Sir Michael Parkinson fans beg for his banned show to be aired again following death aged 88

Sir Michael Parkinson has been remembered for one of his more unexpected TV projects (Picture: Getty)

Sir Michael Parkinson may be best known for his decades-long career as an interviewer, but fans have remembered a truly terrifying show he once took part in.

First starting his career in television in the 1960s, it was in 1971 that his eponymous BBC series Parkinson first hit screens.

By his own account, by the time the show wrapped up in 2007, Sir Michael believed he had interviewed over 2,000 of the world’s celebrities.

After an acclaimed career, on Thursday the chat show host’s family confirmed that he had died aged 88.

A statement: ‘After a brief illness Sir Michael Parkinson passed away peacefully at home last night in the company of his family.

‘The family request that they are given privacy and time to grieve.’

The presenter appeared in the 1992 Halloween special Ghostwatch (Picture: Emily Manley)

Tributes have poured in from fans and famous faces alike, but some have also reminisced on some of Sir Michael’s more unusual career moves over the years, including one that seized upon his role as a trusted broadcaster to terrify the nation.

Back in 1992, Sir Michael fronted a Halloween horror mockumentary titled Ghostwatch alongside Sarah Greene.

In it, the pair presented what appeared to be a live news report investigating paranormal activity at a family home.

The mockumentary followed a family being terrorised by a ghost (Picture: Emily Manley)

The report featured ‘home footage’ of a ghost terrorising two children in their bedroom with their mother rushing to get them out of the house.

However, many people didn’t quite realise the whole thing was a set-up and the BBC was flooded with a jaw-dropping 30,000 complaints within an hour of it going to air.

Many claimed their children had been left traumatised by the scary scenes and the episode was subsequently banned from ever appearing on British TV again.

Blamed for giving children PTSD, the parents of one 18-year-old boy also said the show caused his death.

A factory worker with learning difficulties, Martin Denham took his own life five days after the show aired, convinced there were ghosts haunting his home after hearing pipes banging.

His parents filed a complaint to the Broadcasting Standards Commission, which ruled the programme was excessively distressing and graphic.

‘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,’ it said.

Clips of the programme started doing the rounds on social media last year, with many people recalling just how terrified they had been at the time.

‘Oh my god… I remember this so well. I didn’t sleep for a week,’ wrote one viewer on TikTok, while another went as far as claiming ‘this is still the reason I wet the bed’.

After the news of Sir Michael’s death today, many people also brought up the programme in their tributes.

‘Michael Parkinson took part in one of the greatest and scariest media pranks since Orson Welles convinced America aliens had landed,’ one person shared on Twitter, referencing the mass hysteria that occurred when War of the Worlds was first read out on radio in 1938.

Sir Michael’s death was announced by his family this week (Picture: REX/Shutterstock)

‘Michael Parkinson is the reason I thought Ghostwatch was real. RIP, folk horror legend,’ someone else shared.

Another added: ‘The trust we had in Parky was flipped against us. Fair play to him. RIP.’

Meanwhile someone else suggested their idea for a tribute to the talk show host.

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‘I hope Michael Parkinson’s death means a rescreening of Ghostwatch,’ they shared.

While Sir Michael didn’t appear to comment much publicly on the aftermath of the show in the years following, creator Stephen Volk once recalled that he did tell the press: ‘People are daft, some people believe the wrestling!.’

‘He was suitably Yorkshire about it, and always supported us right the way through. He “got” it. He also got it in the neck,’ he shared.

In 2002, the British Film Institute released a 10th Anniversary edition on VHS and DVD, and in 2011, 101 Films issued a DVD release of Ghostwatch.

Metro.co.uk has contacted the BBC for comment.

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