Can the Ethiopian change his skin?

DEREK ACORAH - 1997 to 2001

"Can the Ethiopian change his skin... ?" [Jeremiah 13:23]

by Emma Gee

October 1996

In October 1996 Granada Sky Broadcasting launched a group of television channels on satellite. One of these was Granada Good Life - later re-launched as Granada Breeze - a daytime channel aimed at women, primarily housewives. Granada Breeze closed officially in March 2002, due to poor viewing figures.

National Tea Week 1998

In 1998 Gary Shoefield – Director of Programming at Granada Sky Broadcasting, and notorious for the hoax “alien autopsy” programme – was apparently behind the suggestion that Acorah should be invited onto Psychic Livetime to do Tea Leaf Readings in National Tea Week .

At that time, Acorah was unknown, working as a psychic from either a tiny office in Paradise Street, Liverpool, or from his home.

Acorah sought – and received - unpaid advice from a Spiritualist psychic/author/broadcaster/manager on whether he should take the booking, as he was unsure of how to go about such a reading.

The advice he was given was to say he could do the readings, and accept the booking, with its one-off fee of £75.00. Once there, he should be flamboyant, witty and amusing mixed with sincerity, and smile a lot, while giving whatever came to him using his psychic channels.

Acorah was invited to appear on the programme several more times, at the same rate of pay. This was followed by short-term contracts at £100.00 per day.

Acorah’s Spiritualist mentor made regular appearances on Red Rose Radio, a Lancashire local radio station. He was known as someone who, whilst a practising Spiritualist, also aims to make people laugh at the sillier aspects of the psychic paranormal industry.

He took Acorah along to Red Rose Radio, and introduced him to his friend, the presenter of a talk show that covered a variety of supernatural matters. Acorah subsequently appeared on his programme on a number of occasions, but one sticks firmly in the mind of the presenter.

The programme was split into various segments – UFOs, tarot readings, astrology, mediumship, etc., with participants only being in the studio only for their particular segment.

September 1998

In September 1998 Acorah appeared in the middle segment, doing his usual act. On this occasion Acorah did not leave the studio during the News as would have been normal, because his Spiritualist mentor was to be the guest in the final segment.

The presenter set the scene, explaining to listeners that he had recently been in Africa, and whilst there had met a witchdoctor who had expressed a desire to appear on his radio show.

He then introduced ‘Professor Dr. Daddy Magumba, Ph.D, de original paranormal prognosticator’, complete with Bagooda Cards, Bum Bum leaves and chicken bones.

At one point in the show ‘Daddy Magumba’ allowed both Acorah and the presenter to have a go at wobbling his Wishing Stick.

The programme concluded with 'Daddy Magumba' going into a fake 'trance', mumbling gibberish. This seems to be the origin of Acorah's later 'possessions' on Most Haunted, and was immediately recognisable as such to both the presenter and the Spiritualist.

According to the presenter, great fun was had by all, with Acorah rolling on the floor with laughter, holding his sides. In fact, Acorah was so taken with ‘Daddy Magumba’ that he took a recording of him to Granada Breeze.

December 1998

Proof cover design for the hardback book

Acorah asked the Spiritualist to write his life story for him, which he did, asking his literary agent to find a publisher. They won him the commission from Judy Piatkus (Publishers) Ltd - now Piatkus Books Ltd - in December 1998, with any royalties split 50/50 between the author and Acorah.

Originally planned as a hardbacked book, the publishers, after meeting Acorah and being distinctly unimpressed by his blessing and asides to Sam, changed their minds and it went straight to paperback instead.

January 1999

In January 1999, finding he was losing out financially on the deal with Granada Breeze, Acorah signed a management contract with his Spiritualist mentor - who had been providing free advice up until then.

It was an exclusive contract signed on 11 January 1999 and witnessed by his wife Gwen Johnson. Acorah was bound by that agreement, as his manager was bound to do his best to get him deals that would make him money and take his career forward

The manager agreed with the ISPR for them to carry out a psychic evaluation of Acorah's abilities in Los Angeles (see review), and to stage a theatre show at the Vogue Theatre, Hollywood Boulevard.

The Los Angeles trip was necessary in order to get Acorah to the USA so his biography could be published there.

Whilst in the USA the manager agreed with Larry Montz to consider a series of films featuring Acorah with the ISPR team investigating the paranormal.

At that time the manager believed that Montz really was a Ph.D level parapsychologist. It was only much later that he discovered he was a fraud with a fake doctorate bought for a few dollars

On TV news in late January, a CCTV camera at Belgrave Hall in Leicestershire showed what looked like ghosts moving around by the side of the old museum. This was shown worldwide. Acorah's manager then spoke to Montz and it was agreed that the manager should attempt to get the rights to use the CCTV film footage for an ISPR investigation featuring Acorah, to be filmed and released as a TV programme or a DVD.

The manager wrote to Leicestershire City Council and his suggestion was put to a meeting and passed. They agreed:

1. To send original CCTV footage to ISPR in USA.
2. Agree with the manager a date to film an ISPR investigation at Belgrave Hall.

The manager then spoke to Montz and suggested another project that became the DVD The Ghosts of England. He drafted ideas for locations, agreed them with Montz, then organised these:

1. Euxton Mills - a haunted pub near Chorley.
2. Tonge Hall. near Oldham.
3. Jack The Ripper sites with Donald Rumbelow of Scotland Yard.
4. Liverpool Empire Theatre. The manager agreed filming rights with Apollo Leisure - now Live Nation.

February 1999

On their return to the UK, Acorah's manager had given Granada Breeze an ultimatum; pay Acorah properly or he would not appear on the programme.

Initially, Granada Breeze told him to forget it, and Acorah turned on his manager, saying he didn’t know what he was doing.

On 15 February 1999, Granada Breeze offered a contract paying Acorah £250.00 per day – an increase of £150.00 - which the manager agreed.

March 1999

As part of the promotion to build his career, Acorah's manager staged him at the Liverpool Empire for his first theatre show. The stage production formulated by him has remained much the same ever since.

A capacity audience at the Liverpool Empire is 2,380, and around half that number of tickets were sold, which was a major success for an act that was still virtually unknown, even in his home town.

The ISPR arrived with a film crew from the USA in March 1999. For two weeks they filmed to the schedule devised by Acorah's manager.

On their last night in the UK the whole team stayed at the Holiday Inn in London, prior to the ISPR flying back to USA next day. At 9pm they all said they were whacked, as they had not stopped for two weeks but they had two films in the can.

Acorah's manager retired to his room, ordered two tins of Guinness and was asleep by 10pm. Little did he know that Montz had called a meeting, and Acorah went to it with Gwen. The entire team met, sans manager, and discussed how they intended to work together on a TV series for the USA market.

Acorah's manager only discovered later that the camera crew was an award-winning TV company, and had already had numerous series screened in the USA, so this was not pie-in-the-sky fantasy. .

The agreement between Acorah's manager and Montz was that the manager would be contracted as executive producer and receive a royalty. Acorah was to get a contract through his manager for his performance.

June 1999

Time passed and no contracts appeared. Then Montz faxed one contract direct to Acorah, ignoring his manager completely.

The contract was not what had been agreed so the manager told Acorah he was not to sign it. He also wrote to Acorah, advising him that he was under contract, and may not sign the agreement with Montz as it could only be through him under terms of their contract.

Acorah declined to accept his manager's instructions, saying he had his career to think about,. He signed the contract with Montz and his team and broke his contract with his manager by so doing.

The manager was so disgusted by this betrayal from someone claiming to be a spiritual man that he immediately resigned, and tore up the contract.

He was never paid any management fees whatsoever by Acorah, and was left thousands of pounds out of pocket.

According to the current version of the ISPR timeline:

The first two documentary efforts created and produced by Montz and Smoller, were the result of investigative work conducted for the British Government. The first, ISPR Investigates Ghosts of England, won a 1999 Telly Award and the second, ISPR Investigates Ghosts of Belgrave Hall won the 2002 Best Documentary Award at the Screamfest International Film Festival in Hollywood. Both documentaries can be found in several languages around the world and are used in an increasing number of college psychology courses taught at such respectable universities such as UCLA, USC and Edinbourgh University.

Given the ISPR's false claims that they conducted the investigations for the British Government, nobody should be surprised to learn that when the DVDs were eventually released, the name of Acorah's manager as Executive Producer had been replaced by that of Gwen Acorah.

The ISPR note on this reads:
ISPR and Flying Dog Productions wishes to thank Gwen Acorah, for a brilliant job performed as Line Producer for the production of both documentaries, ISPR Investigates Ghosts of England and ISPR Investigates Ghosts of Belgrave Hall.

However, having been proven a liar by several people, including Emma Gee, the words of Larry Montz are not worth the bandwidth they occupy.

Both DVDs have subsequently been screened worldwide via SKY TV in USA and UK etc.

However, the name of the manager's brother, Martin, does appear in the credits at the end of Ghosts of England. He was then a Detective Inspector with Manchester CID, and was present as security for both the manager and Montz..

Gwen Johnson personally visited the people that Acorah's manager had arranged to be filmed and asked them to sign a release document assigning their performances to the ISPR and the Hollywood production company.

The Spiritualist already held the documentation releasing their performances to him, and Gwen Johnson, at the instigation of ISPR, Montz and the production company, tried to get them to cut the former manager out. None of those appearing agreed to sign the ISPR release, and all contacted the Spiritualist, asking what was going on.

The man featured in the Ghosts of England DVD, who had lost his wife to cancer, was told that his really tearful reading with Acorah would not be used as it was too personal. They broke that promise, putting sensationalism before sensitivity.

23 September 1999

The Psychic World of Derek Acorah, written by his Spiritualist mentor, was published on 23 September 1999.

Acorah requested 500 copies of the book from the publishers' distribution team, but declined to pay the accompanying invoice.

The author's literary agent was contacted, and she in turn contacted the author, who could do nothing, as he was no longer Acorah's manager .

The publishers stopped ALL royalty payments, the author's included, until the debt had cleared, even though it was Acorah who had the books.

Proof of this is shown in the following scan of a fax sent on 23 September 2003 by Piatkus Publishing to the author's literary agent. Unfortunately the quality is poor so a transcription is provided.

RE: The Magic World of Derek Acorah - John Sutton and Derek A.

(to) Rosemary Bromley (literary agent)
From: Jane Burton [@piatkus.co.uk]
Sent: 23 September 2002 08:03
To: juvenilia@clara.co.uk
Subject: RE: The Magic World of Derek Acorah - John Sutton and Derek A.

Dear Rosemary

Further to our telephone conversation regarding Derek Acorah I have spoken to Judy who feels that as our contract is with you we cannot take further responsibility at this time for payment of royalties to John Sutton.

As you know, Derek Acorah took 500 copies of his book at a 50% discount in August 1999 (the total amount of the invoice being £2497.50). We continually asked for payment which was never forthcoming. (we sent letters as well as making numerous phonecalls). We then asked him to return the books to us which he didn't do and he refused to answer any of the letters we sent him. As the books began earning royalties we felt that the only way to recoup this money was to set the amount earned against the outstanding invoice. We did this as follows:

£ [illegible] against July to December 2000 royalties.

£ [illegible] against January to June 2001 royalties and

£ [illegible] against the £663.72 that was to be paid for the July to December 2001 royalties.

This totals £2497.50 which clears the outstanding invoice.

As you have been aware of this situation for two years we would suggest that John Sutton claim against Derek for his 50% share of the £2497.50. We did however pay you the balance on [illegible] to December 2001 royalty statement of £248.41. This is another amount due to you for the January to June 2002 royaltiy statement of £384.80. You may wish to discuss with your author yourself as to how you apportion the payments.

It is interesting to note that in their correspondence with the literary agent, Piatkus name John Sutton as the primary author of the book.

Psychic Livetime

At first, only members of the studio audience received psychic ‘readings’ and had their questions answered, but in time television viewers were encouraged to contact the programme by telephone, email or snail-mail letter.

Acorah was given approximately an hour prior to each programme in which to read through his mail, and choose which to answer on air.

In an attempt to draw more viewers, the show wanted sensationalism, so one week Acorah was asked to attempt a blind reading.

The idea was that he would try to tune in to somebody watching the programme, anywhere in the world. Throughout the programme he would give details with which the viewer would identify themselves, just as he attempts to link with an audience member in his current stage show.

It was hoped that the individual would contact the programme, either before the end of the show, or before the next one, and confirm that what Acorah had said, to demonstrated that he was in touch with a relative or friend in spirit.

Acorah was not keen on the idea, and said he was unhappy, but agreed to try. At first he appeared agitated, and the information he gave was extremely vague and could have applied to any number of viewers.

As the programme progressed, Acorah started to become much more specific, including the location of the viewer and details of their relationship to the ‘spirit’ with which his guide was allegedly linking.

Not long before the programme was due to end, the attempted psychic link-up was pulled by the producer, and not mentioned again on-air.

It transpired that one of the researchers had read Acorah’s letters that morning, realised he was using all the details contained in one of them, and informed the producer.

As a direct result of this, when the producer of an ITV psychic show wanted to use Acorah, ITV executives who were aware of the incident would not allow it.

However, others are not so choosy; it seems there are many in the business who would laugh that Acorah was a fraud but still allowed him to carry on faking.

A presenter on the show found much of Acorah’s attitude offensive, but says the worst was his behind-the-scenes contempt for his audience, when he would laugh, saying “More fool them if they’re stupid enough to believe it.”

Premium rate psychic phonelines

During the time of Granada Breeze, Gary Shoefield approached Acorah with a secret proposition. He intended setting up premium rate phonelines advertising his name, and guaranteed big profits.

The secrecy was essential, as his employment with Granada did not permit such private enterprise.

He was asked to prepare a script, then record it to be played to callers using the phonelines.

He was told that he would occasionally be asked to take a call personally - perhaps once every month or two months – “to keep it legal”.

Other than that, he had only to sit back and wait for the money to roll in.

for more on Acorah's psychic

phonelines click here

The phonelines went ahead, arranged by Lee Bowden, under the name of Fieldhouse. Lee Bowden is now the Managing Director of Media C.A.T. Limited, “specialising in Media Content and Premium Rate Telephone Services”. Their website proclaims that Lee Bowden was “one of the first people working in and around the industry back in 1989”.

One other extremely interesting fact came to light during conversations with the presenters. The idea for Most Haunted came from someone working on Granada Breeze.

Yvette Fielding - who had a reading from Acorah on Psychic Livetime in January 1999 (see transcript), and later briefly stood in as presenter of Psychic Livetime - picked up on the idea with Acorah, and thus Most Haunted was born.

So what did the Independent Television Commission make of

Acorah and his appearances on Granada Breeze?

In November 2001 the ITC published a report by Jane Sancho, entitled Beyond Entertainment?: research into the acceptability of alternative beliefs, psychic and occult phenomena on television.

Acorah is afforded two mentions, neither particularly complimentary.

Slightly disturbing

Derek Acorah calls himself a clairaudient. He uses his ‘spirit guide’, Sam, to give people advice from ‘the other side’. The first clip from Psychic Predictions, which was named ‘Auntie’ showed Mr Acorah giving a woman news from her dead aunt. The clip contained a number of diluting factors which participants picked up on. In particular, because of Acorah’s style (he dresses in flamboyant, lurex clothes and has a Liverpudlian accent), he was perceived as having a very non-threatening, light-hearted approach.

Disturbing

The second Derek Acorah clip named ‘Pregnant Daughter’ was rated as more disturbing than ‘Auntie’. In this example, a mother is seeking advice about her pregnant daughter who has just left her Australian fiance and returned to Britain. Mr Acorah, via his spirit guide Sam, informs her that he does not see the fiance returning to Britain in the near future. Although the clip still contained the same diluting factors, viewers felt that, in this instance, Mr Acorah had given out negative advice, which potentially could have been distressing for the recipient, or for the recipient’s family. While most still felt it was the ‘take it or leave it’ kind of advice, there was recognition of potential distress being caused. Experts took the view that Acorah was not dishing out dangerous or harmful advice

Asked to sum up Acorah, a Psychic Livetime source told me,

“Derek sadly is not the person people imagine him to be; he is driven by money, and can be a very nasty, unpleasant person when he doesn’t get his own way. He has to be number one and if he thinks someone has done something better, he would storm off the set.

They added that Acorah was furious when, in 1998, the astrologer on the show had correctly predicted Earth Summit and Suny Bay for the forthcoming Grand National. Earth Summit won the race by 11 lengths from Suny Bay.

When asked the same question, the former Red Rose presenter answered in one word,

"Charlatan."

The Spiritualist did not wish to comment.

A personal note:

During the years I have been investigating the truth behind the entertainer that is Derek Acorah I have spoken to a great number of people who have actually worked with him. All but one of these told me they considered Acorah to be a fraud, a fake, a charlatan, a conman, or worse.

The exception was the Spiritualist who had been Acorah's mentor, then his manager. Despite his natural anger at the way he was treated by Acorah and Montz, he maintains that Acorah did have psychic abilities when he started out, although greed may well have been the cause of its loss.

It speaks volumes that I have never heard a single bad word spoken against the Spiritualist from those who have worked with him.

Emma Gee

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the Psychic Livetime presenter, the Red Rose Radio talk show host,

and the Spiritualist/mentor/manager for their assistance in compiling this article.

As all three were relying in part on their memory, some dates may be inaccurate.

Should you have any documentary evidence contradicting anything in the article,

please contact me by clicking here.

CLICK for part 2 - "... or the leopard his spots?"