The nights got a little greener once Yvette Fielding and her husband Karl Beattie appeared on the British telly.
Memoir
By Yvette Fielding
Ebury Spotlight
London, 2024
4/5
That was 2002 and the first location for “Most Haunted” was Dorchester’s Athelhampton Hall. By all means Fielding and Beattie were a little green when it came to paranormal television, but they were to become the trendsetters that birthed a glut of “ghost investigators” running around haunted locations.
I remember watching the show with my mom after I just graduated from university. We would laugh at Fielding’s reactions to every little noise. Her eyes flashed white under the night vision. Everyone looked like glaucoma patients on that show.
So, when I heard that she was publishing her biography it was something I wanted to take a boo at.
If you’re a fan of “Most Haunted” (2002-2019), you won’t be surprised by the stories she shares from her life in dark expanses, but what you might be surprised by is the longevity of her career in media, one spanning back to 1983 where she was on the series “Seaview”.
Being a Canadian Gen-Xer, I never had access to “Blue Peter”. We grew up on “The Friendly Giant”, “The Polka Dot Door”, “Today’s Special” and the iconic “Mr. Dressup”. Although, I would get “Thomas the Tank Engine” paraphernalia mailed to me by relatives who lived in the U.K. Fielding was a popular host on “Blue Peter” and it shaped her for what was to come.
Still, it was most excellent learning about Fielding’s life before “Most Haunted” and her first encounter with a spectre at 26. It was her mum’s home, and she saw half a soldier.
Her varied life in and out of the uncanny spotlight is best summed up in her quote, “One of the most fascinating aspects of being a paranormal investigator is just how varied the hauntings we’ve seen have been. They’ve taught me that ghosts come in all shapes and sizes. We’ve encountered pockets of pure energy that seem not to be human at all; poltergeists that are sometimes violent, other times playful, but always noisy and disruptive; apparitions that don’t interact or are even unaware of their surroundings and seem instead to be a recording or an imprint on the atmosphere of something that happened many years ago.”
There doesn’t seem to be a rhyme or a reason for a lot of them, but Fielding and her “Most Haunted” team inspired a whole generation of researchers. They were the ones who led the way in what skeptic Ben Radford called, “the democratization of paranormal investigators” when I interviewed him for an article on skepticism holding the paranormal accountable.
Holding frauds accountable is key in the paranormal community and Fielding and Beattie had to reel in one big fish with Derek Acorah.
The relationship frayed between Antix Productions (Fielding and Beattie’s production company) and Acorah in 2005. LivingTV, the station “Most Haunted” aired on, took the side of Acorah, who at one point wanted shares in Antix.
Whenever I saw Acorah on the screen, I’ll admit I’d roll my eyes. His possessions became more elaborate demonstrations of histrionics. And I almost laid a solid gold egg laughing when he shook on the TV and said, “Mary loves Dick”.
No “Most Haunted” watcher could keep a straight face after that.
Thankfully, the situation with Acorah was diffused, and it underscores the importance of being vigilant in outing those who are of the charlatan variety.
Fielding’s narrative is simple, but in the best way, as it allows you to follow her career from child actor to children’s show presenter to paranormal trailblazer.
It’s a must for anyone who wants to explore both the world of the inexplicable and the pop cultural fallout from it.