Paranormal Investigator Rhod Gilbert's Work Experience


Paranormal Investigator

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This programme contains strong language.

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People tell me I've got the toughest job in town, but I'm sure I'd find other things far more difficult,

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so I'm ditching my regular job and trying something completely different.

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This is my work experience,

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and this week, I'm a paranormal investigator.

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'The closest I've come to seeing a ghost is watching my wife

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'trying to put on a clean duvet cover,

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'so I floated off to meet Beyond The Grave,'

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'a team of paranormal investigators who do everything

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'from ghost-hunting events to private investigations.

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'They knew more about things that go bump in the night

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'than Mick Hucknall's headboard.

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'A trail of ectoplasm led me to Abergavenny,

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'where I had to switch to night-vision cameras

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'because the team was in the pitch dark, mid-investigation.'

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-THEY WHISPER

-Hello.

-Hello. Leanne?

-Yes.

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Hiya.

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-Hi, Leanne.

-How are you?

-I'm all right. How are you?

-I'm fine.

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What are we doing here?

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-We're at the Abergavenny Chronicle in the back attic.

-Yeah.

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And we're conducting a paranormal investigation.

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What's a paranormal investigation?

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It's where we go round to a haunted location

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and we communicate with spirits, the dead,

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using various bits of equipment which is on the table there.

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-Shall we stop holding hands now?

-If you want to, yes.

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THEY LAUGH

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'I felt as out of place as Justin Bieber at Huw Edwards' 50th.

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'As far as I could tell, Leanne was under the table talking to no-one

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'and her team were measuring nothing with things.'

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James, is that you touching Ted?

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Could you do that again and make his tummy light up again, if that was you?

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They've got a teddy under the table.

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It's got various lights and sensors on it,

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and they're encouraging this child, ghost,

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to play with the teddy.

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Right, Rhod, getting quite a bit of stuff under this table.

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And he's playing with the ted under the table.

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Do you want to come under the table with me?

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Of course I don't want to come under the table...

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-GENTLE LAUGHTER

-Come on, come on.

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It's nothing against you, Leanne.

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'You could fit everything I know about ghosts on Derek Acorah's aura,

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'but Leanne knew more about dead people than a maggot.

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'She showed me the torches she used to chat to people

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'who are too dead to use Skype.'

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We've got two knock-off torches here, which have just been set

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so that they're just off and the slightest bit of movement,

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if somebody was to touch it or tap it, should turn those torches on.

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Couldn't that just be one of us moving and the floorboard?

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Go.

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-No.

-Nothing. God, I hope there wasn't a ghost under there.

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They're dead now, after you thumped them.

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'I've never tried to speak to the undead before,

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'unless you count a brief chat with Jeremy Kyle in the corridor,

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'so this was my chance.'

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HE SINGS WEAKLY How do you do it if there's anyone there?

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Please...knock.

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You sound like you're working in a Post Office.

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I know, but I don't know how,

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I don't know what voice to use to talk to a ghost!

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Right, Rhod,

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the best way to do it is think of somebody in your family

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who's passed over and how you would speak to them

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if you met them now.

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Grandad, what the fuck are you doing here?!

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RHOD LAUGHS

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'Leanne may have looked a bit like Thelma,

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'but I was definitely Scooby Don't.

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'My first attempt to FaceTime the dead had failed.'

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I arrived very sceptical,

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healthy scepticism.

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I'm leaving the same.

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You're going to have to start getting over your scepticism

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a little bit cos, at the end of this, you're going to be running

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your own event in front of guests.

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'If I was to have a ghost of a chance of running a ghost hunt,

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'I needed help.

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'Colin and Darren had spent more time looking for things in the dark

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'than a mole's PA,

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'so I met them at their head office, slash garage.'

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The other night, we were in a room and there was,

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I think there was James, there was a child spirit under the table...

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How do you stumble across...?

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-How do I, how do you sense it when you go into the room?

-Yeah.

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If I walk into a room and I see there's a child in there,

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I've normally seen that child playing around.

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You must be shitting yourself, though.

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No, no, it's nothing to be frightened...

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Why is there to be frightened of the dead? What's there to be frightened of the dead?

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Why is there to be frightened of the dead? Cos they're dead!

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THEY LAUGH

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Surely I don't need to explain this basic set-up!

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'Colin and Darren were a cross between that little woman

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'in Poltergeist and Ross Kemp.

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'They were a right pair of Polterkemps.'

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They had more devices for bringing people back from the dead than Ann Summers.

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-OK, this is a K2.

-So what will affect that?

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Anything that is

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got magnetic field around it, ie, a mobile phone,

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a walkie-talkie, Wi-Fi, if a taxi goes past outside.

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How do you investigate a ghost at a taxi rank? Is that impossible?

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Well, it would be, especially when they're radioing in.

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The Polterkemps showed me their tackle.

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I haven't learned so much so quickly

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since that car-boot sale in Longleat.

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Torches, K2s, EMFs and something called EVP -

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electronic voice phenomena.

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Some of the best ways with interactions you'll get, really,

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is on a digital recorder, audio recorders.

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A lot of the time, you'll be asking questions

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and might not get anything when you're in the room,

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so you're saying, "Can you tell us your name?"

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You'd leave a bit of a gap, you might get a response on there.

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'The closest I've come to unexplained voice phenomena

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'is meeting Joe Pasquale,

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'but the Polterkemps had some spine-chilling EVP evidence

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'from a previous jaunt.'

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This is an EVP recording that I captured,

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er, Woodchester in Gloucestershire.

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We were calling out on the hallway

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and this is what we captured on the recorder.

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OK.

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-FEMALE VOICE:

-"Leave..."

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So, tell me what you hear.

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There is a voice saying, "Leave."

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Yes, that's exactly what it is.

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Hit me again.

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"Leave."

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This is a very posh,

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very higher individual...

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-Sounds like a well-spoken voice.

-..that is saying "Leave."

-"Leave."

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Yeah.

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You know, I'm still sceptical.

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But I have to do this event in a few days' time

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and I'm going to do my damnedest to have some kind of experience.

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'Leanne and the Polterkemps felt that my psychic passage was shut

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'tighter than a snake charmer's suitcase.

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'Whenever THEY felt bunged up,

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'they sought help to open up their paranormal pathways.'

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So they packed me off to a faraway kingdom,

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amid the clouded valleys of Cwmbran,

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where there lived mystical crystal healer,

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who could harness the cosmic powers of the universe...

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Helen.

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What are you hoping to achieve from today's session?

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I want to see dead people.

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-Right.

-RHOD LAUGHS

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-Is that too much to ask?

-Tall order.

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I am supernaturally constipated.

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I need a paranormal laxative.

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-Oh, that's a good way of putting it.

-RHOD LAUGHS

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Before I could undergo such invasive treatment,

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I had to look inside myself

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and answer some pretty soul-searching questions.

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Um, marital status?

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Unhappy.

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THEY LAUGH

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Any allergies?

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-Eggs.

-Eggs.

-Very mild allergy to egg, apparently.

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Is that relevant?

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No, I don't think I'm going to be rubbing any eggs in, don't worry.

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-So, do you take regular exercise?

-No.

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-I avoid eggs, but I wouldn't call it exercise.

-All right.

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'As Helen's healing hands hovered over my chakras,

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'I felt my whatsits thingummyjig

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'and my what-do-you-call-it fill up with some sort of stuff.'

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Sometimes a reiki treatment can bring things to the surface.

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It's a bit like dredging a pond.

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I hate to think what I'm like on the inside under the surface.

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Silt, you'll probably find an old shopping trolley...

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Yeah, yeah. That's it.

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'To unblock my psychic U-bend,

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'Helen powered up her cosmic plungers.'

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'Open sesame!'

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ECHO

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'Helen had dredged my chakras and I was open for business.

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'I immediately understood the nature of all consciousness.

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'I was chakrad up to the max.

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'If I was a singer, I'd have been Chakra Khan.

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'If I was a politician, I'd have been Chakra Umunna.'

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Night-night.

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Night-night. HELEN LAUGHS

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'Before I left, Helen gave me a rare and valuable stone,

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'an all-seeing, omniscient crystal to guide me

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'on my perilous journey through the valleys of the undead -

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'and it was only eight quid.'

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I'll just ask it to show you your direction for yes.

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Please, pendulum, could you show me my direction for yes, please?

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Your yes looks like it's left-to-right.

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It does look like it's left-to-right.

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-OK.

-How's that happening?

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-It's your body telling it.

-It's very odd.

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I think you might have opened up my channels. Who's that behind you?

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THEY LAUGH

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'I had no idea how it was doing it, but for yes, my crystal

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was throwing itself around like a sprinter's dick.

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'But when I asked it for a no, it wouldn't budge.'

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There's nothing happening there whatsoever, is there?

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The pendulum is saying no, it won't to do a no.

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-Or is my no just nothing?

-It could be a no is just...

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How will I tell the difference between my no,

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which is nothing, and nothing, which is nothing?

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Mm, good question.

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'Hm. Like the man from Del Monte,

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'my crystal seemed to have a problem saying no.'

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But I didn't care cos,

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like Peter Stringfellow in a crotchless Mancini,

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I was ready for action.

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Leanne and Darren were keen to road test

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my new psychic superhighway

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and took me on their next call-out,

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an old stationmaster's cottage near Cardiff,

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where some crazy weird shit

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was going down for its latest residents, Alex and Abbey.

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There are a couple of, sort of, noises, like bangs and stuff,

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that I couldn't, sort of, really explain what they were.

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That area at the top of the stairs, as well, I just don't feel...

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-like I'm alone.

-OK.

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How sure are you that this isn't just your imagination,

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-just something...?

-I'm more of a sceptic than Alex is.

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But, I mean, I wasn't here when all these incidents have happened.

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I get panicked phone calls in work, saying, "Oh, my God..."

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Do you secretly believe Alex is just off on one and you're just

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doing this, going along with it, just to keep him happy?

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There is a funny sensation at the top of those stairs, though.

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There is, I have felt something there.

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Can I go and check out the top of the stairs?

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If you want to, you're more than free. More than welcome.

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'One glance at the stairs told me that something

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'was very, very wrong.

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'But like a footballer stuck in a balaclava,

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'I had to try to stay calm.'

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I can't feel anything. I don't know what I was expecting to feel.

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'Witch flaps.

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'I was getting nothing.

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'Maybe my psychic pathway had got bunged up again. But I had an idea.'

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I'm going to try my pendulum.

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I'm going to give this a shot.

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Is there a spirit here?

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So is that a no?

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Is that a definite no?

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Are you saying no? Can you give me a yes if that was a no?

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Is there a spirit here?

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Yes. That's a very clear yes.

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But does that mean yes, there's a spirit here, or is that yes,

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that was a no when I first asked you if there was a spirit here?

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No.

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Do you mean no, that wasn't a yes, that there was a spirit here?

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What you mean is no, that was a yes,

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that you were saying no in the first place, yeah?

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Yes.

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Let me just recap,

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yes, that was a no...

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..that your first answer was a no?

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NOT...yes, there's a spirit here, yeah?

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Yes.

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Well, that's cleared that up.

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'How the hell was I going to put on a ghost tour?

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'My third eye was crusted over

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'and my pendulum was as dicky as a Chippendale's tour bus.

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'Determined to experience something,

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'I headed off to another Cardiff callout.

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'Valessa's seemingly normal terraced house was under siege.'

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LAUGHTER

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What's been happening in this house?

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It is not me living here with my family.

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It's something else, or lots of them.

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Have you got a specific example of something that's happened?

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Oh, God. Many, many examples.

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Like a few days ago, when I woke up

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from the feeling that someone is staring at me,

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-you open your eyes...

-VALESSA GASPS

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..and something's standing next to me, watching you.

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'Excited by the Valessa's vivid descriptions, we turned the place

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'upside down looking for spirits, like Keith Richards in a monastery.'

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None of the devices are picking up anything at all.

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So, apart from...

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a strong feeling that we're being watched by

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the entire cuddly toy department of Woolworths...

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-THEY LAUGH

-Apart from that, we're all right.

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We're all right at the moment, it seems.

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Our devices were as quiet as a cat's yawn.

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'But Valessa was getting me all wound up

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'and my bowels went as loose as a heron's leggings

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'as we attempted a Crimewatch reconstruction.'

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-Mm-hm.

-Tell me when to open my eyes.

-Wake up.

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RHOD SCREAMS AND LAUGHS

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Yes!

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It was worse than that!

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I can't believe that I knew you were going to be there

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and I still screamed!

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-How do you sleep here now?

-I have no idea.

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I'm trying, probably laying down with my eyes closed

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and then...watching, observing.

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Has it ever done anything to you, or...physical?

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At the top of the stairs, there was something physically pushing

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and I nearly...flown down.

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-It was terrible.

-Can you show me?

-Yeah.

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'I still didn't believe it was anything paranormal,

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'but I'm a total coward, as yellow as Charlie Sheen's mattress,

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'and I wanted to get the hell out of Valessa's freaky spook joint.'

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But you have to stay the night to see it.

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I don't want to be rude, Valessa,

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but there is no way I'm staying in your house.

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-Well, you should.

-No way!

-You should.

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When you speak to somebody like Valessa,

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who speaks with such passion, seems adamant,

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if I WERE experiencing anything that she is, I'd be spooked to Hell.

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I think the fact that I'm so terrified by it and the fact that

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I refused to spend the night here when offered,

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she keeps saying, "Spend the night here."

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There's no effing way I would spend the night here.

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And that keeps suggesting to me that I,

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on some level at least, do believe in this stuff.

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Maybe I did believe in it on some level, or maybe I was just scared

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of the power of the imagination and the very real fear it can create,

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but fear was definitely making me

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more suggestive to the idea of the paranormal, which was progress.

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'So we decided to ship me up good and proper

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'and headed into the centuries-old Redcliffe caves in Bristol.'

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-Why have you brought me...?

-Why have we brought you here?

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Basically because of where it is, it's pitch-black,

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very enclosed, very dark,

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so there's no outside influences in here.

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We're talking about things that can interfere with the equivalent.

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You will be on your own at times.

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We will leave you on your own, with nothing bar

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-a couple of bits of equipment.

-Great.

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I don't think I've ever been more ambivalent in my life.

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THEY LAUGH

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I'm split right down the middle between wanting to experience

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something and definitely not wanting to experience something.

0:15:030:15:06

-Well...

-I'm split absolutely down the middle - 99%, 1% - even.

0:15:060:15:10

We headed further down towards a cheery little picnic spot

0:15:100:15:14

called The Skull Cave,

0:15:140:15:15

where Leanne and Darren had experienced coffin-loads of activity in the past.

0:15:150:15:19

'My stomach may have been in knots,

0:15:190:15:20

'but my arse was definitely working in miles an hour.'

0:15:200:15:23

I'm feeling quite weird, I don't know. On the one hand, I'm fine.

0:15:230:15:27

On the other hand, I'm really...tense and a bit nervous.

0:15:270:15:30

'All set up in The Skull Caves, Leanne was keen for me

0:15:320:15:35

'to try to make contact with one spirit in particular.'

0:15:350:15:38

-Have a go at speaking French to Francois for me.

-Who's Francois?

0:15:400:15:44

He's a spirit we picked up about three years ago.

0:15:440:15:47

We believe he's a prisoner of war.

0:15:470:15:49

-Prisoner of war?

-Yes.

-Yes.

0:15:490:15:51

Francois, et vous ici?

0:15:510:15:54

SYNTHESISED THUMPING SOUND

0:15:570:15:59

I did, I said, "Are you here?" And the torch came on.

0:16:010:16:04

I'll try that again. Francois...

0:16:040:16:05

THUMPING SOUND

0:16:070:16:08

Ay, ay, ay.

0:16:080:16:09

THEY LAUGH

0:16:090:16:11

I don't know which is more strange at the moment,

0:16:110:16:13

the fact that the torch is coming on,

0:16:130:16:15

or the fact that I'm talking French to a ghost!

0:16:150:16:18

'All alone in total darkness, it was time for the ultimate test.

0:16:210:16:24

'With just a teddy bear, a night vision camera

0:16:240:16:26

'and a dead Frenchman for company, my whole body was on red alert.

0:16:260:16:30

'My bum cheeks clenched so tight they could've milled wheat.'

0:16:300:16:33

Francois?

0:16:340:16:36

After three, I want you to turn the torch on. One,

0:16:370:16:40

two, three.

0:16:400:16:42

SLAMMING SOUND

0:16:440:16:46

Hello?

0:16:470:16:49

I definitely heard someone over there.

0:16:500:16:53

Maybe it was just some water dripping somewhere.

0:16:540:16:57

Francois, vous etes ici?

0:16:590:17:01

THUMPING SOUND OK.

0:17:010:17:03

Um...

0:17:040:17:06

That's quite a strange feeling.

0:17:060:17:08

I'm totally alone, total darkness, total silence,

0:17:080:17:12

but that torch just came on.

0:17:120:17:14

'The torches weren't responding every time, but the whole time

0:17:140:17:17

'I'd been down there, they hadn't come on once without me asking.'

0:17:170:17:20

It's very odd that even though I don't really believe,

0:17:200:17:23

I'm still totally heightened, totally on edge.

0:17:230:17:26

OK. INDISTINCT SOUND

0:17:280:17:30

Hello?

0:17:300:17:31

Darren?

0:17:310:17:33

Leanne?

0:17:330:17:35

There's definitely somebody down there.

0:17:350:17:38

'Everything you can see is from the night-vision camera,

0:17:380:17:40

'but I was in total darkness.

0:17:400:17:42

'My imagination was having a field day and I was close to losing it.'

0:17:420:17:45

INDISTINCT NOISE

0:17:470:17:48

Hello? Nath?

0:17:480:17:50

Rhys?

0:17:500:17:52

OK, I'm hoping that's one of the camera crew.

0:17:520:17:54

I'm a bit too scared of this now.

0:17:540:17:58

There's something down there. If it is one of the camera crew,

0:17:590:18:02

I'm going to kick the fucking living daylights

0:18:020:18:04

out of them when I've finished.

0:18:040:18:06

If it's not, then...

0:18:060:18:07

NOISE IN BACKGROUND

0:18:130:18:14

Guys?

0:18:140:18:16

SYNTHESISED SOUND Who is it?

0:18:190:18:21

-WHISPERING:

-It's Nathan.

-Oh. Oh...

0:18:230:18:25

It's Nathan, it's the cameraman.

0:18:250:18:27

Bloody hell.

0:18:270:18:29

What are you doing?

0:18:290:18:30

'Outside, my senses restored, I regained my composure

0:18:310:18:35

'and when the colour returned to my bum cheeks,

0:18:350:18:37

'I restored my factory settings of sceptic.'

0:18:370:18:40

So I'm going into the event knowing what to do,

0:18:400:18:43

knowing how to get ourselves all psyched up and knowing how

0:18:430:18:46

to call the spirits and how to monitor them...

0:18:460:18:49

just still not believing in them.

0:18:490:18:51

RHOD LAUGHS

0:18:510:18:53

'Before my big ghost hunting event, there was one last chance

0:18:590:19:02

'to challenge my scepticism.

0:19:020:19:04

'Leanne and Darren had reviewed all the audio recordings

0:19:040:19:06

'from my house visits and my bum-grinding night in the caves,

0:19:060:19:10

'and were keen for me to hear what they'd found.'

0:19:100:19:12

So, you went through all the audio tapes?

0:19:120:19:14

I've gone through the two home visits,

0:19:140:19:16

all the audio from the caves,

0:19:160:19:17

all the video from the caves...

0:19:170:19:19

You've sat here, listening to all of that?

0:19:190:19:21

How long did that take?

0:19:210:19:22

Doing all that, about five days to go through.

0:19:220:19:26

Mainly, presumably, just listening to silence?

0:19:260:19:30

-Basically, just...

-RHOD LAUGHS

0:19:300:19:32

..listening, basically, to the investigation again.

0:19:320:19:34

On behalf of all the people watching this at home,

0:19:340:19:37

you are fucking mad.

0:19:370:19:38

RHOD LAUGHS

0:19:380:19:40

It's called dedication.

0:19:400:19:41

-That is so dedicated.

-Because you just want to get something.

0:19:410:19:44

Why are you spending so long looking for...

0:19:440:19:46

evidence of something that you believe in?

0:19:460:19:49

Just for the fun of it.

0:19:490:19:51

Cos, it... Yeah, it's a buzz.

0:19:510:19:52

When you actually get something, it's a real buzz

0:19:520:19:55

cos you think, oh, yeah, brilliant.

0:19:550:19:56

The why, for people watching at home,

0:19:560:19:58

-is cos it's a buzz when you find that one second...

-Yes.

-Yes.

0:19:580:20:02

'To me, five days listening to nothing was the most pointless

0:20:020:20:04

'waste of time since the OJ Simpson trial,

0:20:040:20:07

'but Leanne and Darren clearly enjoyed it

0:20:070:20:09

'and I was about to get a taste of the buzz THEY got

0:20:090:20:11

'when they played me a spine-chilling piece

0:20:110:20:13

'of incontrovertible evidence.'

0:20:130:20:16

INDISTINCT BEEP

0:20:180:20:19

To me it doesn't sound like a noise that you had made previously.

0:20:200:20:25

-I certainly don't remember...

-Making funny...

-..going...

0:20:250:20:28

HE MIMICS THE SOUND

0:20:280:20:30

-I can't explain it.

-Let's have it again.

0:20:300:20:32

INDISTINCT BEEP

0:20:370:20:38

LEANNE MIMICS THE BEEP

0:20:390:20:40

I know none of my equipment makes that noise.

0:20:400:20:43

It was a more of a controlled environment.

0:20:430:20:44

-Are you telling me, Leanne and Darren...

-Mm?

0:20:440:20:47

..that I sat in that cave on my own, shitting my pants,

0:20:470:20:49

that you've sat here since, after work,

0:20:490:20:51

-listening to this for 50 hours?

-Yes.

0:20:510:20:53

What we have to show for it is... RHOD AND DARREN MIMIC THE BEEP

0:20:530:20:56

-Could be, yes.

-Yeah. You're lucky to get that.

0:20:560:20:58

-There's...

-It is a buzz, you're right.

0:20:580:21:00

THEY LAUGH

0:21:000:21:02

-It's just little bits and pieces...

-Yes!

-I'm joking! I'm joking!

0:21:030:21:08

Judgment day. The 150-year-old Abergavenny Theatre

0:21:090:21:12

would play host to my big ghost-hunting event.

0:21:120:21:15

'In case there were still leaves on my psychic train line,

0:21:150:21:17

'I took a minute ghost hound as a backup.'

0:21:170:21:20

I've brought my dog, Rosie.

0:21:200:21:22

I've renamed her Scooby Doodle.

0:21:220:21:24

She's half Scooby-Doo, ghost-hunting dog,

0:21:240:21:26

and half labradoodle.

0:21:260:21:28

Apparently dogs can sometimes be useful because they have

0:21:280:21:31

different instincts and they can sense things that we can't.

0:21:310:21:34

'The team were busy setting up.

0:21:340:21:36

'Soon, 25 ghost-botherers would be floating this way,

0:21:360:21:40

'expecting me to lay on an all you can poo your pants spook buffet,

0:21:400:21:44

'and I had high hopes cos Colin's ghost star was already twitching.'

0:21:440:21:47

I'm picking up stuff now here, myself. Just getting a sense.

0:21:490:21:53

You're picking up stuff here now?

0:21:530:21:54

It's like butterflies all the way over,

0:21:540:21:56

so that's normally an instinct to me that something's present,

0:21:560:22:01

or something's interested in what, what's going on here.

0:22:010:22:04

Are you going to rule it out with a Rennie, first?

0:22:040:22:07

Rhod!

0:22:070:22:09

'I looked the part, but, even in the right gear,

0:22:090:22:11

'I was no more a paranormal investigator

0:22:110:22:12

'than David Dickinson in a headband is Wonder Woman,

0:22:120:22:15

'but I was determined to do my best.

0:22:150:22:17

'Armed with a K2 meter,

0:22:170:22:19

'Scooby Doodle and I headed to the basement

0:22:190:22:21

'to check for paranormal hot spots.'

0:22:210:22:22

What is it, Rosie? What is it? ROSIE BARKS AND WHIMPERS

0:22:220:22:28

Rosie. ROSIE GROWLS

0:22:280:22:31

Hello, Rosie.

0:22:310:22:32

Have you found any ghosts, Rosie? ROSIE BARKS

0:22:320:22:36

'Bumping into Lembit Opik like that had freaked Scooby Doodle out,

0:22:360:22:39

'but I doubted my guests would be so easily spooked

0:22:390:22:41

'so I continued my search.

0:22:410:22:43

'My dog was a right scaredy-cat -

0:22:430:22:45

'she made Scooby-Doo look like Winston Churchill -

0:22:450:22:48

'but there was one room that got us both hot under the collar.'

0:22:480:22:51

Is there something in this one?

0:22:510:22:54

Why won't you go over that threshold?

0:22:540:22:56

I agree with you, this is the scariest one.

0:22:560:22:58

Come on, you've pulled me all around these cellars

0:22:580:23:00

and now you won't go in.

0:23:000:23:02

I'm trying to stay rational and logical,

0:23:020:23:04

but I've never seen Rosie like this.

0:23:040:23:06

With this one, she literally won't even cross this threshold.

0:23:060:23:09

'Scooby Doodle wasn't the only one whose third eye was winking.

0:23:100:23:13

'The K2 meter was lighting up like a Friday night on Hampstead Heath.'

0:23:130:23:17

I'm picking up EMF in here.

0:23:170:23:19

It's the first place I've picked it up in the middle of a room.

0:23:190:23:22

Normally, I've only picked it up

0:23:220:23:24

when I've shoved this right up against some electrical equipment.

0:23:240:23:28

There's no doubt in my mind

0:23:290:23:31

that this is potentially the most fruitful area.

0:23:310:23:34

ROSIE WHIMPERS

0:23:340:23:37

I don't think there's any doubt in Rosie's mind either.

0:23:370:23:39

Scooby Doodle is a bit freaked out.

0:23:390:23:42

Paranormal hot spots identified,

0:23:420:23:44

Scooby Doodle and I were ready to welcome

0:23:440:23:46

our merry band of phantom menaces.

0:23:460:23:48

Cynics, sceptics and believers came one, came all.

0:23:480:23:51

'If we found dead people,

0:23:510:23:53

'tonight, we were going to party like it was 1899.'

0:23:530:23:56

Welcome to my very special paranormal investigation.

0:23:560:24:01

I should point out, before I go any further,

0:24:010:24:03

that I don't necessarily believe in this stuff.

0:24:030:24:06

I think things can be rationally explained.

0:24:060:24:08

That's my starting point, right?

0:24:080:24:10

We have this argument every night. ROSIE BARKS

0:24:100:24:12

You know it's what I think.

0:24:120:24:13

Having said that, I am open-minded

0:24:130:24:16

and I am here to experience it with you.

0:24:160:24:18

Right, we are going to start tonight in the theatre.

0:24:180:24:22

'The first step was to get our psychic juices flowing,

0:24:220:24:25

'so Leanne blew us all away with a rousing performance

0:24:250:24:28

'of the Ghostbusters theme tune on her Tibetan singing bowl.'

0:24:280:24:31

BOWL HUMS SOFTLY

0:24:310:24:34

HUMMING CONTINUES

0:24:380:24:41

HUMMING CONTINUES

0:24:450:24:48

SOFT METAL CHIME

0:24:480:24:50

'With the crowd bouncing,

0:24:520:24:54

'it was time to saddle up our psychic horses

0:24:540:24:56

'and find us some dead people.

0:24:560:24:58

'First stop, a builder,

0:24:580:25:00

'who had apparently fallen while working on the clock tower.

0:25:000:25:02

'He'd been dead 150 years

0:25:020:25:04

'and, more importantly, he was a builder,

0:25:040:25:06

'so I was pretty sure he wouldn't turn up.'

0:25:060:25:08

If Thomas Watkins is out there?

0:25:080:25:09

If... That's if I've got the name right.

0:25:090:25:11

-The builder who passed away.

-Rhod?

-Yeah?

0:25:110:25:14

You've got two milligauss.

0:25:140:25:15

Two milligauss.

0:25:150:25:17

I just feel that, every time you say the gentleman's name,

0:25:170:25:21

you seem to get an intelligent reaction back.

0:25:210:25:24

Typical builder, he'll only talk to the blokes.

0:25:250:25:28

'So far, my big event was a mixed bag.

0:25:300:25:32

'To the believers, the place was teeming, the undead wandering

0:25:320:25:36

'aimlessly through the corridors like a fire drill at BBC Wales.

0:25:360:25:39

'For the sceptics, we'd found nothing convincing.

0:25:390:25:42

'I decided to play my trump card

0:25:430:25:45

'and headed for the basement and the room that

0:25:450:25:47

'had made Scooby Doodle piddle a puddle of Scrappy Doo-Doo.

0:25:470:25:50

'I was keen to see if anyone picked up

0:25:500:25:52

'the unexplained electromagnetic hot spot I'd found earlier.'

0:25:520:25:55

So, I came down here and did a little recce earlier.

0:25:590:26:02

The levels were going up quite significantly in one spot,

0:26:020:26:04

time and again.

0:26:040:26:06

One of you is very specifically sat in that spot.

0:26:060:26:09

Anyone care to tell me where that spot might be?

0:26:090:26:12

I feel sick.

0:26:120:26:13

-You feel sick?

-Mmm.

0:26:130:26:14

-What, nauseous?

-Mm-hmm, and all hot.

0:26:140:26:17

-Cos you are sitting in the spot.

-OK.

0:26:170:26:20

'Bingo! A direct hit.

0:26:200:26:22

'But, if my ghoul-getters were going to go home happy,

0:26:220:26:24

'I knew we had to make more meaningful contact with the spirit.

0:26:240:26:27

'Cue the scariest game

0:26:270:26:28

'since the Broadmoor spin-the-bottle tournament - a Ouija board.'

0:26:280:26:32

Move that glass. Use your energy.

0:26:320:26:35

Use our energy to move that glass in any direction that you like.

0:26:350:26:39

Could you give us a name?

0:26:390:26:42

Could you tell us whether you're a man or a woman?

0:26:420:26:45

'Oh, Ouija believe it? There was no answer.

0:26:450:26:48

'Maybe the afterlife closed in the evenings,

0:26:480:26:50

'but it turned out I was just being held in a queue

0:26:500:26:52

'and my call must have been pretty important to them

0:26:520:26:55

'cos it wasn't long before someone picked up.'

0:26:550:26:57

-SOMETHING RUSTLES

-What was that, then?

0:26:570:27:00

I don't know, I heard a voice.

0:27:000:27:01

That wasn't a stomach. That sounded like...

0:27:010:27:04

-Yeah, that sounded like a voice.

-Yeah, I heard a female voice.

0:27:040:27:06

-It was that side of me.

-It was just there?

0:27:060:27:09

But I don't know exactly where it was.

0:27:090:27:10

Where did that noise come from?

0:27:100:27:12

'The phantom "mmm" was certainly no "boop".

0:27:120:27:15

'To some, it was just a mobile phone or the central heating.

0:27:150:27:18

'To others, it was the unmistakable sound of

0:27:180:27:20

'a ghost with a sore throat, sucking on a dead lozenge -

0:27:200:27:23

'but it wasn't long before we were all getting twitchy.'

0:27:230:27:26

Well, whoever that was, could you do that again,

0:27:260:27:28

just so we know it was not something...?

0:27:280:27:30

The torch.

0:27:300:27:32

Well, if you don't like using the board, then use the light.

0:27:350:27:38

Show us with the light.

0:27:380:27:40

Come away from that light. Turn that off.

0:27:400:27:43

Thank you.

0:27:460:27:48

If there is anyone in here with us,

0:27:480:27:50

could you just give us one...?

0:27:500:27:52

Bring the light on now for a yes, please.

0:27:520:27:55

Just bring the light on now.

0:27:550:27:56

Thank you very much.

0:28:000:28:01

'It was what you make of it.

0:28:050:28:07

'Believers don't need any evidence.

0:28:070:28:09

'For cynics, no evidence is enough.

0:28:090:28:11

'Those of us who are members of

0:28:110:28:13

'the Paranormal Investigation Sceptics Society -

0:28:130:28:15

'or PISS, for short -

0:28:150:28:16

'lie somewhere in-between,

0:28:160:28:18

'and the night hadn't really changed anyone's mind,

0:28:180:28:20

'but that hadn't been the point.'

0:28:200:28:23

Thanks very much for coming along tonight.

0:28:230:28:25

I hope you've enjoyed it.

0:28:250:28:26

Whether a sceptic or believer, or anything in between,

0:28:260:28:28

I hope you've had a good time.

0:28:280:28:30

I really tried to open myself up.

0:28:330:28:35

I tried to stay open-minded

0:28:350:28:37

and I tried to expose myself to everything,

0:28:370:28:39

and I tried my damnedest to facilitate

0:28:390:28:41

an evening of paranormal investigation.

0:28:410:28:44

It's nearly 3am in the morning, and the team are packing up,

0:28:440:28:47

and...

0:28:470:28:48

BELL RINGS

0:28:480:28:54

And the really weird thing?

0:28:540:28:55

There's not even a bell in that tower.

0:28:550:28:57

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