Celebrity Help! My House Is Haunted: Louie Spence - Episode 1 Review

This week 'Celebrity Help! My House Is Haunted' returned to Discovery+ with the first episode in a new series at the home of Louie Spence. Louie is a dancer, choreographer and reality television star, and his 200-year-old cottage is located in the outskirts of Chelmsford.

To get to the bottom of his haunting, Louie has called in the 'Help! My House Is Haunted' team, which as always consists of dark arts specialist Ian Lawman, paranormal investigator Jayne Harris, and technical expert Barri Ghai.

According to the episode, this part of the country suffered hugely during the great plague, and was also home to a number of witch trials. Jayne tells us that Chelmsford was a "former capital of England," she said this was in the 1300s before London was the capital. There is some truth in this little-known fact, Chelmsford was technically the capital for less than a week when the government was temporarily moved there. However, the government moved to Essex from London and went back to London after, as London has been England's capital since 1066.

In the episode, Louie tells us that he wants to get to the bottom of what's haunting his house, as he has been experiencing strange occurrences. He tells viewers that it started with smelling strange mysterious odours, including cigarettes and perfume. Louie and his sister think that the ghost could be the spirit of their mum. Louie fears he may have released her spirit after drying out the urn that contains her ashes on the aga.

Ian, who knows nothing about the case in advance, prefers to be guided only by his psychic abilities. He was the first to entered the house alone to conduct a psychic sweep. He immediately felt an emotional connection to the property, sensed a female energy, and picked up on the smells that Louie had mentioned. Ian also mentioned that he felt something has entered the house through the woodwork.

Meanwhile, Barri went to meet Louie's sister to find out what she makes of the haunting, and Jayne headed to a nearby churchyard to find out more about the area from a local historian.

After their initial investigations, the team came together at Louie's house to attempt to trigger paranormal activity. They decided to start in the living room and used Louie as a trigger. Barri used an audio recorder, and with the help of Louie who was calling out to any spirits that might be present, they attempted to capture Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP). These are disembodied human-like voices of unknown origin that are captured by electronic devices.

The team heard tapping on the window, and when the audio was played back, a ghostly voice seemed to say "yes." Louie described this as even scarier than the normal happenings in the house. Ian, who had sensed the presence of Louie's mum, also sensed the presence of a male spirit.

The team moved to the dining room, where Louie and his sister used a Ouija board. The board seemed to confirm that the ghost was called John. When Jayne told Louie that this could be a murdered man named John who is buried in a near by church, Louie shocked her by revealing that the wooden kitchen floor in his house came from that same church.

This revelation confirmed what Ian had said during his walk around the property, which was that he felt something has entered the house through the woodwork. With all of these pieces of information coming together, the team was able to start piecing together a clearer picture of what was haunting Louie's house.

After Louie left the house, the team prepared for a nightlong vigil in hopes of making contact with the spirit of John. They started in the living room, where they captured some clear and relevant EVPs. Suddenly, there was a loud tap on the window, so loud that he caused the team to jump. Throughout the vigil, the team heard several seemingly responsive knocks and bangs.

The team then moved into the kitchen and sat around the table. Another tap was heard, this time on the kitchen window. As they sat there, a chair between Ian and Barri moved on its own, followed by another chair just seconds later.

Later in the night, Ian went alone to the guest bedroom, while Barri and Jayne watched via CCTV from the tech hub. Ian suddenly became short of breath and struggled to breathe. However, the problem seemed to pass when he went into the master bedroom, where he said something grabbed his ankle.

A little later, back in the guest bedroom, there was a sound at the window, which Ian went to investigate. Moments later a similar sound occurred and Ian spotted a feather. The feather seemed significant because, according to the local historian at the start of the show, John was killed by his wife who put pigeon feathers under his pillow. It's said that the dust from these feathers can cause the lung condition, emphysema.

Barri and Jayne came to join Ian to see the feather for themselves. Ian told them that when he went to investigate the first sound at the window "there was no feather there, the window was shut." But rewatching the moment when Ian walked up to the window earlier, the feather can clearly be seen, there's even a close up shot of the window.

This doesn't take away from the significance of the feather, presumably Ian just hadn't noticed it previously. The fact it didn't appeared partway through the vigil doesn't make it any less impressive, it could still be the case that it arrived there through some paranormal means earlier, and the spirit of John was making the sounds to draw Ian to it.

Barri summed up the investigation by saying, "I think we've pretty much managed to conclude that John is here, and that he's told us how he's died. There's got to be a connection to the fact that some of the items that have built the infrastructure of this property have come from the local church."

This episode was a really strong start to the series. The EVPs were some of the best the team have recorded yet, the chair moving on camera was very interesting, and Ian being drawn to the feather seemed very significant. All the strands of this investigation felt like they tied together very well.