TV scream queen Yvette Fielding has told how her Most Haunted co-star Derek Acorah used to pretend to be possessed by spirits and also attempted to kiss and grope her.
Former Blue Peter presenter Yvette, 55, admits she created an ‘egotistical monster’ by giving airtime to Acorah, who she later discovered was a fraud.
In her searingly honest new book, Yvette tells how she thought Acorah – who died in 2020 aged 69 – was genuine when she first met him but she and producer husband Karl Beattie were warned against hiring him for Most Haunted.
Yvette writes: “Just before we started filming one of the presenters at Granada Breeze, who’d worked with him previously said: ‘You can’t use Derek Acorah on your show. I’m warning you, he’s a fake. I know how he gets all this supposed spiritual information he comes up with on his show … on your own heads be it.’
“How we were to wish many times in the next five or so years that we’d listened to her advice.
“The signs were there from the beginning. Once, he was a bit drunk and stood up, put his arms out like he’d been crucified on the cross and proclaimed he was Jesus, the Second Coming.
“He then proceeded to chase me round the restaurant and I was batting him away because he was trying to ram his tongue down my throat. Derek was always trying to snog me.
“We laughed off that night and thought Derek’s had a bit too much to drink. We were to discover subsequently that Derek and alcohol were not a good mix.
“Derek started saying he needed the toilet a lot when we were doing the walkabouts in the show. It was every 10 or 15 minutes. He blamed the toll the spirits were taking on his body, but some of the crew became suspicious. One of the sound guys let Derek’s mic run to see if he really was up to anything.
“When he played back the recording, we could hear Derek on his phone in the toilet cubicle, asking for information on the history of the place.
“The crew also got wind that if they said anything within earshot of Derek’s entourage it would come out in an investigation as if from the spirit world.
“To test this, we dropped in some rubbish about copies of the Bible having been written at Ordsall Hall in Salford. Sure enough, he claimed he could sense the monks writing the Bible. At other times he’d come up with names we knew were made up.
“Everything came to a head shooting series six when Derek went into yet another alleged possession. He attacked the make-up artist and started lashing out and punching people, all while being supposedly possessed, of course. It was terrible.
“It was the final straw.
“I don’t know if he knew we suspected him but he started to take it out on me especially. On one occasion, he stuck his nose in my face and spat, ‘You’re a witch. You’re a witch.’ It was obvious he really hated me.
“Other times, he’d say explicitly sexual things to me when he was supposedly possessed. ‘I love your breasts,’ he said. ‘You’re gonna show me your breasts. C’mon, show me your breasts.’
“It felt like we’d created an egotistical monster.”
Mysterious death threat
Yvette later received a threatening voicemail the source of which is still unknown.
She added: “My last direct and bizarre contact with him, if indeed it was him, was while we were doing one of the US live shows, someone left a voice message for me. It wasn’t a death threat as such but it was still very threatening.
“‘I’m watching you and I’m coming to get you.’ The voice was disguised and the accent was a weird mix of half-scouse/half-cod American.
“I handed my phone over to the police, who in turn contacted the police in the UK. The British police traced the call back to an address near Liverpool and, well, I think we all drew our own conclusions but I chose to take no further action.”
He proceeded to chase me round the restaurant and I was batting him away because he was trying to ram his tongue down my throat.
Yvette Fielding on co-star Derek
Yvette tells how she was all set to do a Ghost Hunting show with Robbie Williams in 2006 but his record company feared what it would do to his reputation and pulled the plug.
She says: “I was appearing on Never Mind the Buzzcocks when there was a knock on my dressing-room door and I was gobsmacked to see Robbie Williams. He said, ‘I’m such a massive fan of you guys. I’m really into ghosts and UFOs and all that kind of stuff. I’d love to come on Most Haunted.’
“The show was commissioned instantly but then Robbie’s record company told him he couldn’t do it. We approached Girls Aloud and it was broadcast before Christmas in 2006.
It was supposed to be a one-off but the day after the show went out ITV2 rang. ‘We got just under a million. It’s amazing.’
That was how Ghost Hunting with… began.”
Haunted by tragic soldier
Yvette says her interest in spooks began aged 26 when she saw her first ghost.
“I was staying at my mum’s house, in a small cul-de-sac in Cheshire, and was asleep in bed when I was suddenly awake and alert. There, standing at the bottom of my bed, was the incredibly detailed image of a soldier. Or I should say half a soldier, because he had no legs.
“I asked a local historian about the cul-de-sac and she told me that during the Second World War there had been a tragic accident exactly where our gardens met the rail track. All the trains taking young soldiers from Manchester to London and then on to fight would pass by there. But one young lad did not want to fight and, in desperation, he’d jumped from the train and was killed. The train had cut him in half.
“Was that the same soldier I had seen at the foot of my bed? It would seem an odd coincidence if it wasn’t. That young man really ignited my interest in the paranormal.”
She adds: “Whenever we went on holiday Mum and I couldn’t resist going to see the fortune tellers. One told me: ‘You’re going to be in television for a very long time. And it’s going to be something to do with the spirit world.’”
Yvette has also revealed she had a terrible time while working on Blue Peter.
She writes in her autobiography how, at age of 18, she was left a tearful wreck following allegedly ferocious roastings by Blue Peter’s legendary boss, Biddy Baxter.
Yvette also tells how she was sexually assaulted by Rolf Harris when she was left alone with him in a TV studio – squeezing and patting her bottom.
Yvette tells how she also felt uncomfortable in the presence of predator Jimmy Savile, who died in 2011 before his sexual depravity became known.
She recalls: “He took my hand and started stroking it. ‘Look into my eyes’, he said, ‘And tell me what you’re thinking’.
“He was grotesque.
“I just don’t understand why the BBC allowed him to get away with that for as long as he did.”
Britain's Most Haunted places
1. Ancient Ram Inn, Gloucestershire
2. Pendle Hill, Lancashire
3. Borley Rectory, Essex
4. Berry Pomeroy Castle, Devon.
5. Ballygally Castle, Co. Antrim, Northern Ireland
6. Woodchester Mansion, Gloucestershire
7. Pluckley Village, Kent
8. Mary King’s Close, Edinburgh
9. Athelhampton House, Dorset
10. Tower of London
Message from late dad
In her 25 years on Most Haunted Yvette says she’s encountered “hundreds” of ghosts, seen and heard countless apparitions, seen electricity meters going haywire, despite not being connected to the mains, disconnected telephones ringing, tables shaking and lifting, heard banging and knocking, seen her colleagues, including her husband, been assaulted and has been pelted by objects by a dead monk!
She says she completely believes in ghosts and the after-life and tells how she regularly communicates with dead loved ones, including her dad, who knocks out messages in a special code.
It’s my dad, however, that I’m in contact with the most. I speak to him regularly and he’s always with me wherever I go.
Yvette
She says: “On the weekend of my 40th birthday, something powerful and personal happened that convinced me utterly and conclusively about life after death.
“Karl whisked me off to a beautiful castle in the north of England, where all my family and friends were waiting to surprise me. The dinner was set out like a banquet and although he’d sadly died shortly beforehand, I had a place set out for my dad opposite me.
“As the evening started, the table started to vibrate and shake in the precise spot where his place was set out and I called out, ‘Is that you, Dad?’
“The glasses and the cutlery started to rattle and everyone around was astounded. I found it amazing because I knew my dad was there with us. I felt a whirlwind of happiness enveloping me.
“Later, during the after-dinner show, the magician invited me up on to the stage to help with his act. This was in 2008 and Karl took a photo of me up on the stage with his old flip phone.
“The following day, he noticed in the photo a tiny blue ball of light above my head. He blew it up and we were astonished to see that it was my father’s face.
“I’ve also contacted other members of my family. My grandmother Mary has come through in Ouija board sessions. My grandfather (Pops) has also come through since he passed, as have other friends.
“It’s my dad, however, that I’m in contact with the most. I speak to him regularly and he’s always with me wherever I go.
“He came through once while I was with my old friend Joyce who is rather well endowed. ‘Do you have a message for Joyce?’ I asked him. He spelled out, ‘Nice tits.’
“Death hasn’t changed his sense of humour at all. He would have done just that in life and then fallen about laughing. I find that so reassuring.”
Yvette says: “Throughout the history of Most Haunted we often face accusations that we’re making it up. If very little happens, people say the show is boring. You can’t win either way. But we have 78 completed episodes of Most Haunted sitting on a shelf that have never been shown anywhere. They are just too boring to watch.”
Before Most Haunted, Yvette presented City Hospital, a live fly-on-the wall show for the BBC, with Heather Mills, Sir Paul McCartney’s ex-wife.
She says: “I must admit we were all scared to death of Heather before she started because we’d been led to believe that she was a real tough businesswoman and something of a tyrant. It was a relief when neither turned out to be true.
“One morning we were both in make-up when we all suddenly became aware of a terrible smell. ‘Smells like burning,’ I said.
“‘Oh my God!’ someone exclaimed, tracing the source of the smell. ‘It’s Heather’s leg!’
“She’d been standing too close to the heater with her prosthetic leg and it had started to melt.”
*Scream Queen by Yvette Fielding is published by Ebury on May 30 at £22.