REVIEW: Ghost Chasers Episode 1 (London East End) 9pm Friday 27th October 2017

I am back with another exclusive review. Ghost Chasers is the latest in a long line of Paranormal Investigation shows, and since this show is airing on a channel that people may actually be able to find, I thought I would give it a shot and see if it is any good.

It airs Friday at 9pm on REALLY, but is already available to watch online on their website at

https://uktvplay.uktv.co.uk

So if you cant wait till Friday, or you simply have nothing better to do give it a watch and if I miss anything make sure to let me know in the comments.

It is also worth noting that this show was made over a year ago, and originally aired on a Satellite channel called "Insight" that you could get in Europe. And also already aired in the UK back in March on the UK version of the channel. So interesting that UKTV would pick this show up and air it as if it was a new show.

In fact the website is still up, and if you do a bit of jiggery pokery, you can even watch all 10 episodes at

https://www.insight.tv/category/ghost-chasers

So let's start off with some dirty blurbage

"Model and musician Kay Nambiar doesn't believe in ghosts. But he's always wondered what lies behind the stories. So, in this new series he's travelling to some of Europe's most haunted locations in search of definitive proof of whether or not they really exist. To help with his mission, he's put together a crack team of ghost hunters: psychic Ian Lawman, who claims he can connect with the dead; and paranormal investigators Chris Hawley and Paul Hobday, who use the latest high-tech gear to gather hard evidence of the supernatural. Each episode sees the team investigate one supposedly haunted town and zero in on two key locations. In Hastings, they capture an image of a hooded figure on their thermal imaging camera, and in Harwich they are locked into an old prison cell by an invisible hand. For Kay this is a journey of revelation, at turns dramatic, scary and fascinating. Are these strange and inexplicable encounters enough to turn a sceptic into a believer? Has he found the proof he's been looking for?"

Now I am sure you all know who Kay Nambiar is, he is a Model and Musician, so clearly he is perfectly positioned to host his on TV show about ghost hunting. 

Here he is in his band!

Other than Kay the only other person you might have a chance of knowing is "psychic" Ian Lawman. A man who as previously appeared on Most Haunted, and someone I have even interviewed before on this very site.

As the episode starts they put this disclaimer up.

Unlike the show I reviewed yesterday, Ghost Chasers from the get go is admitting that it is faked, a spoof, not a serious investigation. So please keep that in mind while watching, as often they will try to present these types of show as if they are real, a documentary or a real investigation. There is no legal obligation to say that a show is for "Entertainment Purposes Only" this is purely their own choice as a way to cover themselves in case someone naughty like me spots how they fake something.

Kay starts off the show talking about how he has always been interested in the paranormal. I would suggest he is only interested in becoming famous, which would explain why he has tried all the usual techniques from being in a pop band, to modelling, basically anything to get famous, and now for whatever reason he has managed to get himself on the TV show as the front man of a ghost hunting, sorry I mean "chasing" show. I am sure he wasn't picked by producers purely cause he is a good looking guy, and the vast majority of people who watch these types of shows are women, now that would be cynical, and unfair on his undoubted talents as a person who can walk and pose a bit.

The first thing I think while watching this is how similar it looks to Ghost Adventures. 

It is a shame that this is looking like being a very male-centric show. Apparently women can hunt ghosts too, just make sure you never tell them that ghosts do not exist, as they can get really angry and write whole blogs about "Ghostplaining", and then have arguments with people online. Women huh, can't live with em...

Kay is walking along a canal, and we finally get to the location they will first investigate, the Ragged School Museum. Sounds lovely doesn't it!

And if you get that reference, then you are as old as me!.

Back to the show and we finally get to meet the rest of the Raggy Dolls, I mean Ghost Chasers.

Each of the team have their own personal body cams, and already you can see them holding what look like EMF meters, a staple of the ghost hunting community, a piece of equipment that is completely worthless, but makes the holder feel a bit like Spock scanning an alien rock or something like that. 

Suddenly out of nowhere, an old friend of BadPsychics, and former Most Haunted historian, Richard Jones makes an appearance to give us some history. 

Nice to see Richard on the TV, although they try to claim he has witnessed "paranormal" events himself, which does kind of make him out to be a believer, but I know first hand he is a skeptic, he is also an accomplished magician too, and all round nice bloke. So not sure how happy he will be with that description, but a pay day is a pay day I guess.

Back to the Raggy Dolls, and Ian Lawman (The guy dressed like a reject from a 1950's version of Sherlock Holmes) has decided that he is picking something up, emotions of the dead. It is worth saying here that Ian used to claim to be a "sensitive", but now he is claiming that he can see spirits, and they appear to him as clear as someone in a photograph, I guess he had to up his gimmick a bit to get better paying jobs.

At least if there are ghosties about, when they see him they will think he is a fellow ghostie dressed like that.

Raggy Doll with a hat on is loving his Tricorder, moving it about, looking at the screen, being all professional. Raggy Doll with no hat, has a go pro on a selfie stick. This is high budget stuff guys!

Kay is still sat chatting with Richard, Richard Jones is getting a decent amount of time which is a nice surprise.

First impressions and I quite like Kay, he seems ok. The other 3 however are a tad bland, trying their best to have fun banter, but it seems so forced it is really embarrassing.

They wait for the sun to go down, because as everyone knows the ghosts only work at night, despite the vast majority of real world ghost sightings happening during the day. I hear the ghosts have their own union these days, and refuse to work on these shows in the day. 

The investigation proper has now started, and Ian is saying a prayer to protect them before then describing a fat old man standing by Kay. Kay does not look impressed.

I believe Kay is Dutch, and his English is perfect like most Dutch people, in fact he is easier to understand than Ian is.

13 minutes in and we get our first "what was that?" from Ian.

Nice to see them not using night vision or fake green filters like Most Haunted do.

This whole show is very centred around Ian Lawman, which is a surprise.

Ian has heard a noise, some replays show nothing but a bit of wind.

No hat Raggy Doll, or Paul as he has decided to call himself, does seem quite sensible for now, offering more rational explanations as Kay claims he is feeling cold.

There is a scene here whereby they get a thermometer out and they record the temperature go down a few degrees. HOWEVER they have no controls. It was taken out of a bag, and then held in the open air, and held near a window and so on, but this is the even more amazing thing, in the voice over they actually say this! Yes they give a rational explanation. I am slightly taken aback here, as I did not expect that at all, and it has kind of spoiled my gimmick.

They head down to the basement where kids used to play. Kay has already been primed to expect to feel something when he goes down there, which is a shame, as any reactions can then be put down to psychological reasons and not physical.

Kay thinks he has heard his name, a replay does show what sounds like a breathy "Kay" being said, however with 6 people in a very small room, anyone could have said it, without moving their mouth, so this cant be considered evidence in any way.

Hat Raggy Doll, has some EVP that he captured earlier, it sounds like children talking, nothing clear. As you all know EVPs are evidentially worthless, and have a million explanation that would be more credible than ghost children. They have another EVP, they claim it says "Ragged School" but it is not clear by any means, at best it is auditory pareidolia. Nothing paranormal here though, not even close. And to be fair to them, no hat Raggy Doll Paul does mention Audio pareidolia as an explanation. So I have to tip the hat at them trying to be credible here. Although it is ruining things for me. Last thing I need is a TV ghost hunting show that debunks themselves.

The team have now left the School, and have moved on to a different location. The Royal Arsenal Academy Building Cellars.

This guy pops up a few times telling ghost stories, clearly has an agenda so can be ignored as he is just annoying.

The Duke of Wellington has a prostitute, and she was eaten alive by rats in these cellars apparently.  

So they are going to try and talk to her. Hat Raggy Doll has a spirit box type app on his phone, which is completely ridiculous and a waste of time. 

The "Echovox" app is just spouting out a lot of nonsense, and within that nonsense, you can vaguely make out the name Angela if you really concentrate.

Now if you go checkout the app on your app store the description is as follows.

"EchoVox is a real time amplified recording system used to create a bed of random chaotic noise using random phonetics, microphone input and a natural loop recording echo. Delay time can be set from anywhere to 0-10 seconds. This means what you are hearing is the actual audio being recorded to disk in real time, as it happens."

So lets be clear here, what they are hearing is actually themselves talking but on a delay, to create random chaotic noise. 

"The echo is actually a chaotic loop of the chopped up vocal samples and environmental sounds. A virtual soup of sound and frequencies impossible to predict."

The fact that the sounds created are from the people present, means that you can not with any credibility claim that anything you get is paranormal.

Oh and this app costs £25.

The sad thing is that some people watching wont understand how this app works, and will accept this as proof. This was the first big mistake of the show in my book, as up until this point they had pleasantly surprised me, I can even ignore the EMF meter nonsense and the Thermometer sillyness, as I understand that you have to have something to do, and everyone uses them. Even though they prove nothing, however this Echovox App is just a joke, it is a gimmick, and has no place in any investigation of any kind.

This woman has joined them, and is claiming she has had her bum stroked, we then hear the sound of a zip. They are all connecting this to the dead ghost hooker. Yes really. Can someone call HR please, last thing we need is sexual assault from a ghost hooker.

They have now moved to Building 41 of the Royal Arsenal.

Paul has attached a thermal imaging camera to his tablet, so now they will play around with that.

Ian is trying to summon the Mad Hatter! (No not that one) Some worker who died from mercury poisoning.

And before you know it the battery goes dead, and no one thought of picking up a £10 power bank in case of such issues.

And that is pretty much it, we get a quick summary, a few replays and the show ends.

So lets go to my now world famous and totally original, episode pros and cons.

Pros

They are quite fair in what they present, they give the skeptical opinion very well.

There is no dodgy green filters or night vision, everything is filmed as they see it.

No screaming, no jumping, no running about like idiots, A seemingly genuine interest to investigate.

High quality filming and effects, nice background music and effects that don't distract at all.

Despite being very good looking Kay Nambiar is really likeable, and down to earth, I was totally wrong about him, and hold my hands up, I could go back and edit this article, but I want people to see how my opinion changed after I watched the show, and I always want to be honest.

Was great to see Richard Jones get a gig. We like him.

No hat Raggy Doll Paul does a really good job debunking things and comes across quite credible, that surprised me.

Cons

Some of the early scenes are very forced, some dodgy banter, and bland characters are a bit eye rolling, however it was the first episode so I doubt I would be any better in that situation.

EMF meter. Waste of time.

EVP recordings. Waste of time, although they were honest in giving alternative opinions instead of jumping on the paranormal.

No female cast member to ghostplain to.

And finally the Echovox, that really spoiled the flow of the show, using a joke app, not explaining what it was, and then trying to claim it had any connection to the paranormal was really sad.

For a first episode of a brand new show, they had a lot going for themselves. However it leaves me with a big problem. They debunk themselves, so whats the point in me writing about them again?

The show is nothing like Most Haunted, there is no blatant fakery, Ian Lawman does what you would expect him to do, but not so over the top that it is a problem.

Its a nice TV show, for fans of Ghost Hunting shows, I am sure they will like it, I liked it despite having a few issues, but there is nothing for me to really make fun of, to joke about. It is the best paranormal investigation show I have ever seen even if the bar is very low.

Its a good show, 8/10.

However I don't see the point of watching it again, as I am a skeptic, I do skeptic things, and this show doesn't need me. The show is good enough that I don't need to watch it. Take that as a compliment I guess.

Well done guys.

Review by Jon Donnis

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