BBC Two's 'Hauntings' Brings Real Ghost Stories To Light

'Hauntings' details the most intriguing, terrifying and enduring paranormal cases in Britain and America, unpacking cases that have captured the public imagination for many years. Each episode is an in-depth exploration of a case with exclusive contributions from those at the heart of the story. The first two episodes air back-to-back tonight on BBC Two, and the second half of the series airs next Sunday.

In September 1977 police attended a house in Enfield, London, to investigate a reported home invasion: there had been loud knocking on the wall and furniture moved. The two officers could find no evidence of a break in, but they did hear various rapping on the walls, see furniture tilt independently and a chair slide several metres across the room on its own. This was to be the first of many extraordinary events that were recorded on film and audio tape, culminating in disembodied voices and levitation. To this day the activities remain difficult to explain.

When Andrea Perron moved into her new home in Rhode Island with her parents and four sisters, the previous occupants seemed in a hurry to leave. Soon the Perrons were experiencing multiple disturbances, hearing whispers and seeing visions. The investigations of now world-famous ghost hunters Ed and Lorraine Warren led to a séance, which was to change the lives of the Perron family.

On the night of Christmas 1998, a homeless man entered the infamous Greyfriars Kirkyard in Edinburgh and, seeking refuge, broke into the tomb of George Mackenzie, Edinburgh's famous executioner, where he fell into an assembly of decomposing corpses. Within weeks, stories of blackouts and inexplicable attacks began to spread. Jan Andrew Henderson began to chronicle the Mackenzie Poltergeist - only to claim to become a target of its malice.

In 1958, two young women travelled together to a nightclub in Georgia, on the other side of Lake Lanier. But they never returned. Weeks later, reports began of a ghostly figure: a lady wearing a blue dress, walking across the lake, whilst calls for help were heard from the waters below. Then stories of unexplained drownings emerged. Local recovery divers take us underwater to discover what lies beneath the depths.