Acorah rules out ‘Most Haunted’ return

Posted by admin as Biographies, Most Haunted News

Derek Acorah has ruled out returning to paranormal documentary series Most Haunted, describing it as “weak in content”.

The celebrity medium, who worked on the first six series of the Living show, said that he was unhappy with criticism he had received from members of the programme’s team.

Acorah, 60, last appeared on Most Haunted in 2005, but there had been rumours online that he may return to the format.

“I’m never going back to Most Haunted,” he told the Real Radio North East Breakfast Show. “I’m doing other things now and I’m going forward in a different way.

“I wouldn’t go back on it because there were certain issues and I’ve been away from it for so long. Anyway, there were certain issues that were not to my taste and certain negative allegations said against me by certain people within the programme that were grossly unfair and I don’t think I should give them the opportunity of me going back.”

He also argued that the programme “hasn’t got the qualities it had” and that it “hasn’t got the depth”, following his departure five years ago.

By Alex Fletcher, Reality TV Editor

Source: Digital Spy

Yvette Fielding

Posted by admin as Biographies

Presenter / Producer Most Haunted

Born : 23rd Sept, 1968
 

Yvette Fielding was educated at Pownall Green Primary School and Bramhall High School in Bramhall, Stockport, in Greater Manchester. She also attended Hillcrest Grammar School, Davenport and Dane Bank College in Crewe (studying drama). Fielding’s first major role came in 1983 when she was cast in the children’s BBC series Seaview. The comedy-drama show centred around a teenage girl called Sandy Shelton (played by Fielding), growing up living at her parents’ guest house in Blackpool. The show ran for two series and secured Fielding’s popularity with younger audiences. After this, Fielding made a guest appearance in an episode of Juliet Bravo.

In 1987 Yvette Fielding became a presenter on the BBC children’s show, Blue Peter. To date Fielding still holds the record of being the youngest presenter on Blue Peter, starting on 29 June 1987 three months before her 19th birthday. While on the series Fielding also had an acting role in Last of the Summer Wine (making an appearance in the series while making a Blue Peter report on the show). During her time on the show, Fielding won the SOS Award for the Most Popular Woman on Television, competing with Cilla Black, Victoria Wood and Kylie Minogue. Years after Fielding left the show, her trip on a rollercoaster with fellow presenter Mark Curry was voted the Favourite Blue Peter moment of all time by viewers. After five years of Blue Peter, Fielding co-hosted What’s Up Doc?, a Saturday morning children’s show on ITV. The series ran for three years and established Fielding with slightly older audiences.

From 1995 Fielding made a successful transition from children’s to television for an older audience. After leaving What’s Up Doc? Fielding presented Heaven and Earth, The General and City Hospital for the BBC. She was a regular host of Karaoke Challenge and contributed weekend continuity for Challenge TV. From 1998 – 2000, Fielding appeared as a regular alongside Fred Dineage and Toyah Willcox on a property-pricing based game-show called Under Offer made for Meridian Television. In 2005 Fielding appeared as Annie Lennox in a celebrity special of ITV’s Stars in Their Eyes, and in the same year she also made a guest appearance on the BBC music quiz show Never Mind the Buzzcocks. In 2007 Fielding appeared in the ITV2 reality television programme Deadline, finishing second. Later on in the year she appeared as a guest on That Antony Cotton Show. In January 2008, Fielding appeared as a contestant on the BBC quiz show Celebrity Mastermind, with her specialist subject being Henry VIII.

In 2002, Yvette Fielding and her husband Karl Beattie established their own television production company, Antix Productions. Their first production was Most Haunted for the British TV channel Living. In the show, viewers can see Fielding and paranormal experts investigating various supposedly haunted locations around Britain, in the hopes that paranormal activity may be documented by the crew. Most Haunted proved popular with audiences and remains to this day one of Living’s highest-rated original shows. Leading on from this, in 2006 Fielding presented and produced Ghosthunting with…, a paranormal show for ITV2 which shows Fielding leading various celebrities around haunted locations. These two shows have established Yvette Fielding as British televisions ‘first lady’ of the paranormal, and somewhat of a cult figure. Fielding has made many appearances and interviews in the British media in connection with her paranormal investigations and programmes, including guest appearances on The Sunday Night Project (Channel 4), The Chris Moyles Show (BBC Radio 1) and Friday Night With Jonathan Ross (BBC One). Furthering her paranormal franchise, in 2008 Fielding made her first move into radio, hosting Yvette Fielding’s Fright Nights on Kerrang! Radio. Fielding left the radio station a few months later however, due to other work commitments.

In 2008 Fielding and Beattie formed a new company called Monster Pictures to operate the Paranormal Channel. The channel (launched 9 June 2008) claims to be the first TV channel in the world dedicated to the paranormal, and aims to be ground breaking in its investigation of the subject. Fielding acts as anchor to the channel and presents original programming on the station. The channel was renamed the Unexplained Channel in 2009.

Yvette Fielding continues to present Most Haunted which is now in production for its thirteenth series. Fielding also remains as the main anchor for the Unexplained Channel, for which she presented a 2009 series with Lesley Smith and Cath Howe entitled Screaming Banshees. Fielding also presented two new episodes of Ghosthunting with… in summer 2009, one episode featuring Boyzone and Louis Walsh, and another featuring Happy Mondays.

From February to March 2009, Yvette Fielding appeared in Saturday Night Takeaway on ITV1. Fielding featured in the Ant v Dec segment of the programme, as a member of Ant’s team (she was eliminated from the contest in the 5th round).

Yvette Fielding and her husband were the celebrity subjects of a one hour documentary for Living called Living With Yvette & Karl which aired on the 1 November 2008. A sequel documentary entitled In Bed with Yvette & Karl which aired on Living on January 17, 2009, charted Fielding’s hysterectomy operation and recovery. A full-length series of In Bed with Yvette & Karl, was then commissioned, and airied on Living during June and July 2009. In October 2009, a further documentary entitled Yvette & Karl: Life begins at 40 was broadcast.

On 21 May 2009, Yvette appeared for a fourth time on the Paul O’Grady Show, and a day later, she appeared on Friday Night With Jonathan Ross. In July 2009, Fielding was a celebrity panelist in an episode of the Channel 4 comedy show 8 out of 10 Cats. In November 2009, Fielding appeared as a celebrity contestant in an episode of Come Dine With Me, finishing third.

On 19 January 2010, Yvette appeared on the National Television Awards to represent Come Dine With Me.

Yvette Fielding, her husband and daughter Mary live on a farm (near Sandbach) in Cheshire. She also has a son, William, from her marriage to police officer Barry Sweeny. She is very fond of cars and owns 3 Aston Martins, a Land Rover, a Range Rover and a London Taxi (which she uses in Ghosthunting with…).

Her love of cars was shown on Fifth Gear in 2008 and can be seen on YOU TUBE .

Fielding has stated on the George Lamb radio show, that her front teeth were knocked out when she was eight years old, playing with her cousin Stuart Torevell.

Source: http://yvettefielding.org

Karl Beattie

Posted by admin as Biographies

Director Of Photography, Director Of Antix

Born: 20th May, 1963
 
Karl Beattie started his career in television on the set of BBC’s live children’s show ‘Parallel 9′ as a camera assistant. He was quickly snapped up by an outside broadcast company, Visions, and trained there as a cameraman.

Karl has worked on some of the top television shows in Britain: ‘Gladiators’, ‘Blind Date’, ‘TFI Friday’, ‘Robot Wars’, Disney, Jim Henson and the World Music Awards to name but a few. His music credits speak for themselves: Madonna’s Frozen Video, Motown Mania, Sting, Elton John, Paul McCartney, Whitney Houston, Oasis, Blur, Pulp, Michael Jackson, Janet Jackson to name but a few – and he’s no stranger to festivals either, working at Glastonbury, Reading, Phoenix and Brighton.

On a mission to experience the variety of television camera, he had gone as far as Bosnia and with a background in outside broadcast, he has amounted 1000s of hours of live broadcast in all television genre from sport to music, current affairs to light entertainment.

It was while working on a live show, BBC’s ‘City Hospital’, that Karl met Yvette Fielding. They were engaged within 6 weeks and married within 6 months. Both Karl and Yvette had wanted to start a production company to put their ideas into practice and so Antix Productions was born – and their first idea was ‘Most Haunted’.

Karl’s expertise does not only lie in television. He started Martial Arts training under the legendary Otsu Maeda Sensei at the age of 7 and is the current World Traditional Full Contact Martial Arts Champion. He won the title in 1994 and holds it to this day after knocking out the then undefeated champion Tiju Fukura. Karl has never been beaten and holds an impressive record of 85 official fights, 85 wins and 75 KO’s. He is the only person to take the title out of Japan and for his efforts has been awarded a Samuraiship, one of only eight honoured outside of Japan.

Karl brought this claim to the attention of the British media in 2004 and there has been much debate on the authenticity of this.  An article in the Japan Times stated however:

“The Office of the Imperial Household has told The Japan Times that it has no practice or system of granting such titles.

The samurai class ceased to exist 130 years ago, with the abolition of Japan’s feudal system at the end of the Tokugawa Shogunate in 1868.

But some believe this shouldn’t deter Beattie from pursuing his claim.

“Samurai do exist,” says Vincent Perry from Gallery Samurai in Minami Aoyama.

“Some people are really serious about it and respect the samurai spirit. One of the reasons they buy (armor) is that they have respect for that way of life and want to become a samurai,” he says.”

Ciarán O’Keeffe

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Parapsychologist
 
Ciarán’s diverse background begins in the US, where, in 1994, he graduated with a Liberal Arts degree at Washington College, majoring in Music & Psychology. There he completed an honors thesis on paranormal experiences in conjunction with a representative from the Institute of Parapsychology (now Rhine Research Center).

Following several years of nursing experience, an occasional foray into spontaneous cases, and a brief stint in Spain, he returned to academia, in 1997, with an MSc. Investigative Psychology at Liverpool University. Whilst there, independent research encompassed the geo-spatial behaviour of serial killers, hypnotism and the legal system, mental maps of computer criminals, and various aspects of the psychology of fraud: self-perception and social identity; risk-taking and decision making; situational factors and probability bias. The Master’s dissertation examined the utility of psychic detectives and the style of their narratives.

In the past few years Ciarán has been researching a Doctorate entitled ‘Assessing the content of advice given by practitioners claiming paranormal ability,’ (focusing on psychics and mediums) at the University of Hertfordshire. The PhD is supervised by Professor Richard Wiseman and Professor Julia Buckroyd.

Professor Wiseman, primary supervisor, has provided advice on the assessment of claimants; Professor Buckroyd has offered input on how such interactions relate to the dyadic interaction of counselling scenarios.

During his time at University of Hertfordshire, Ciarán was fortunate enough to be involved in several Perrott-Warrick Research Unit projects (e.g. ‘ghost’ projects at Hampton Court and Edinburgh), also taking time off for other spontaneous cases and unusual assignments (including a dream project, and exorcism research), and returning to the Rhine Research Center for their Summer Study Program in 2000.

He was employed as a psychology lecturer at Liverpool Hope University College, assisting with both criminal psychology and parapsychology teaching.

Stuart Torevell

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Rigger and Cameraman on Most Haunted Since 2002

Stuart Torevell was born on 1st April 1974 in Stockport, Greater Manchester.

He is a camera operator and rigger working for Antix Productions on shows such as Most Haunted. He is a cousin of Yvette Fielding.

Torevell is mostly known for his on-camera role as a paranormal investigator on Most Haunted and Most Haunted Live!.

Stuart’s been prey to a number of paranormal incidents – the scariest being at the Ancient Ram Inn where he was literally attacked by an unseen force. Stuart claims it was this terrifying incident that caused him to lose his hair through alopecia. Jon Dibley, who witnessed it all said, “He was being punched repeatedly in the stomach in front of my eyes. He was screaming and crying from the pain.” As Stuart himself would say “Fookin’ hell!”

Stuart has recently become a father for the first time, when his wife Terri had a baby boy called Max.

Lesley Smith

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Historian On Most Haunted

Lesley Smith (born 1957) is a scholar, historian, heritage publicist and actress. She was resident historian on the television show Most Haunted Live! (2006 – 2009, 2010 – Present) and presenter of Most Haunted: Midsummer Murders. She has also been featured on the show The Worst Jobs in History.

Aside from her TV work, Smith is the curator and lessee of Tutbury Castle, a position granted by the Duchy of Lancaster, for which she works as Public Relations Officer. Since taking the position in the year 2000, she has presided over a 12-fold increase in visitor numbers. To reward her achievements, the University of Derby recently awarded Smith an honorary master’s degree. At the conferment of the degree, she was described as “a remarkable social historian of the 16th century who is passionate about and committed to raising public understanding of the subject.”

Leslie is also well-known for her dramatic interpretations of Queen Elizabeth I and Mary, Queen of Scots, for which she dons authentic replica costumes. She performs regular ghost hunt evenings, in character, at Tutbury. She also takes these reenactments, as well as those of Nell Gwyn and Anne Boleyn, to theatrical and charitable venues

Paul Ross

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Anchor On Most Haunted Live
 
Paul John Ross (born “John Ross”, December 31, 1956 in Leytonstone, London) is an English journalist, television editor, and media personality. He is the brother of presenter Jonathan Ross. He is also an up and coming film reviewer.

Ross was trained as a journalist, and worked as an editor on Channel 4’s controversial youth show The Word, having originally cut his teeth as a researcher at London Weekend Television. He worked as an ‘on-your-doorstep’ outside broadcaster, and also as co-host in The Big Breakfast. In the mid 1990s, he also worked as a game show host on Telly Stacks and the British version of the popular American game show Jeopardy.

From 1997 to 1998 he hosted The Paul Ross Show, a late-night programme on ITV. He also made appearances on programs such as Bo’ Selecta and Never Mind the Buzzcocks. Ross was one of the launch presenters at the then-innovative satellite shopping broadcaster Bid-up.tv, and fronted the BBC1 lunchtime quizshow No Win No Fee, where contestants would directly compete with Paul for his four-thousand pound fee for the show. He took part in the third series of popular ITV1 reality show, Celebrity Fit Club, losing 2 stone and a pound, and was made team captain. Ross was the first contestant to be eliminated on Comic Relief Does Fame Academy (2003) after his singing failed to impress voters.

His film roles have included “Mr Sit-up Britain” in Bridget Jones’s Diary (2001) and Colonel Mattel in Cannibal Women in the Avocado Jungle of Death (1989).

In 2005 he presents a Saturday morning show for London’s LBC 97.3 radio station, as well as being a show-business reporter for the television programme, This Morning. He also writes a weekly column, Paul Ross at the Movies, for a leading Sunday tabloid newspaper, which has been widely criticized for “quote whoring”. He also introduced movies on the short lived Sky movie channels Matinee and Bad Movies

In 2005 Paul was also one of the the main presenters for ChoicesUK TV on Sky TV a film review/shopping channel also hosted by Rustie Lee

Paul Ross has also appeared on a celebrity edition of “Mastermind” where his specialist subject was “The Life and Works of Ezra Pound”. He is now since the Most Haunted Live in Portsmouth 2006, the host of Most Haunted Live.

Chris Conway

Posted by admin as Biographies

Medium Series 13 to March 2010

Chris has felt a connection to the spirit world since the age of six. Up to the age of 23, Chris felt like he had to keep his ability to communicate with the spirit world a secret, but through meeting people like himself realised that there are a lot of people out there who would be able to benefit from his talent.

He has used his ability to make a living as a psychic, doing tarot readings and clearing spirits from houses. Altruistic Chris would never charge for this service, ‘the peaceful look on their faces in the following weeks was payment enough’.

The founding member of UK Ghost Hunters Group, a society recently set up to track down paranormal activity in Cumbria and South-West Scotland, Chris is a fervent believer in the paranormal and hopes that modern technology will facilitate his quest to prove the existence of ghosts.

Chris left Most Haunted in March 2010 issuing a statement on his website.

For more information see:

http://www.tributemosthaunted.co.uk/most-haunted-news/chris-conway-quit-most-haunted

http://www.tributemosthaunted.co.uk/most-haunted-news/chris-conway-leaves-most-haunted-update/

Julian Clegg

Posted by admin as Biographies

MH Live Access All Areas
 
His first break was with BBC Local Radio in Sussex. But he moved back to his roots to join BBC Radio Solent and set up house a few miles from his boyhood home near New Milton.

Phil Whyman

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Paranormal Investigator Series 2 – 4, Returned to Most Haunted Live October 2009

Phil Whyman is an internationally recognised figure within the paranormal genre and world of paranormal TV programming. He is the founder of Dead Haunted, company director and host of our events. Having been investigating the paranormal world for over a quarter of a century his knowledge of ghosts, hauntings and the unexplained has been called upon numerous times within the media. In 2002 he became the resident paranormal expert and presenter on the hugely successful ‘Most Haunted’ television series alongside Yvette Fielding and Karl Beattie, appearing in three series and seven live events which were watched by millions.

A popular figure on the series, he has since reprised his role on the ‘Most Haunted-Live’ shows, not only providing an expert opinion on the investigation, but also taking studio audience members on special vigils after the show finishes airing each night. Prior to Most Haunted he appeared in the popular ‘Scream Team’ series.

In 2007 he became a published author when ‘Phil Whyman’s Dead Haunted’ was released to much acclaim.

Phil was also recently involved with the ‘The Great Unexplained Debate’ – alongside Karl Beattie – for the Unexplained Channel (Sky 201)

He is currently a monthly columnist for ‘Chat-It’s Fate’ magazine.

Phil runs Dead Haunted with his fiance Sara Woodward of White Rose Paranormal, giving the public the chance to experience genuine overnight paranormal investigations.