was swinging above them, just as Fred resumed his chanting, as the rest sat on the sofa waiting for something to happen.
"In nomine Dei nostri Satanas Luciferi excelsi. In the name of Satan, ruler of the Earth, true God almighty and Ineffable, Who hast created man to reflect in Thine own image and likeness. I invite the forced of darkness to bestow the infernal power upon me. Bring Carl Anthony forward. Bring him forward and we'll see what he's really like."
Despite the chanting, for once the house remained reasonably quiet. However, Eamonn did capture what sounded like an animal on his EVP machine.
A few minutes later a voice came through which sounded like it was saying "Yvette Fielding". Paul then said "my name's Paul O'Grady can you say it" and the ghostly voice echoed it back to him.
They tried the tapping board again, and again just got the message "die." They asked the spirit if it wanted them to go upstairs and it tapped out "yes."
Man Down
Yvette, Paul, Glen, Fred, Eamonn were in one of the upstairs bedrooms with Darren on camera. Karl and Stuart were on the landing when all of a sudden camera man Gregg screamed and fell to the floor.
Yvette and the others ran out to see what all the noise was about. "It just felt like a cramp or something around here," Gregg said while rubbing his lower chest. He added, "it literally felt like someone grabbed me round there and squeezed."
He described the sensation as being like a spasm or like someone was performing the Heimlich manoeuvre on him.
The Coal Hole
As midnight drew closer, Yvette and Paul shut themselves inside the coal hole, the small cupboard which was used as a coal store by the Pritchard family. It was in this room that Joe Pritchard became trapped by an unknown force, the fled the house once freed and never returned.
Paul cheerily said, "just the three of us in here then Yvette, not nice in here is it?"
At midnight Fred stood at the foot of the stairs and started reciting incantations while chanting played throughout the house on loud speakers. Yvette explained later that the chants were the Lord's prayer in ancient Hebrew. She said it is supposed to emit a certain tone that permeates the other side.
Midnight
"In nomine Dei nostri Satanas Luciferi excelsi. In the name of Satan, ruler of the Earth, true God almighty. I invite the forces of darkness to bestow their infernal power upon me. Open the gates of hell to come forth and greet me as your brother and friend. Deliver me o mighty Satan from all past error and delusion, fill me with truth, wisdom and understanding. I invoke thee Lucifer from the East. I invoke thee Beelzebub from the North. I invoke thee Astaroth from the West. I invoke thee Azazel from the South. Come forward forces of darkness and greet me."
While the chants were playing around the house Karl, Glen, Stuart and Darren were sat around the table with Gregg on camera. Karl suddenly jumped up from the table and shouted "f**k that!"
He ran down the stairs, pushed Fred out of the way, "this house is f**king nuts," he shouted. After he calmed down a little he explained how he'd felt a sensation like being punched in the side.
At almost exactly the same moment Yvette screamed as Paul was pushed, he also screamed "f**k that" as they left the coal hole. Yvette said she had felt Paul being pushed by an unseen force, "his whole body arched and was pushed towards me."
They ten cut back to the studio where Rylan and Jamie were watching the events unfold. The two talked about what had been happening and from the screen behind them they heard Yvette screaming "are you laughing at us?"
Rylan, not realising she was addressing the Black Monk answered back, "is she talking to us?" Clearly Yvette wasn't talking to Rylan and she couldn't hear him, as the next thing that came out of her mouth was, "you piece of s**t!"
The episode came to a dramatic end when there was a sudden crash and the sound of breaking glass in the living room. It was't clear what had happened by Karl who had the camera showed Stuart on the floor holding his head.
Yvette and the others ran down stairs to find a window smashed on the double doors leading into the living room. Karl then found the head of a porcelain monk, an ornament which is usually kept in the master bedroom.
It's not clear how the ornament smashed, or whether it was the ornament that smashed the window or simply Stuart as he fell. Stuart described the moment he fell as being more like the floor moving from underneath him than a push.
Yvette then finally led her team out of the house where Rylan was waiting. Yvette told him, "we've had a horrific night," Paul added "it's very eerie in there. I'd pull it down myself."
And with that, the 2015 Halloween special of Most Haunted came to an end.
Conclusion
It was great to see Most Haunted Live back at Halloween. The show was a little chaotic at times, which you could say was perhaps a little unprofessional, but actually it just added to the atmosphere of the live broadcast. When Paul O'Grady fist arrived, for example, I'm not sure if he actually realised he was live of television.
There were moments where the crew were panicking so much that no one was manning the camera and we just got shots of the floor and peoples' feet. It actually reminded me of the classic 1992 'Ghostwatch' show.
I thought Rylan did a great job and had a great dynamic with Jamie. The viewers' interactions added very little in reality but it was nice that these calls to get involved stimulated the conversation online. Twitter was just as much fun to follow as the TV show.
Clearly this broadcast was lower budget than some of the previous live shows, but it worked. There was a nice little studio set up in the street outside the house, but because the venue was just a semi-detached house, there wasn't room for a huge studio setup with a live audience.
The studio was fine though, their little Ikea sofa was perfect for Rylan to interview the stars of the show and at one point was joined by historian Mike Covell for a chat.
Technically it was pretty well put together, although some of the microphones were a little iffy at times, they could be heard crackling and hissing. But on the plus side, there was lots of chanting from Fred, which is always very entertaining. Although, Darren was a bit quiet in this episode, perhaps it was nerves.
I also really liked that we could hear Arch Dyson speaking to the crew through their ear pieces from the production gallery. This was used sparingly but to good effect.
The show generated more than 50k tweets using the hashtag #MostHauntedLive, and there were consistently more than 10k people viewing the live webcam streams at any one time. The show became the highest rated show on Really to date, and it out performed Channel 4 and 5 in its time slot.
One big disappointment was the constant mentions of the grandfather clock at the top of the stairs. The team kept mentioning the clock, willing it to fall down the stairs, basically foreshadowing this activity.
Many times team members said things like "I want that clock to come down here" and "come on, can you move the clock on the stairwell? Push it down," but it never did. Because so much attention had been put on it, it ended up feeling a little anticlimactic.
Overall though, a really good episode of Most Haunted and a very welcome return to Halloween night. The new series of Most Haunted continues on Sunday night at 9pm on Really. Watch on Freeview (17), Sky (155) and Virgin Media (129), or watch previous episodes of Most Haunted on demand on the UKTV Player.
For reviews of all of the new episodes, plus highlights and evidence from the shows, and to find out when Most Haunted is on next, visit the Most Haunted episode guide.
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