Banned Episode: The BBC were quick to scrub the special from their history following the negative press it got following the suicide of a teen (who had learning disabilities and was at the mental age of 13) who allegedly watched it. It has never been rerun on the network (as of 2023, it still hasn't), the Beeb never brought it up ever again and they, for the most part, pretended it never happened. This eventually ended around the special's tenth anniversary, when it was released on DVD, playing up the controversy in the taglines.
The writing credit at the opening was a last minute addition insisted on by The BBC, who had very nearly pulled the entire broadcast.
Other ideas that were nixed after consultation with BBC higher-ups were the inclusion of a high-pitched frequency that would agitate any dogs proximate to the TV during broadcastnote due to technical limitations in broadcast soundtracks at the time, this wouldn't have been possible even if permission had been given and a line delivered by a possessed Parkinson telling viewers that "the ghost is probably in their house".
There have been allegations that prior to the broadcast, Sarah Greene performed an item promoting the film on the childrens' Saturday-morning entertainment show which she co-presented, Going Live!, which gave no hint that the programme would be fictional. This was seized upon by people who accused the BBC of an irresponsible hoax, but Greene denies it, and people have searched unsuccessfully through editions of the show that might have been involved without finding anything like it. She did, however, make an appearance on the Children's BBC strand one week after the broadcast to reassure younger viewers that none of it was real, which may have been the source of the rumours.
It's been suggested that Mike Smith's demands for reassurance of his wife Sarah Greene's wellbeing at the climax are genuine, a fairly ridiculous claim, not least because the Foxhall Drive scenes were filmed well in advance of the studio scenes.
Real-life spouses Mike Smith and Sarah Greene play themselves in the special.
Suzanne and Kim Early are played, respectively, by real-life sisters Michelle and Cherise Wesson.
General trivia:
Although this was aired under the Screen One drama banner, its documentary style led many viewers to believe the events were real, causing much controversy after the show's airing. The BBC was besieged with phone calls from irate and frightened viewers, among them Michael Parkinson's elderly mother. British tabloids and other newspapers criticised the BBC the next day for the disturbing nature of some scenes, such as Greene's final scene where she is locked in an under-stairs cupboard with the howling ghost, and Parkinson's eerie possession scene. Eighteen-year-old factory worker Martin Denham, who suffered from learning difficulties and had a mental age of 13, took his own life five days after the programme aired. The family home had suffered with a faulty central heating system which had caused the pipes to knock; Denham linked this to the activity in the show causing great worry. He left a suicide note reading "if there are ghosts I will be ... with you always as a ghost". His mother and stepfather, April and Percy Denham, blamed the BBC. They claimed that Martin was "hypnotised and obsessed" by the programme. The Broadcasting Standards Commission refused their complaint, along with 34 others, as being outside their remit, but the High Court granted the Denhams' permission for a judicial review requiring the BSC to hear their complaint. In its ruling, the BSC stated: "The BBC had a duty to do more than simply hint at the deception it was practising on the audience. In Ghostwatch there was a deliberate attempt to cultivate a sense of menace." They ruled that the programme was excessively distressing and graphic – referring to the scratches on the children and the reference to mutilated animals – and that it had aired too soon after the 9pm watershed. They further stated that "the presence in the programme of presenters familiar from children's programmes ... took some parents off-guard in deciding whether their children could continue to view." The film's producers argued that the film had aired during a drama slot, that it was recognisable as fiction to a vast majority, and that running disclaimers or other announcements during the programme would have ruined its effectiveness. They also stated that, had they anticipated the audience reaction, they would have made its fictional nature clearer. However, after the BSC ruling, they issued an apology.
