A morning after the fright before

A paranormal investigator has been running the rule over ghostly goings-on at the London studios of ITV television, where the hit daytime TV show This Morning is filmed.

Don Phillips, from Evington, Leicester, spent a night stalking the corridors of channel's South Bank television centre site, by the River Thames, on the look out for ghouls and other-worldly phenomena.

The 46-year-old was invited along by producers of the show to investigate reported sightings of a ghost haunting This Morning's Studio 8, located in a former wharf building which once belonged to Younger's Brewery.

"My team and I were called in to investigate the This Morning studio amid rumours it is haunted and several reported sightings from guests and staff," said Don, who set up GSI Paranormal UK in 2008.

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"The studio had never been investigated before and is unlikely to be again any time soon, so it was a great opportunity to see what was there.

"If the studio is haunted then I was sure we would find the evidence to prove it."

The plan was for Don's team, accompanied by the show's celebrity reporter Jeff Brazier, to spend Wednesday night in the studio.

It was arranged as part of This Morning's supernatural week, with Don invited on to the couch with Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby live on yesterday's programme to reveal the results to viewers. The team set up film and audio equipment and placed magnetic sensory devices and so-called "trigger" objects such as 50p pieces to collect evidence of supernatural visitors.

Their target was a former caretaker called Norman Grimshaw, who died an old man in 1943, and is suspected of being the ghost.

Don said the exercise produced "mixed" results.

"When I eventually got to bed at 7am I got a panicked call from the studio saying all the video footage had been mysteriously wiped, including the digital film and editing equipment," he said.

"It meant that when I appeared to speak to Phillip and Holly, there was no film in the end to show to viewers.

"On the one hand I was disappointed, but the exercise was by no means a waste of time. I have a recording on separate equipment we took along with us where Bekki, a spirit guide I use, can be heard saying 'I'm in the hub with....' and it sounds like either Norman, or no-one, it's difficult to tell.

"Two light bulbs blew in the studio during the night, which I'm told is highly unusual."

This Morning viewers were due to get another chance to see Don today during a scheduled debate on the paranormal – chaired by Eamonn Holmes – involving investigators, sceptics and a woman who claims her home is haunted.

Don, whose day job is running his own production company, said he has carried out hundreds of paranormal investigations over the years. "I've had a passion for it since I was young," he said.

He has been recruited to conduct investigations on American TV. The This Morning studios investigation will be published on Don's GSI website at:

www.gsiparanormal.com