Jenny Randles - Phantoms Of The Soap Operas

[dem bones]

Jenny Randles - Phantoms Of The Soap Operas ... And Other Showbiz Enigmas (Robert Hale, 1989)

" Every day, audiences all over the world tune in to massively popular TV shows whose stars have become household names. Yet few viewers are aware that many of the actors and the actresses have had first hand experience of the supernatural.

From Eastenders to Falcon Crest and A Country Practice to Star Trek, Jenny Randles has compiled an entertaining and often chilling collection of other-worldly happenings as experienced by famous TV personalities. The cast of the US series Dallas, for instance, has seen actor Jim Davis, who played Jock Ewing, appear on set since his sudden death. One Emmerdale Farm regular claims to have slept with a ghost and in Dynasty a leading lady has faced a terrifying curse whilst another actually died before landing her star role. In addition to tales of ghosts, there are premonitions of disaster, encounters with UFOs and stories of life after death .... "

"...... the momentary rapport between Phil and Toyah could have extended into the psychic dimension."

Richard Whittington-Egan's Weekend Book of Horror and ... Ghost paperbacks regularly touched on the subjects of haunted celebs, so it was only a matter of time before someone devoted an entire book to them. The titles - Leslie Crowther: The Price Is Fright; Lindsay Wagner: Bionic Or Psychic?; Doreen Sloane: 'Close' Encounters Of The Spooky Kind; Richard Beckinsale: Greetings From The Other Side - are exactly the kind of chapter headings Weekend went in for, and there's the same tendency to fob you off with a "ghostly butterfly" while insisting you've just read something that's the last word in spine-chilling. The actress who "actually died before landing her star role" is sometime Hammer-heroine Stephanie Beacham, who had a 'being drawn toward a white light' experience while undergoing an operation, while the Brookside starlet who shared a bed with a ghost does not seem especially desperate to get rid of it.

Sadly, the chapter dealing with haunted rock and pop stars, Theme Music: Top Of The Pops, doesn't really amount to much if you disclude the amusing revelation that Lisa Marie Presley is "possessed" by her dead father. (Incidentally, Elvis - and we have the word of a medium who's in regular contact with him to vouch for this - is working alongside John Lennon and four other benevolent entities to bring peace to the world). Most of it is taken up with the likes of Sting, Phil Collins and Hot Chocolate, just because they've written songs about ESP, UFO's and being "spirits in the material world", etc. Hardly the Vampire of Croglin Grange, is it? And why no Lynsey de Paul? She's miles more "haunted" than Toyah any day of the week.

These gripes aside, a painless, often entertaining read, but, while it's novel to hear Percy Sugden talking about communing with the dead, I can't help thinking there should have been some photo's and definitely a bumper selection of audacious clippings from The News Of The World to set off the text.

[dem bones]

WE'D ALL LOVE to be rich and famous, but, as many a top celebrity will tell you, adulation comes at a chilling price. Brrr! Definitely a case of BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR - IT MIGHT COME TRUE!

Spooky Tales from the Stars, Daily Mirror, 28 0ct. 1995.

Two from the imperious Spellbound: Alan out of the Rubettes endures a night of pulse-freezing terror in the Nags Head (5th Feb. 1977). Paul out of Arrow encounters the Black Alchemist in a certain N. London cemetery (1st Jan. 1977).

Spooky adventures of the late Lyndsey "the most haunted woman in pop" de Paul and a steamy surprise for jazz great Cleo Laine. Weekend Book of Ghosts & Horror 2, 1982.
The ghost of Jock Ewing, Weekend Book of Ghosts No. 5, 1985.

Your haunted Vault - the home of Easter fun!

[ripper]

I've read a couple of books by Jenny Randles and quite enjoyed them; Time-Storms and Something in the Air, if memory serves. She doesn't seem to have written much for quite a while now, though was very prolific in the 80s, 90s and early 2000s.

I wish I could recall the name of the book I got from the library about two decades ago which had a bit about an unnamed family singing group that had a ghostly member who was only visible on television screens when they were performing for the camera.

[dem bones]

Apr 12, 2020 13:31:43 GMT ripper said:

I wish I could recall the name of the book I got from the library about two decades ago which had a bit about an unnamed family singing group that had a ghostly member who was only visible on television screens when they were performing for the camera.

Hi Rip. I just reread Phantom ...'s Top of the Pops chapter on the off-chance above group were included but no joy I'm afraid.


Another Jenny Randles book I like is Mind Monsters: Invaders from Inner Space? (Aquarian Press, 1990), in particlar the opening section concerning violent ghostly Ninja dwarves preying upon a group of youngsters taking martial arts classes at Abney Hall, Cheadle (which is allegedly haunted by the ghost of Agatha Christie). According to witnesses, the black clad Ninja's lurked in the trees surrounding the hall. Evidently, they were psychic sponges, draining the energy from their youthful victims. Its not impossible that the ninjas were either entirely fabricated by the kids or the product of mass delusion - which is what attracted my attention. Was very interested in similar cases during previous non-career.

[ripper]

Apr 12, 2020 21:05:10 GMT dem bones said:

Apr 12, 2020 13:31:43 GMT ripper said:

I wish I could recall the name of the book I got from the library about two decades ago which had a bit about an unnamed family singing group that had a ghostly member who was only visible on television screens when they were performing for the camera.

Hi Rip. I just reread Phantom ...'s Top of the Pops chapter on the off-chance above group were included but no joy I'm afraid.


Another Jenny Randles book I like is Mind Monsters: Invaders from Inner Space? (Aquarian Press, 1990), in particlar the opening section concerning violent ghostly Ninja dwarves preying upon a group of youngsters taking martial arts classes at Abney Hall, Cheadle (which is allegedly haunted by the ghost of Agatha Christie). According to witnesses, the black clad Ninja's lurked in the trees surrounding the hall. Evidently, they were psychic sponges, draining the energy from their youthful victims. Its not impossible that the ninjas were either entirely fabricated by the kids or the product of mass delusion - which is what attracted my attention. Was very interested in similar cases during previous non-career.

I don't think the author specified the nationality of the family singing group, but my feeling now is that they were British. There was no overall theme to the book, just a collection of very odd accounts.

I haven't read Mind Monsters, it's one of Randles' that interested me, but I never got around to it. Ninja dwarves! Now that story is surely worth the price of the book on its own!

Another author who can be relied on for some entertaining stories is Tom Slemen, who has written dozens of 'Haunted Liverpool' and other books. In one, he related singer Dusty Springfield and clown Charlie Cairoli repeatedly seeing the ghost of a young girl in Victorian clothes while they were appearing in a pantomime. It unnerved Springfield so much that she vowed never to appear in that theatre again, nor appear in any further pantomimes.

[cromagnonman]

Apr 13, 2020 10:25:55 GMT ripper said:

Apr 12, 2020 21:05:10 GMT dem bones said:

Hi Rip. I just reread Phantom ...'s Top of the Pops chapter on the off-chance above group were included but no joy I'm afraid.


Another Jenny Randles book I like is Mind Monsters: Invaders from Inner Space? (Aquarian Press, 1990), in particlar the opening section concerning violent ghostly Ninja dwarves preying upon a group of youngsters taking martial arts classes at Abney Hall, Cheadle (which is allegedly haunted by the ghost of Agatha Christie). According to witnesses, the black clad Ninja's lurked in the trees surrounding the hall. Evidently, they were psychic sponges, draining the energy from their youthful victims. Its not impossible that the ninjas were either entirely fabricated by the kids or the product of mass delusion - which is what attracted my attention. Was very interested in similar cases during previous non-career.

I don't think the author specified the nationality of the family singing group, but my feeling now is that they were British. There was no overall theme to the book, just a collection of very odd accounts.

I haven't read Mind Monsters, it's one of Randles' that interested me, but I never got around to it. Ninja dwarves! Now that story is surely worth the price of the book on its own!

Another author who can be relied on for some entertaining stories is Tom Slemen, who has written dozens of 'Haunted Liverpool' and other books. In one, he related singer Dusty Springfield and clown Charlie Cairoli repeatedly seeing the ghost of a young girl in Victorian clothes while they were appearing in a pantomime. It unnerved Springfield so much that she vowed never to appear in that theatre again, nor appear in any further pantomimes.

She wouldn't have relished playing the Sunderland Empire then: Cor blimey; Yaah, Yaah, Yaah, Yaah!

[Shrink Proof]

Ninja dwarves, Z-list glam rockers, poltergeists on TV soap sets, Mind Monsters from Outer Space and haunted clowns in pantomime, all in one thread.

Have we reached Peak Vault?

[ripper]

Apr 13, 2020 11:17:08 GMT cromagnonman said:

Apr 13, 2020 10:25:55 GMT ripper said:

I don't think the author specified the nationality of the family singing group, but my feeling now is that they were British. There was no overall theme to the book, just a collection of very odd accounts.

I haven't read Mind Monsters, it's one of Randles' that interested me, but I never got around to it. Ninja dwarves! Now that story is surely worth the price of the book on its own!

Another author who can be relied on for some entertaining stories is Tom Slemen, who has written dozens of 'Haunted Liverpool' and other books. In one, he related singer Dusty Springfield and clown Charlie Cairoli repeatedly seeing the ghost of a young girl in Victorian clothes while they were appearing in a pantomime. It unnerved Springfield so much that she vowed never to appear in that theatre again, nor appear in any further pantomimes.

She wouldn't have relished playing the Sunderland Empire then: Cor blimey; Yaah, Yaah, Yaah, Yaah!

If Les Dawson's experience is anything to go by, you're spot on.

[ripper]

There are several stories in Tom Slemen's Tales of the Weird about famous people's brushes with the supernatural. One concerns comic Arthur Askey confronting a ghost at the Palladium and another about Terry Scott seeing the devil in his dressing room at the Royal Court theatre. Interestingly, both were in panto at the time.

[dem bones]

Richard Davis - I've Seen A Ghost: True Stories from Show Business (Granada, 1980: originally Hutchinson Junior Books, 1979)

Gareth Williams

Introduction

PART ONE: Richard Davis.

PART TWO: Jon Pertwee, Bob Monkhouse, Vince Hill. Terry Scott, Roy Hudd, Pat Phoenix, Dulce Gray, Donald Sinden CBE, Jack Douglas, Rula Lenska, Martin Landau, Kenny Everett, David Hamilton, Duncan Johnson, James Alexander Gordon, Michael Bakewell, Peter Plummer, Alan Helm, Doc Shiels, Pamela Notman, Janet Fraser, John Parry, Alan Melville, Mitch Raper.

Blurb:
Read about the ghost who tried to strangle Thora Hird; the unearthly visitor who tried to push Alan Helm out of a window; the dead man who lent Telly Savalas money and Jon Pertwee's benign phantom father.

Richard Davis, who has worked extensively in films, radio and television, has always been fascinated by the possibility of the unknown or the unexplained both in the supernatural and in the super-technical. He has compiled this book from chilling tales told to him direct by famous showbiz characters.

"I've always been rather sceptical about spiritual or ghostly phenomena. Of course, I've read my quota of classics: my Algernon Blackwood, my H. P. Lovecraft, my M. R. James and my Walter de la Mare, and I've enjoyed my Harry Price, but basically I would say that I never really believed in manifestations of a ghostly nature such as I had read about.

Until that point."

Bob Monkhouse

Some crossover with the Weekend Book of Ghosts series, though still no Les Dawson versus spectral Sid James at the Sunderland Empire, suggesting someone was keen to have the matter hushed up. Perhaps of greater concern, nothing either from Lynsey de Paul, surely the most haunted popstar in history? At least they can't keep an imperilled radio one DJ down. As had Dave Lee Travis before him, "Diddy" David Hamilton very nearly fell victim to the Beast of Eze-sur-Mer while holidaying on the French Riviera, while Kenny Everett was present when a cameraman learned of his girlfriends death first hand via a ouija board. A phone call to Bircester Mortuary confirmed that her spirit spoke the truth; she had died of an accidental drug overdose earlier that same day.

Bob Monkhouse reveals his fondness for quality supernatural literature prior to sharing a strange experience at Eldon House, Berkshire, in 1945. The actor/ presenter was then working for Gaumont British Animation, producing cartoon shorts and features to aid the war effort. Eldon house was reputedly haunted, though Monkhouse and friends paid no heed to such nonsense - until late one night when a grandfather clock took a deliberate plunge down the staircase to shatter at the bottom. This was witnessed by the several souls holed up in the makeshift studio. So how, when they looked again, could the same antique time-piece be standing unharmed on the landing?

They can't all be interesting. It's hard to care one way or another if Sir Donald Sinden caught a fleeting glimpse of John Buckstone, the famous Victorian owner of the Haymarket, during a performance of The Heiress. Dulce Grey relates how a silent protest by the ghost of the St. James failed to prevent its demolition. It is unclear from the text if he and the same theatre's phantom dressing-room-door-knocker are separate entities. Jack Douglas shares an uneventful brush with 'Ernie', resident ghost of Tameside Theatre, Ashton-under-Lyme, who merely "melted away" as the Carry On star approached him in the Upper Circle. The same actor also claims a terrifying experience at a castle near Torquay while crossing a room where - he later learned - a woman was walled-up alive by a jealous love-rival. Her own sister.

[Jojo Lapin X]

The dead man who lent Telly Savalas money? That sounds benign, even useful.

[dem bones]

Apr 28, 2020 18:11:24 GMT Jojo Lapin X said:

The dead man who lent Telly Savalas money? That sounds benign, even useful.

It seems the living corpse in question was preposterously kind hearted.

A very startling example of the supernatural is told by Telly Savalas, the star of BBC TV’s ‘Kojak’ series. Many years ago he ran out of petrol in a remote area at about 3 a.m. He was told that in order to get to the freeway he’d have to walk through some Woods, so he began the trek. Suddenly he heard a voice asking him if he’d like a lift. Presumably there was a road through the woods, for there upon it was a black Cadillac. Telly accepted, and then asked the man for his name and address so he could return the money that was lent to him for the petrol. Just before he drove off, the stranger mentioned that he knew an athlete in Boston named Harry Agannis. The next morning Telly saw in a newspaper that Agannis had died mysteriously at the exact spot where Telly had met the stranger.

Telly then made a phone call to the number the stranger had given him. He wasn’t prepared for the reply. A woman asked if he was playing some kind of joke, for it was her husband Telly wanted to speak to, and her husband had been dead for three years.

Telly’s curiosity was greatly aroused and he decided he must meet the woman and show her the handwriting. The woman confirmed it was her husband’s. He then described the clothes the man had been wearing. The woman remembered them well. They were the clothes he was buried in.
I think even Kojak would have been stumped by this one!

Doc Shiels: The Tom Fool's Theatre production of Sheils' horror comedy. Spooks - a Dracula vs. Sherlock Holmes outing - is plagued by poltergeist activity. No surprise that this is among the most entertaining of the entries.

Janet Fraser: The phantom bat of the Rosario Opera House moonlights as theatre critic.

Vince Hill: Ouija board experience of the Edelweiss balladeer, who, by his own admission "used to dabble a lot with the planchette board" while on tour. Then came that strange experience at his new home in Sevenoaks ...

Rula Lenska: Legend has it that, on his death, the original owner of the castle had his heart removed and buried in a casket so he might watch over the property from the great beyond. On Midsummer's night, said heart can be heard beating all over the castle. As a twelve-year-old, Rula spent a family holiday on the Loire and inspected the grim relic which by now "looked like an old shrivelled potato." The anniversary arrives ...

[dem bones]

Alan Helm: The actor is staying with a pal at Dunster House, Dartmoor, which is reputedly haunted by a Grey Lady. During the night, someone or something attempts to launch the heavy, mahogany-framed bed out of the window - with him in it. Also, a phantom farmhouse on Hayworth Moor complete with ghost livestock and hostile spectral horseman.

Alan Melville: Benign ghost of Colonel Ralph haunts his old house in Berwick. Has been known to hold open toilet door for guests. Give me strength.

Pat Phoenix: Her Sale home is haunted by an old woman in a beige-grey dress, ever carrying either a bowl of soup or a candle (witnesses are undecided. It's possible she alternates). Allegedly ghost is that of a nineteenth century actress, Madame Mueller, who took in stray pets and died in miserable poverty. The ghost occasionally follows Pat to her Manchester town flat. Loads of people said to have seen her.

Terry Scott: How "the magic of the theatre" cured Terry's daughter's chronic eczema - and transferred it to him during panto season at Wimbledon. The Devil in the dressing room episode may have been a better choice.

Will be charitable and remark it's all been downhill since Doc Shiels epic skirmish versus Dracula, and leave it at that.

[dem bones]

... But .... things have perked up again.

Richard Davis: Fitting that far the longest entry is an all-star extravaganza. Features - among others - the on-stage near murder of Thora Hird by homicidal Victorian 'monkey suit,' Margaret Rutherford and the phantom hairy leg in the wardrobe, Telly Savalas and the kindly motorist, the curse of Gloomy Sunday, terror on a The Devil's Rain location shoot, and the poltergeist who burnt down Elkie Sommer's new house.

James Alexander Gordon: How, at the outset of his BBC radio career, the newscaster came face to spectral face with the phantom of the Laugham Hotel's room 333. Reputedly the ghost of a military man who committed suicide during the Great War. Nicely told.

Michael Bakewell: Does the ghost of George Bernard Shaw haunt the Festival Theatre, Malvern? OK, so they can't all be The Amityville Horror.

Peter Plummer: Uncanny occurrences and, ultimately, tragedy stalk cast and crew of Granada TV's The Owl Service during and after a shoot in a Welsh Valley. A proper ghost story, this, with illustrations depicting designs on the sinister china plate seemingly pivotal to the eerie goings on.

[cromagnonman]

The ghost that tried to murder Thora Hird? I'd like to see the one that had the gall to attempt it. Anyone who could go toe to toe with Marlon Brando in a film directed by Michael Winner obviously had a core of granite in her heart.