Help! My House Is Haunted: 'Forgotten Phantoms' - Series 5, Episode 2 Review

Series five of 'Help! My House Is Haunted' continues on Discovery+. The latest episode, 'Forgotten Phantoms,' follows Barri Ghai, Jayne Harris, and medium Ian Lawman as they explore an early 17th-century home with an intriguingly mixed atmosphere of belief and skepticism from its inhabitants.

Stefan, a costume designer, has been living in this period property in Tenbury Wells, Worcestershire with his husband, Peter, for 16 years. Stefan describes the house as 'active,' stating he's seen shadow figures, heard whispers, and even claims to have witnessed an apparition of a young girl and a gentleman in their bedroom. Peter, on the other hand, is still waiting to be convinced of the paranormal and maintains a more skeptical viewpoint.

As always, Ian, the show's resident psychic medium, is the first to enter the house for a solo psychic sweep, relying on his intuitive abilities. As he walks around the property, he reports feeling a heaviness, with 'something' even tugging at his trouser leg. Ian identifies this presence as a young girl, who he believes to be a farmer's child, perhaps tying back to the home's agricultural history.

Ian's psychic expedition around the home is marred by a variety of sensations, from shivers running down his spine to hearing footsteps above him. He also mentions experiencing a strong smell of decaying meat in the cellar, raising questions about what may have transpired there in the past.

Meanwhile, Jayne consults historian Dr. Hannah West to delve into the property's past. Hannah reveals that the house was split into two dwellings in the 1600s. One part of the house is where the family that owned the farm lived, and the other for agricultural seasonal workers. Census records from 1881 and 1901 corroborate the house's complex history, mentioning multiple families, including children, who have lived there. This could potentially validate the psychic impressions Ian received.

Barri was also out on a separate investigation, speaking to Liv, a friend of the homeowners. She validates Stefan's experiences and doesn't rule out the possibility of the property being haunted. According to her, Stefan has heard 'mutterings' and has seen figures resembling both a man and a little girl around the house.

After completing their initial research, the team regroup to conduct a 'spirit triggers' experiment to try yo identify the entities residing in the home. They hope that the the involvement of the homeowners in this part of the investigation will encourage the spirits to interact.

The team begin by attempting to capture Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVPs). This technique involves recording ambient sound while calling out to spirits, in hopes of capturing their disembodied voices. Jayne specifically tries to engage with the spirit of a little girl previously seen by Stefan, hoping to coax her into making contact.

As for Ian, he claimed to hear creaking on the stairs. The team immediately paused to investigate, suspecting that it might be related to the young girl Stefan had seen.

The investigators then decided to try an experiment that involved separating Stefan and Peter. They were given a pen and paper, and were asked to let their intuition guide their drawings and writings. The aim was to see if any of the sketches or words might correlate with the home’s history or with each other’s experiences.

Peter, generally a skeptic, wrote the name "Richard," followed by the word "Jones" and the term "daddy." Jayne immediately pointed out that a Richard Jones appeared in the 1911 census as the owner of the property, and that he had two small children. Peter, who had been skeptical going into this, found himself amazed by this oddly specific correspondence between his 'automatic writing' and the history of the house.

Barri suggested running some Instrumental Trans-Communication (ITC) experiments, another form of contacting spirits but through electronic devices. In response to Jayne's direct question to Richard Jones through a ghost-hunting app, the device responded with a 'Yes', further solidifying the notion that Richard Jones's spirit was indeed making contact.

As darkness falls, Stefan and Peter leave for the night as the team plan their strategy for the nightlong investigation. They decide to focus their efforts on the upstairs master bedroom, where Stefan previously encountered an apparition of a young girl.

The are using various tools including cat balls and a REM-Pod, a device sensitive to electromagnetic changes. Almost immediately upon activation, the REM-Pod signals activity, as if someone or something is interfering with its electric field. Ian describes this presence as having a strong, gentlemanly nature and the team interprets this as the spirit of Richard Jones showing eagerness to communicate.

Further attempts to communicate are made using a spirit box, a device that generates white noise through which entities are said to be able to convey messages. The team feel the responses they hear, which includes the name "Richard", further confirm the presence of Richard Jones.

While using another ghost-hunting device called an Alice Box, the team encounter words like "tear" and "affair," leaving them to speculate whether the young girl could be an illegitimate child unrecorded in historical documents. The little girl's name and background, however, remain a mystery.

For believers in the paranormal, this episode may serve as compelling evidence that spirits can and do interact with the living. The specifics of Richard Jones, revealed through Peter’s automatic writing and corroborated by historical data, could be seen as proof of the existence of spirits.