Interview with a Poltergeist

In August 1977, strange things started to happen in a quiet north London suburb. This unusual, terrifying activity, centred on 11-year-old Janet Hodgson, lasted several months and became known as the Enfield Poltergeist.
Among those who witnessed this apparently paranormal activity were journalists and the police. Some of the evidence is controversial. But 30 years on it remains the best-documented and most puzzling case of its kind, and may be the first time that a spirit voice has been captured on tape.
Interview with a Poltergeist examines the evidence, with contributions from many of those who witnessed events, including Janet, journalists and the paranormal investigators from the Society for Psychical Research who camped out in the Hodgson home. It also features the case against a paranormal explanation.
The case started with moving furniture, strange noises and flying toys, witnessed by neighbours, the police and Daily Mirror journalists. After the paranormal investigators moved in, the activity continued, including a heavy fireplace being ripped from the wall.
Poltergeist activity is thought to often centre on adolescent girls. The stress caused by Janet's parents' divorce may have contributed to unusual manifestations of energy. Janet was tested to see if she was producing such energy and was later submitted to psychic tests.
As the terrifying activity continued, the family left the house for a week. But as soon as they went home the energy returned with a vengeance. And Janet's behaviour became more worrying: she began to draw disturbing pictures and started to have violent fits. And it appeared that she was being thrown around her room and dragged down the stairs by spirits.
And on the day of Janet's first period, the local baker and the lollipop lady both saw her floating round her room, followed by books and toys.
This activity was followed by inexplicable barking, and then speaking. But was it all an elaborate, intricate hoax? An incredible revelation suggests not. The poltergeist claimed to be a former resident of the house and described his death in detail. The man he claimed to be did live in the house and, as his son confirms, the story checks out.
Interview with a Poltergeist features remarkable sound recordings of the knocking, activity and voices in the house, and footage of Janet apparently being thrown around her bedroom.