RoysWorld

Will Storr has published chapter 6 (Me versus Most Haunted) of his Louis Theroux style investigation of the paranormal “Will Storr vs. The Supernatural” on his MySpace account.
Here is a quick snippet, but do readread the whole chapter or better still buy the book.

As the shrill breeze runs through his accurately groomed hair, and multiple diamonds sparkle on his earlobes and fingers, I watch Derek Acorah trying to pre-record a link for his television show. After his fourth fluffing, he gives himself a pantomime slap around the face and says, with a whinny, ‘Oh, I can’t act!’
The crew who are filming Derek and his co-presenter, Yvette Fielding, do not offer any comment. They just remain in position and wait for Yvette to begin, yet again.
‘Good evening,’ she says into the camera, ‘and welcome to Most Haunted Live. This is the first night out of three and we’re on the hunt for the ghost of the East Anglian witch trials. We’re here with the Most Haunted Live crew and, of course, we’ve got Derek Acorah. Derek, what are you expecting to happen here?’
‘I feel over the next three nights,’ he says, in his rich, scouse-with-added-sugar voice, ‘you know, it’s going to be very eerie.’
‘Ooooh, no,’ says Yvette.
‘Be prepared to be very scared,’ Derek says, with his forefinger extended and slamming through the air to give the last two words maximum dramatic impact.
‘Ooooh, no,’ Yvette says again. ‘I don’t like the sound of that at all. It’s going to be amazing.’

Can you believe it: Derek Acorah has a guest role in the new series of Doctor Who (thanks BDO)
SFX quotes an interview for the Manchester Evening News where Derek says he has “just filmed Doctor Who” where “The Doctor finds that spirits and ghosts have invaded the whole of the galaxy so he gets me along to see what we can do about it”.

Weird stuff.

The scene – inside some spaceship, all filmed in green-middle-of-the-night-oh-vision. The Doctor looks sceptical with a clipboard, and taking readings with his Sonic Screwdriver. Rose looking bored finally glances up at Derek, and says :

“What can you see Derek? Can Sam see anything?”

Derek – finger pointing from forehead starts marching around:
“Ex?
Exter?
Ex-Ter-Min-Ate.
What does that mean Sam?”

After Sunday nights final Live show with Derek Acorah, the new series of Most Haunted started last night with new medium Gordon Smith. Now I’ve heard of him before, he was followed around on the BBC documentary “Mediums: Talking to the Dead” and he has a good reputation in the spiritualist arena. As you know, I don’t believe in any of this psychic medium stuff, but he was certainly the most convincing in the documentary. He refers to himself as the ‘Psychic Barber’ as he began speaking to the dead whilst working at a hairdressers (and I don’t just mean the old ladies wanting a blue rinse). In this first episode him and David Wells got on like a house on fire; mincing around some haunted house in Exeter. They were backing each other up rather than competing and reminded me of of an overweight psychic Colin and Justin. Both Gordon and David ended up in some sort of a trance whilst being possessed by a ghost with a long drawn out spooky face (who said Derek has left). Nothing on Bad Psychics about Gordon as yet, but my guess is it’s only a matter of time now that his profile has been raised. Move over Derek, there’s a new guy in town. If you’re interested, Gordon has written a couple of books: Spirit Messenger and The Unbelievable Truth.

Derek Acorah’s Ghost Town van spotted in Shrewsbury.

So it’s official, Derek Acorah is to leave Most Haunted to work on his new series Ghost Towns. I can’t say I’m totally surprised. If anyone read the Heat magazine interview with Derek and Yvette Fielding it was pretty obvious that they no longer get on at all, and she wasn’t going to leave. I guess this is the end of an era, the show will never be the same again, I just wonder if Derek saw it all coming?

According to World Screen News, LivingTv has commissioned two new Derek Acorah hosted shows: “Derek Acorah’s Ghost Towns” and “The Quest for Guy Fawkes”. Here’s what they say about them:

The 8×1-hour Derek Acorah’s Ghost Towns will feature psychic Acorah and two co-presenters traveling to towns across the U.K. in their Ghost Truck to investigate paranormal activity.rnThe two-hour special The Quest for Guy Fawkes marks the 400th anniversary of the November 5, 1604 Gunpowder Plot to blow up London’s House of Parliament. Acorah, through investigation, mediumship and reconstructions, will attempt to get into the minds of Guy Fawkes and his cohorts to deeper understand their motivations and personalities

“Wiiizzzz…..Bang!! What could that mean Sam?”

Ofcom have just published a single rulebook combining all the existing broadcasting regulations. To this they’ve added rules “forbidding broadcasters from showing paranormal stunts before the 9pm watershed, or at a time when children may be likely to tune in”. According to The Times this means “entertainers who specialise in mind reading and magic like Derren Brown are also likely to be affected”, and presumably Derek Acorah types too. I must say I’m slightly baffled by this, what corruption of children’s minds are they expecting from a magician ‘reading your mind’ and telling you the card you picked from his carefully manipulated deck? Does this mean no more ‘Geoffrey Durham’ on Countdown? If this regulation had applied in the 70s and 80s would it have kept Paul Daniels and Uri Geller from our screens? Ahhh… I’m beginning to see their point.

Fancy taking the mick out of Mr Acorah. Then get yourself a Kreed Kafer = Derek Faker TShirt. They ship in from the US, but with the current exchange rate that’s quite cheap. Oh and before you ask, yes they are available in medium.

We are currently watching Most Haunted and it’s the adverts. Derek Acorah has just mentioned Highwayman Rik Eedles. Myself and Paula instantly thought this must be another anagram. Is it a coincidence that “Rik Eedles” is an anagram of “Derek Lies”? Is this Kreed Kafer all over again?

A week or so ago I was contacted by Emma who is one of the researchers of Bad Psychics. She explained she was setting up a new site “aimed at exposing Most Haunted, Most Haunted Live and Derek Acorah amongst others”. She was interested in publishing my account of an Evening with Derek Acorah and of course I agreed.

The site is still new and evolving, but it does have a few interesting articles about Mr Acorah.

My favourite is about the first episode of series 6 of Most Haunted. The episode aired on Living TV last week and was set in Bodmin Gaol. You can read the full transcript here, but in summary the article purports to have evidence that Derek was completely stitched up. In one section of the show, Derek is seen to be ‘possessed’ by a South African Jailor called Kreed Kafer. According to the article the name was made up by a couple of people on set, and talked about within earshot of Derek. The punchline is of course that Kreed Kafer is an anagram of Derek Faker. The author then sent an email to the head of Living TV quoting the Fraudulent Mediums Act 1951 proposing that Derek should be sacked.

Other articles of interest consider the origins of Derek’s name and why medium Thomas Alder believes Derek Acorah is faking it.
Finally, here is the Daily Mirror article where Ciaran O’Keeffe finally reveals how he tricked Derek.