Magicians vs Psychics Panel discussion TAM 2013

With Ray Hyman, DJ Grothe, Jamy Ian Swiss, James Randi, Max Maven, Mark Edward and Banachek

TV REVIEW Most Haunted Episode 7/10 (Ye Old King's Head - Chester)

"You don't like women do you"

No Yvette the spirits like women, it's just they don't like!

Yes we are back with another rip roaring, exciting, excellent episode of Scooby Doo! Hang on just been told the Scooby Doo review is off, and instead I am being forced to review Most Haunted by the bosses at BadPsychics Towers! Well thanks guys, I was really looking forward to Scooby Doo, well Most Haunted is close enough, they both go in search of ghosts, and it always ends up being a villain behind the paranormal activity, so Karl or Stuart then!

So this week Scooby and the Gang, sorry I mean Yvette and the Numpties are in Ye Olde Kings Head, Chester, yep they are in a pub! Good job Derek Acorah is no longer on the team, as he would have been designated driver tonight and we don't want any more cars in ditches thank you very much.

Yvette claims that not only is the pub extremely old but it is also extremely haunted! Of course that would be exactly what the pub owners would want people to think!

We are told of a ghost dog that prowls the hauls! Hang on this could very well be Scooby Doo!

We are introduced to Harry Achilleos the owner of the pub! Let me start off by apologising on behalf of all Greeks that one of our own is involved in this kind of business. I wonder if this is the same Harry who once claimed to be an astrologer?

Interestingly Harry claims he was a skeptic before he purchased the pub! hmmmm.....

Fred Batt reveals that this pub has 13 ghosts! So many, we are almost guaranteed to have some activity then! And in no way possible will any of the paranormal activity be created by Fred, Stuart or Karl!

Now before the sillyness begins, lets take a moment to recognise and appreciate the greatness and beauty that is Melanie Crump, in this episode of Most Haunted the lovely Mel is wearing a nice tight top, which is a vast improvement over the big coats and scarves she has worn in the last few episode.

Mel has her hair up, now I know many of the Crumpettes (that is what us fans like to refer to ourselves as) prefer her with her flowing locks blowing in the wind, Mel is a professional first, so smart and tidy is what she has gone for today.

In fact there was recently a world wide poll of which the results are below.

Question: Who is more attractive.
1. Yvette Fielding in her most expensive dress, after getting a full makeover.
2. Mel Crump with no makeup on, wearing just a potato sack.
3. Cath Howe after a night on the town with Frank Bruno

Results
1. 2%
2. 95%
3. 3%

I think those results are pretty conclusive, and in no way made up.
(Disclaimer: The above poll is for entertainment purposes only)

Anyway back to the investigation and Karl, Stuart, Fred and Darren are in the cellar, and of course within a minute a stainless steel dog bowl is thrown, of course despite there being 4 people there, and at least 3 cameras, no one of them catches the moment the ghosties throw it! The Most Haunted team really are so unlucky don't you think!

We cross to Mel and Yvette, and damn Mel is looking stunning! Even more so stood next to Yvette, even with a low light source, Mel looks gorgeous, and Yvette looks... Well Yvette looks like Yvette!

I really need to stop getting distracted, but well Mel is the ONLY reason I am watching Most Haunted, and even though the ratings are dropping every week, I am sure a star is born with regards to Mel Crump!

Ok, had a cold shower, bad to the show.

Back to Stuart, Karl and Fred and they are analysing the Dog Bowl incident, and Stuart genuinely says and with a straight face "How the hell did that happen?"

Here is a photo of Stuart filming Karl's groin with his camera, maybe that's some special footage for later.

Did you know there is a fan page for Mel Crump on Facebook? Well go click LIKE on it now! They have some cool exclusives on there.
https://www.facebook.com/MelCrumpMostHaunted

Anyway the dog bowl gets thrown a few more times, ALWAYS off camera, just consider this for a moment, if this was real it would rewrite the laws of physics, science would change forever, Karl Beattie would go into the history books, probably win a Nobel Prize. EVERYTHING would forever be changed! Yet despite all of this, no one thinks to shove a spare camera in the corner to film the whole room!

Oh and of course it is Stuart who is throwing the dog bowl!

I am genuinely interested to hear from ANYONE who believes the dog bowl was thrown by ghosties after this episode airs on October 2nd! Seriously leave a comment if you do!

Back to Yvette who is filming herself as usual, she is talking about a feeling of her head being pushed down, fingers on the top of her, pushing it down! Now I don't like to cast aspersions but perhaps Karl could be a little more gentle in the bedroom when he wants a blowy, just saying!

Yvette is begging the spirits to lock her and Mel Crump in the room, of course Mel says "please don't" well, I never knew Yvette swung both ways but then Melanie Crump could turn any woman if she wanted!

Did you know that Mel is now referred to simply as "The Body" by the Most Haunted male crew members, of course don't tell Yvette that, we know how jealous she can get.

"WHO ARE YOU? WHO IS THROWING THESE BOWLS?" Asks Stuart. Karl goes to reply but then quickly remembers he is making a TV show, poor Fred he is bankrolling this nonsense I heard!

Karl reveals he is feeling a bit sick and not well at all, so the boys leave the Bowl Throwing Room, and head elsewhere. I'm guess Yvette cooked dinner for the crew!

Lets hope Mel gets a slight fever further on in the episode and has to get down to her bikini to cool down!

Karl starts to freak out while lying on the bed as it starts shaking!

Have you ever noticed that Stuarts head is perfectly round!

That is probably more interesting than every single so called paranormal occurrence in the history of Most Haunted!

"This has to go down in history, and I am being serious when I say this, I wanna go but I wanna stay at the same time because all the shit is going down right now" - Stuart Toreville

Stuart then thanks the spirits for turning the tap on behind his back!

Imagine a world where you are so gorgeous that you cant help but hug yourself! Well imagine no more, that world exists and it is called Melanie Crump!

Sorry distracted again! Anyway for some reason TVs keep turning themselves on, but always in the room next to where the group are, it's almost as if someone set the timers on these TVs to switch on automatically! But why would a ghost learn how to use the Timer setting on a TV?

And eventually they catch a TV coming on, on its own! Wow, it must be the ghosties, as the remote control was left by the TV! And of course there is no way someone would have an identical remote in their pocket which they picked up from the previous room, or even one of those phone apps that can control the TV, or perhaps one of those old TV remote watches! All of these things are impossible, and the only explanation must be that a ghost turned the TV on as he would rather do anything but listen to this bunch of idiots any longer!

Now worth noting there is an edit just before the TV comes on again, and just before it does, Yvette goes on her own to an on-suite bathroom in the room. Thinking she is out of sight, you can just see a movement of her arm, and then this light

A second later the TV comes on. Now anyone with any knowledge of how infra red works, knows that the infra red signal from a remote lights up when a button is pushed, and when it is being filmed by a camera in night vision, so in person it makes no light, but a night vision camera can see it.

Now is this proof that Yvette simply goes into the toilet where no one can see her and switches the TV on? Well you watch it and make up your own mind.

After-all we know that Yvette has been caught cheating before, is this another instance of it?

Stuart then comes up with a good idea, to film with everyone present on camera including the magic TV

And of course nothing happens. So Karl goes into the bathroom, and off camera and low and behold the TV comes on again! And then the TV turns off, again all with Karl hidden in the adjacent bathroom!

This guys and gals is presented by Antix and REALLY TV as evidence of the paranormal!

The funny thing is, as Karl is turning the TV off and on with his hidden remote you can actually see the moment it is about to go off or on, as the little light on the TV flashes as it receives a signal.

To prove his innocence Karl shows his hands, and even declares that if he took one remote control from the other room it wouldn't work on this TV, they then say they will try this later. And of course this is instantly forgotten and never followed up on, which is all you need to know!

This whole TV turning on and off nonsense goes on for a good 10 minutes, nearly as bad as the ridiculous lift scene from a previous episode.

We finish off with a monotone monologue from Dr John Callow as he reads from his script written by Karl Beattie.

Overall the episode is actually quite entertaining which was a nice change, although that might be because Melanie Crump featured quite a bit and kept me distracted from the nonsense.

Anyway will be interesting to see if the ratings continue to slide for Most Haunted, but will be more interesting to see what Melanie Crump is wearing in episode 8, I'm hoping for a nice tight top again but perhaps this time paired up with a nice pencil skirt, and perhaps a return to her hair being let down.

Anyway that is all from me, I hope you enjoyed my review of The Melanie Crump Show, till next time.

By Jon Donnis
Follow me on Twitter @JonDonnis

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Most Haunted
Thursday 2nd October, 10pm
S1 E7/10. Ye Olde Kings Head, Chester

Yvette and the team head to Ye Olde Kings Head in Chester, a great British pub known as one of the most haunted places in the world.

The building, named after King Charles I, was built in 1622 and throughout the years it has been host to many powerful and influential inhabitants. Nearly 100 years after being built it became an inn and since then a number of interesting characters have walked through its doors. Could it be that some never left?

13 ghosts allegedly haunt the building, but not all of them are there for the same reason; some wander the rooms in search of help, others are only there to cause harm and wreak havoc in the otherwise peaceful establishment. Reports of poltergeist activities, from messages on mirrors to children’s footsteps in the corridors, mean that this pub is the perfect venue for Yvette and the team to explore on a dark night.

Before the investigation is fully underway numerous strange noises are heard, and Yvette and Mel encounter a presence that may put their lives in danger.

A Polite message To Those Considering to Become Mediums

Every day I get many comments to articles on here, every so often a comment left makes me smile, and even more rarely I feel the need to share such a comment with the world.

The Truth posted the following on an article we published exposing a fake medium. Enjoy!

----------------

Polite message to those considering or sitting in "development" circles hoping to become platform "psychics", "mediums", "clairvoyants", "healers", "dowsers", "psychometry" or other "spiritualism" bollock variants:

You will be committing deception & fraud no matter how well meaning you are.

As you know your practice will be to groom the vulnerable, gullible & naive into attending, opening up (not just their purses & wallets) & performing cold/warm/hot reading techniques on them. You will have then exploited & abused those persons. They become your victims. You will have perpetrated a criminal act unless you clearly mention the non-mandatory "for entertainment purposes only" disclaimer that scumbag TV fraudsters use.

Again, they have become your target, your prey.

There are 4 reasons (not necessarily separate) why you may wish to practice the above:

1) Money.
2) Recognition (attention/a partner/fame).
3) You're deluded & hope you have magical powers.
4) To give comfort to the bereaved.

If you genuinely want to comfort the bereaved, train to become a bereavement counsellor or help to expose other perpetrators by showing their victims how they perform cold reading on them. Otherwise do sod all.

You are not healing "chakras".

You are not communicating with "spirit guides".

You are not communicating with "gate keepers".

You are not communicating with the dead.

You are however liaising with strangers who're looking up to you, trusting you, whilst you know (at least in the back of your mind) that you're lying & trying to further deceive them moment after moment for whatever gratification you desire. That act is predatory. You then further put these people at risk when they come back for more with other perpetrators who don't have background checks.

It's like those drug trafficking adverts, it's not too late to stop crossing that line & if you already have tell yourself to "step back" & never set foot in those premises or exploit another victim again. Why not even come clean & show your victims some respect for once.

Everyone can help. Simply don't promote or recommend these charlatans in any manner. If you have "psychics" TV or otherwise on Facebook, remove them or try to expose them to let others know their methods before they become victims. These deviants are materialising in their swarms on Facebook. I've already blocked over 1,000 using keywords.

Remember:

Psychics = perpetrators.
Churches = pimps.
Clients = victims.

They're not just bad psychics but bad people & it's no longer a joke like once was with showmanship from Acorah. Because of him & others on TV they has evolved fresh deviants with even greater victims they've violated. Don't be either of them.

Most Haunted Ratings for First 3 Episodes!

So on the Karl Beattie Twitter page, I was told he had posted a photo of the ratings for Most Haunted, and how they were the Number 1 show on Really!

Unfortunately he never put the date and actual viewer numbers.

I thought I would see the ratings myself and give my thoughts on it and of course give the details he ignored.

Episode 1:

Well no surprise he, it was the first episode after so many years. Did very well, and i would like to congratulate them.

Episode 2:

This surprised me, since episode 1 was such an awful episode, but as I made clear in my review of Episode two, that this was the best episode in the series and I encouraged people to watch, and the ratings actually went up!

Episode 3:

And here is the final ratings available for viewing at the moment, and it is bad news for Most Haunted, as it drops to third place.

Episode 1 - 362,000
Episode 2 - 371,000
Episode 3 - 324,000

Now looking at these ratings, there may be cause for concern at Antix, as they lost roughly 50,000 viewers from episode 2 to episode 3, and remember Episode 3 was the second part of an investigation.

Now we don't know if this trend will continue, but it is worth noticing that the ratings for Ghost Adventures have actually gone up. This could actually be thanks to Most Haunted strangely enough, with people interested in the Paranormal first being brought to the channel by Most Haunted and then seeing the adverts for Ghost Adventures.

And their last episode that these ratings covered got nearly 70,000 more viewers than Most Haunted! This must be cause for concern, especially considering Episode 2 was the best episode of Most Haunted of all the episodes I have viewed so far (6).

So although the ratings are still relatively strong for Most Haunted, it remains to be seen if they can get back the 50,000 viewers they lost, or if the decline will continue.

Interestingly Karl Beattie has not tweeted an image of the most recent ratings, instead he claims Most Haunted is number one, and ignores the latest ratings!

Also another thing to consider is that Most Haunted used to be on Living TV which was not a freeview channel, and at their peak would get nearly 1 million viewers, but that slowly declined over the years. Now they are on Really TV and only getting 300k+ viewers. Hardly an amazing relaunch when you consider the numbers.

Leave your comments and opinions below.

By Jon Donnis
You can follow me on Twitter @JonDonnis

Official Ratings from BARB

TV REVIEW Most Haunted Episode 6/10 (The National Emergency Services Museum, Sheffield)

Have you ever started something and then half way through you just cant be bother to carry on? Well that is exactly how I feel watching Most Haunted.

I will try and do episodes 6 and 7 for you, but after that no promises, I literally have paint to watch dry which is calling me and will be twice as entertaining!

Anyway onto the episode and we are at The National Emergency Services Museum, Sheffield.

Yvette starts the show with the usual stories of ghosties at the location, funny how in this day and age of smartphones with HD recording we never get any clear video of photos of such thing, well not outside that ghost app on iPhone.

Quick early highlight is the Manager of the location a Matthew Wakefield, who looks about 12 years old and sounds like it too! Poor kid, hope he got paid some money for that.

Good to see Mel Crump in the episode, after she was so heavily cut from the last episode I had an awful feeling that she might get completely cut from this one!

Very cleverly they show both Karl and Stuart on camera at the same time while some bangs are heard, but as soon as their feet are shown the knocking stops, after-all we know that those two are behind 99% of what goes on, the other 1% can be put down to the rest of crew!

Real shame they filmed this in the winter, as Mel is completely covered up, she even has her hair tied up! I suspect that Yvette has been demanding certain things and got Karl to make sure Mel dressed down, she doesn't even have any makeup on! Luckily for Mel she still looks great!

Expect to see Mel forced to convert to Islam for the next episode and be wearing a full Burka!

Yvette asks the ghosts for 2 knocks if they are going to hurt anyone, and the knocks sound from an area between Karl and Stuart! What a coincidence!

Fred Batt starts to call out to Kane! A malevolent spirit that lives in the location.
When suddenly this man manifests out of thin air, picks up Fred Batt and tombstones him straight to hell!

I have just been informed by my Director of Operations Glen Johnson that the above did not really happen, and I imagined it, therefore I would like to apologise.

Ok back to the "investigation", not a great deal is happening other than knocks and Stuart claiming he can hear people retching, and someone touching his back.

We cut to Yvette as she is walking down a hallway shouting out for "Charlie" I am guessing he usual dealer has put the prices up!

DISCLAIMER: Of course in no way would I ever suggest that Yvette Fielding has taken cocaine, there is no evidence of any drug use by her or anyone in her family, the above comment was a lighthearted joke, and should be taken as such. 

In what is an obvious throwback to the famous spoon incident on a Live show were Karl threw an antique spoon and then pretended it was a ghost, we have a fork that has been thrown! In the room is Karl, Stuart and a cameraman (Darren), with two of the most honest and trustworthy people in the history of Television. Now Karl may have thrown that spoon in the live show, but that's just one case of him getting caught, its not like he has a history of lying, or has ever pretended to be a Samurai and then been laughed at and attacked by Japanese historians and martial arts experts, so of course no possible suspicion should be placed his way for this particular spoon being thrown and landing right by the side of him.

As they examine the fork, a gold ashtray appears as if by magic in a wardrobe, after hearing another noise, and then every time the camera is facing away, something else is thrown, it seems clear that Karl, Stuart and Fred are having a bit of fun at Darrens expense here. They even make note of a wide camera, but of course they never show that footage! I wonder why!

Time for Yvette and Mel, Mel seems genuinely scared, I am guessing she is not in on the scam, which is a good thing in my opinion.

We cut back to the boys and poor Darren is trying his best to explain things and how no one else could possibly have moved the various objects! Remember folks that every employee of Antix have to sign confidentiality contracts which forbids them from revealing what they see behind the scenes or during filming.

You know you are scared when you find yourself hiding behind Yvette Fielding

Can I just point out this is another really poor boring episode, its so cliched, so obvious and so blatantly faked, they hardly even making the effort any more.

We are told they have fixed wide angle cameras, yet their footage is never showed, because obviously if it was it would show the likes of Karl and Stuart throwing things, now if only we had some kind of Mole, someone who could get hold of that footage and leak it onto the internet! If only! (Watch this space)

Yet again Yvette asks the ghosties to "make a noise with your voice" always makes me chuckle when she says that!

"IS THAT AN ORB" OMG it's been years since we have had an orb on Most Haunted! No replays of the orb. Shame

Worth noting that Cardigan Karl really have put some weight on, I guess not working for a few years will do that too you! Thank frell for Fred and his bank account to keep this nonsense going.

It's hard to actually comment on anything as it is so repetitive, knocking, the odd thing thrown, but never directly on camera.

Just as a loud noise is heard, the camera goes dead! Just like a movie lol! Then one of the cameramen decides his had enough and decides to go home, think he got pissed off with people throwing things and playing silly games!

Mel Crump talks about her cold legs, I wonder if she would like me to warm them up for her.

The fork or a lightbulb (I think) is thrown again, and despite having about 7 people in a room, all with cameras, not one of them captures it on film, lots of screaming, and then analysis of nothing, Yvette hears a moan (probably the entire audience all at the same time)

And that is the end of the show, we get a quick recap from Dr John Callow, as usual he speaks sense, but just reads from a script sadly.

Another really poor episode and one that is instantly forgettable.

Please don't make me do this again!

By Jon Donnis

http://www.twitter.com/JonDonnis

Most Haunted
UK Premiere - New Series
Airing Thursday 25th September, 10pm
Series 1 Episode 6/10. 
The National Emergency Services Museum, Sheffield

This week, Yvette Fielding and her intrepid team of ghost hunters encounter a terrifying place full of history and paranormal activity. The team are tested as the try to find the spirits that refuse to leave the famous location of The National Emergency Services Museum in Sheffield. While all the crew are tested to the extreme, for one crew member the experience proves too much.