REVIEW: Most Haunted Series 20 Episode 1 (Rowleys House)

After a long wait, I am back with my latest Most Haunted review! Please keep your groans to the end, otherwise it saps my energy.

It occurs to me that UKTV have created an interesting problem for themselves, by purchasing the rights to "Ghost Chasers", they now have 2 "Ghost hunting" shows that are British in nature, we can forget Ghost Adventures, as that is American nonsense. So with 2 British shows doing pretty much the same thing, it quickly becomes apparent that one of them is rather serious and mostly honest in its presentation, and the other is an out and out spoof of the genre but presented as if it is real. Can you guess which is which?

So the viewer at home will watch Ghost Chasers first, and they will see potentially paranormal events happen, but are then quickly debunked by the Evil and Skeptical Paul Hobday, (aka no hat Raggy Doll), and then in the next episode of Most Haunted which airs directly after, you have potential paranormal events happen, which are either deliberate fakery by Karl, Fred or Stuart, or just a basic misunderstanding of completely normal events that tend to happen in old building. So then the viewer left to make a choice, which will depend completely on why they watch such programming in the first place.

With Ghost Chasers featuring a young cast, lead by the annoying attractive and likeable Kay Nambiar or you have Most Haunted lead by a washed up kids TV presenter who is universally disliked by the casual viewer (see I'm A Celeb).

With UKTV paying much less for Ghost Chasers than Most Haunted, and with Most Haunted simply not allowed to use mediums on their show due to rights issues with Sky Limited, you then have Ghost Chasers a show that appeals to people interested in the genre, as well as skeptics who want to see things debunked, and the addition of Ian Lawman, a "sensitive" who has now decided he can see dead people (he can't, trust me), UKTV finally have a replacement for Most Haunted, that costs them less, and is all round a better show.

So the ratings will be very interesting. Do people want a more serious investigation? Or do they want ridiculous over acting and fakery? Time will tell, and with that waffle over, lets get on to episode 1 of the 20th season of Most Haunted.

[Insert Filthy sticky blurbage below]

Rowleys House
Spook-searching with Yvette and co! The team heads to the centre of Shrewsbury where a house is said to be full of the long dead just wanting to make themselves known.

A fair representation of me realising there are 4 episodes of Most Haunted I need to review before the Halloween Special.

First good news of the season is that Watson the Most Haunted Bulldog is back! You should check him out on Twitter, he has some interesting opinions.

Lets hope for more disinterest from Watson as the season goes on.

I had heard that Yvette was desperate to fire Watson from the show, but due to his popularity UKTV simply refused to allow a new season without the dog.

Yvette has found herself in Rowleys House, and is mooching about in the attic which she claims intrigues her.

I see Glen has managed to earn himself a new contract despite everything that went on in the previous season.

Unsurprisingly Glen has his hands in his pockets and a smirk on his face, for he "knows" things, and that's why he got his new contract.

Glen explains to Yvette that it is an old house, lots of drafts and so on, Yvette amazingly states that they have been doing this long enough now that they can tell the difference between what is real and what is not and they don't jump to conclusions. Yes she really said that.

Watson is already walking about and making noises, he is clearly not bothered at all about any ghosts and doesn't care for your nonsense.

Yvette is claiming to hear noises, clearly it is Watson, so we now waste a few minutes of nothing.

A dog will bark and go mental if a firework goes off 5 miles away, yet Watson couldn't give a damn about any so called ghosts tapping or making noises.

Proof right here that there are no ghosts in Rowleys House. No dog would just chill out with his balls rubbing on the carpet if there were spirits hanging about. 

Yvette and Glen go investigate upstairs where they claim they heard a noise, Watson follows, and doesn't care. Remember a dog's senses far surpass that of a human, so if a dog doesn't sense anything unusual, it is fair to say that there is nothing unusual about.

Glen finally plucks up some courage and asks Yvette to move in with him. But alas they cut the scene early, changed the filters on the cameras to make things look more spooky, and now we have Karl and Fred joining in on the investigation.

As Karl films in a "darkened" room, a suspiciously place filing cabinet is spotted, and just as he goes off camera there is a noise, as he turns back the cabinet has magically opened!

Since we exposed Karl faking events like this previously, I don't think anyone watching this thinks for one moment this was real ghostly activity.

Of course we get endless replays that don't show anything. As usual the ghosties only work off camera.

Mr Trustworthy is back, yes Stuart Torevell still hasn't made his millions from his car sticker business.

Back with Karl and it is just noise after noise, all off camera, it gets tedious after a while. 

Yvette is asking the ghosts to make a noise with their voice, as opposed to what? Their arseholes?

Yvette is now whistling, and I had genuinely forgotten how truly awful this show was. It is just the same thing every episode, taps and bangs, things happening off camera, and Yvette saying stupid things.

Yvette has taken Glen into an office, and Karl and the others have gone elsewhere. Glen is alone with Yvette, this could be his chance.

We are now with Karl and there is what sounds like a woman's giggle, it sounded like Yvette to me, which would be the obvious rational explanation, Karl quickly starts defending the noise since they are supposedly the only people on that level of the house. Someone on Twitter warned me about this, and they seemed to think it was a sound effect added after, the first giggle sounded like Yvette, but the second and third laughs do seem like a post production effect, it is just too obviously faked to be taken seriously.

Karl and Stuart are really hamming it up here, please if anyone thinks this was not faked please leave a comment and explain why.

I am watching this episode through a laptop so my sound is not great, anyone with the knowledge, if you could examine the sound and see if there is any obvious signs of fakery with the wave forms and so on and let me know.

Back with Yvette and Glen, and Yvette tells Glen he would "Scream like a bitch" which is an incredibly sexist thing to say, and reminds me of the Labour MP who recently received widespread condemnation for saying something very similar. 

Great shot of Stuart with a big blob of snot on his nose. I believe it is called Ectoplasm. And is the highlight of the episode so far.

Notice the much higher nasal hygiene of Yvette.

Notice the lights behind Glen in the above shot, they are not in the dark, not even close. Don't believe the lies.

Yvette starts talking about the Stone Tape Theory again, you will remember her talking about that before, mainly after we exposed them faking footage of a ghost that was clearly a video overlay of Stuart.

So with Yvette's logic, Stone Tape Theory now covers tapping, whistling and cabinet draws closing.

Yvette is with Karl now and hearing more taps etc, usual nonsense, the fact there is no camera filming them from afar means that they could just be tapping their own feet and we would be none the wiser.

Big bang, Yvette screams, a book has been thrown OFF CAMERA. Most likely Karl picked it up, and chucked it behind his back.

It is almost as if Most Haunted do everything they can NOT to catch evidence of the paranormal.

And after a few more bangs and knocks, the show ends.

Every time a new season of Most Haunted starts I truly hope they will come up with some new gimmicks, new characters, new anything, just to make it more watchable. But this episode was awful. I can't imagine anyone watching this and thinking it was a good episode, especially after seeing Ghost Chasers air directly before.

All round terrible episode, nothing happened on camera, blatant fakery with the filing cabinet door and the dodgy laugh sound effect.

0/10

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By Jon Donnis