The Enfield Haunting | |
---|---|
Genre | Drama/Thriller |
Written by | Joshua St Johnston |
Directed by | Kristoffer Nyholm |
Starring | Timothy Spall Eleanor Worthington Cox Juliet Stevenson Matthew Macfadyen Rosie Cavaliero Fern Deacon Simon Chandler Sean Francis |
Country of origin | United Kingdom |
Original language | English |
No. of series | 1 |
No. of episodes | 3 |
Production | |
Executive producers | Jamie Campbell Joel Wilson |
Producers | Adrian Sturges Kirsten Eller |
Running time | 51 minutes (including adverts) |
Production company | Eleven Film |
Original release | |
Network | Sky Living |
Release | 3 May – 17 May 2015 |
The Enfield Haunting is a British drama horror series which was commissioned by Sky Living and first aired on 3 May 2015. Kristoffer Nyholm, who rose to fame after the hugely popular Danish series, The Killing , directed the three-parter. [1]
The series is based on Guy Lyon Playfair’s book, This House Is Haunted and is about a series of bizarre events around the phenomena collectively known as the "Enfield Poltergeist" that took place at a council house from August 1977 to 1979. [2]
The drama draws upon recordings and witness statements to draw the audience in to the unfolding supernatural events. [3] The series finished on 17 May 2015 after the third and last episode aired.
Matthew Macfadyen played Guy Lyon Playfair, an experienced but sceptical investigator, while Timothy Spall played Maurice Grosse, an amateur paranormal researcher. [4] BAFTA-nominated Juliet Stevenson also joined the cast to play Maurice’s wife Betty Grosse in the series. [5]
The three episodes were the highest-rated programmes on Sky Living. Previously, the highest-rated episode of a Sky Living programme was the sixth episode of the first series of The Blacklist called "Gina Zanetakos" which aired on 8 October 2013 and garnered 1,197,000 viewers. But that record was shattered by the first episode of The Enfield Haunting, which aired on 3 May 2015, and garnered 1,871,000 viewers. The second episode, which aired on 10 May 2015, garnered 1,302,000 viewers, and the third and final episode, which aired on 17 May 2015, garnered 1,262,000 viewers.
Michael Hogan writing for The Telegraph gave The Enfield Haunting four stars out of five saying "This Seventies-set chiller was scarily compelling". [6] while Ellen E Jones writing for The Independent called it "North London meets The Exorcist in eerie suburban drama" [7] while Grace Dent writing for the same paper wrote, "The Enfield Haunting's poltergeist was about as scary as a drunk uncle" [8] while Julia Raeside writing for The Guardian said, "This supernatural account of the famous 1970s London poltergeist is packed with genuine thrills and superb performances from a young cast." [9]
The show was broadcast in Canada and the United States on A&E. It is also available as a streaming video on Shomi. [10] The three episodes were also broadcast in France and Germany on the public Franco-German TV network Arte.
Clare Julia Hawes, known professionally as Keeley Hawes, is an English actress. After beginning her career in a number of literary adaptations, including Our Mutual Friend (1998) and Tipping the Velvet (2002), Hawes rose to fame for her portrayal of Zoe Reynolds in the BBC series Spooks (2002–2004), followed by her co-lead performance as DI Alex Drake in Ashes to Ashes (2008–2010). She is also known for her roles in Jed Mercurio's Line of Duty as DI Lindsay Denton (2014–2016) and in BBC One drama Bodyguard (2018) in which she played Home Secretary Julia Montague. Hawes is a three-time BAFTA TV Award nominee, having been nominated for the British Academy Television Award for Best Actress for her roles as Lindsay Denton and Julia Montague, and a British Academy Television Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Dorothy Wick in the drama Mrs Wilson.
The Enfield poltergeist was a claim of supernatural activity at 284 Green Street, a council house in Brimsdown, Enfield, London, England, between 1977 and 1979. The alleged poltergeist activity centred on sisters Janet, aged 11, and Margaret Hodgson, aged 13.
Perfect Strangers is a television drama first aired in 2001, produced for BBC Two. It was written and directed by Stephen Poliakoff, and starred Michael Gambon, who won a British Academy Television Award for his performance, Lindsay Duncan, Matthew Macfadyen, Claire Skinner, and Toby Stephens. Anton Lesser and Timothy Spall also appear. The drama received two Royal Television Society Awards and a Peabody Award. It was also nominated for the BAFTA TV Award for Best Drama Serial.
Timothy Leonard Spall is an English actor and presenter. Spall gained recognition for his character actor roles on stage and screen. He is known for his collaborations with director Mike Leigh, acting in six of his films: Home Sweet Home (1982), Life is Sweet (1990), Secrets & Lies (1996), Topsy-Turvy (1999), All or Nothing (2002), and Mr. Turner (2014). He was nominated for the BAFTA for Best Actor in a Leading Role for his role in Secrets and Lies, and received the Cannes Film Festival Best Actor Award for his portrayal of J. M. W. Turner in Mr. Turner. In 2000, he was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) by Queen Elizabeth II. He won the 2024 BAFTA TV Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role, for his performance as Peter Farquhar in The Sixth Commandment.
Rafe Joseph Spall is an English actor.
Anne Reid is a British stage, film and television actress, known for her roles as Valerie Barlow in the soap opera Coronation Street (1961–1971); Jean in the sitcom dinnerladies (1998–2000); and her role as Celia Dawson in Last Tango in Halifax (2012–2020) for which she was nominated for the British Academy Television Award for Best Actress. She won the London Film Critics' Circle Award for British Actress of the Year and received a nomination for the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for her performance in the film The Mother (2003).
Edward Warren Miney and Lorraine Rita Warren were American paranormal investigators and authors associated with prominent cases of alleged hauntings. Edward was a self-taught and self-professed demonologist, author, and lecturer. Lorraine professed to be clairvoyant and a light trance medium who worked closely with her husband.
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Brimsdown is a neighbourhood of eastern Enfield in the London Borough of Enfield, north London, on the west side of the mid-to-lower Lea Valley.
Elizabeth Berrington is an English actress and graduate of the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art; she is best known for her roles as Ruby Fry in Waterloo Road, Paula Kosh in Stella, Mel Debrou in Moving Wallpaper, and Dawn Stevenson in The Syndicate. She has also featured in British television series such as The Bill, Doctor Who, The Office, Casualty, The Lakes, The Grimleys, and Rose and Maloney.
Maurice Grosse was a British paranormal investigator. Famous for his involvement in the Enfield Poltergeist case from 1977 to 1979, he has been portrayed in several films and television series, including The Enfield Haunting (2015) by Timothy Spall and The Conjuring 2 (2016) by Simon McBurney.
Guy Lyon Playfair was a British writer, best known for his books about parapsychology and his investigation of the Enfield poltergeist.
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Eleanor Winifred Worthington Cox is an English actress from Merseyside best known for portraying Matilda Wormwood in Matilda the Musical. Eleanor won a 2012 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical along with the three other child actresses playing Matilda: Cleo Demetriou, Kerry Ingram, and Sophia Kiely. Upon winning, 10-year-old Eleanor became the youngest Olivier Award winner in any category at the time. She received a nomination for a British Academy Television Award for playing Janet Hodgson in The Enfield Haunting. She is also known for portraying Polly Renfrew in the CBBC TV adaptation of Jacqueline Wilson's Hetty Feather and Cait in the Sky Atlantic series Britannia.
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The Conjuring 2 is a 2016 American supernatural horror film, directed by James Wan. The screenplay is by Chad Hayes, Carey W. Hayes, Wan, and David Leslie Johnson. It is the sequel to 2013's The Conjuring, the second installment in The Conjuring series, and the third installment in The Conjuring Universe franchise and loosely based on The Amityville Horror. Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga reprise their roles as paranormal investigators and authors Ed and Lorraine Warren from the first film. The film follows the Warrens as they travel to England to assist the Hodgson family, who are experiencing poltergeist activity at their Enfield council house in 1977 which later became referred to as the Enfield poltergeist.
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