Playing with audience trust

BBCi: How does it feel to have been favourably compared to Orson Welles� War Of The Worlds radio broadcast? Did you intend to provoke a similar response to that caused by the Welles� production?

Stephen Volk: We did say "let's try to do a bit of a War of the Worlds" but the emphasis was always to make it work as a drama, and not make the whole thing depend on it being taken as �true�.

We certainly didn�t want people to have the holy horrors and take to the hills in panic. We wanted people to be scared � really scared � but within the realm of a horror story told on TV in an unusual way that hadn�t been done before.

People compare it to War of the Worlds" but, as hoaxes go, Ghostwatch is way down the list. Below the Panorama spaghetti harvest and Alternative 3. The Welles broadcast was more than a phenomenon, it was a historical event!

BBCi: What factors do you think underpinned the public�s extremely passionate and divided reaction to Ghostwatch?

Stephen Volk: If anything, we underestimated the incredible degree of trust the public puts in television images conveyed in a certain way (the language of Factual TV), and the BBC in particular.

These members of the audience felt their trust was being ridiculed. Paradoxically I wanted them to feel, �only the good old BBC would dare to do this! What a great idea!� I like it that some people loved it and others hated it.

Wasn�t it Oscar Wilde who said that was the definition of a worthwhile piece of art � that it divides the public? I rest my case. Seriously, I do love the fact that people come up and say it was the most amazing thing the ever saw on TV. It might not be true, but the fact that even one or two people might think that for a second is incredible.

God bless �em!

Read our review of Ghostwatch >>