Daisy May and Charlie Cooper’s NightWatch: their hilarious ghost show is a warm-hearted joy

The Bafta-winning siblings bicker, fart and squeal the night away in some of the UK’s ‘haunted as hell’ hotspots. But forget the ghosts – this is really just a golden opportunity to weep with laughterA full moon looms, a synthesiser gulps and – dun dun duuuuuuuun – we’re off to HMP Gloucester in a Skoda Octavia with Daisy May and Charlie Cooper’s NightWatch (Sunday 26 October, 9.30pm, BBC Two). Why HMP Gloucester? Because the former Victorian prison is, according to our hosts – the titular, Bafta-winning siblings behind peerless mockumentary This Country – “supposedly haunted as hell.” A fitting setting, then, for the first episode of a series that finds lifelong paranormal enthusiasts Daisy May (39) and Charlie (36) stuff their slippers into the aforementioned family hatchback and set off to spend a night bickering and farting “in some of this country’s spookiest places.”An opening montage offers further elucidation. “Some people want to climb Everest,” explains Charlie while a theremin trembles over footage of the actors staggering like concussed Wombles through a succession of night-time locales. “We just want to see a ghost.” “Yeah,” agrees Daisy May, peering at us over her brother’s shoulder. “We just want to see a ghost.” As do we. Alas, years of low-resolution ITV2 series in which crestfallen celebrity ghost-hunters shout “I think it was just the wind” in abandoned branches of Wetherspoons have prepared us for disappointment. Will NightWatch break with tradition and offer viewers definitive proof of the supernatural? Seems unlikely! Anyway, we must park this question, for now, at the gates of HMP Gloucester, for here is former prison manager Clive, whose sudden appearance in a deserted corridor is met with bellows of terror. “Clive?! OH GOD,” roars Daisy May from the depths of her camouflage-print ankle-length puffer coat. “We thought you were AN APPARITION.” Continue reading...

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