Introduction

      The enormous black-and-silver Ghost Truck rolled into town. This was the start of a whole new journey for me. Where would it lead? I felt very excited. I was taking my own show on the road, going out to meet people the length and breadth of the country and using my mediumship to investigate their Ghost Towns…

       Getting the show on the road

      How did it all start? Since 2001 I had been working on the highly successful Most Haunted television show, but after five series and over 100 investigations I felt it was time to move on. I was asked to stay for one more series and when that was over I was ready for something different. When LIVINGtv offered me the chance to host my own show in a new format, I was delighted.

      Richard Woolfe, then director of television for LIVINGtv, and Paul Flexton, managing director of Ruggie Media, who had worked with me on LIVINGtv’s Loose Lips and I’m Famous and Frightened, had a great idea: putting a show on the road – literally. We would go out to the public and investigate their stories. That meant we would investigate shops, offices, pubs, hotels, houses – anywhere in fact where paranormal activity had been reported. Anything could happen – and probably would. I was only too happy to take part.

       ‘Derek loved the idea. He was ready for a new challenge. He was really excited about the show and he’s loved it ever since. And we’re delighted to be working with the best medium in the country.’

      Paul Flexton, executive producer

      The show was commissioned in the middle of June 2005 and we had to get moving, as the first series was to go out in October.

       The Ghost Towns family

      Joining me on my journeys around the country would be Danniella Westbrook and Angus Purden. I first met Danniella on Granada Breeze’s Psychic Livetime, though I knew of her work as an actress and, later, as a programme presenter. She had been intrigued by the paranormal ever since she had seen a ghost in her own home and had described presenting a programme on the paranormal as her ‘dream job’, so when the show was put together her name was top of the list.

      Strangely enough, Angus also worked as a presenter, was interested in the paranormal and had seen a ghost. As a child he had lived in a house on a hill surrounded by trees, and once he had looked out of his bedroom window and seen a ghostly shape silhouetted there. Later on he had felt guided by his deceased grandmother and had had an accurate psychic reading, but he still didn’t accept everything uncritically.