Louie Spence was taken aback when he made touch with the ghost of his late mother.
The dancer and TV personality stars in the new Celebrity Help! series. My Home Is Haunted aired on Discovery+ as he sought assistance for his Chelmsford house, which has been tormented by paranormal activity.
From the smell of cigarette smoke and ‘a wart of perfume’ to other ‘unexplained’ incidents, Louis enlisted the aid of a team that included dark arts specialist Ian Lawman, paranormal researcher and historian Jayne Harris, and investigator Barri Ghal.
‘If it wants to stay or if it wants to go, either way I’m not bothered. I just want to know what it is, he admitted.
His sisters suspected their late mother was the source of the activity, and Louie said he had to take serious measures once her ashes got soggy.
‘I thought, “well, I know”, we’ll cook her on the AGA. She’d already been burnt at a thousand degrees anyway, so going on the AGA at about 250, I mean it’s not going to hurt her at all!’
He added: “Maybe by drying her out, maybe I’ve released her spirit. It could be my mum!’
Tanya, his sister, feels a presence in the cottage, as if her brother is in the doorway when he isn’t, and she was hoping they’d be able to contact their mother.
‘There’s a female in here trying to get my attention,’ Ian said, after discovering obvious proof of paranormal activity that matched Louie’s own description.
‘And she loves this house, but it doesn’t make sense as she’s never been here, but she loves this house.’
He then revealed his discoveries to Louie and Tanya, and utilised a digital voice recorder to listen to disembodied sounds as Louis attempted to reach them; they were astounded by his discovery.
‘Well, Pat’s our mum,’ Louie laughed as the siblings looked shocked, while Tanya said: ‘Oh, it gives you a nice warm feeling, doesn’t it? Hide the gin and tonic, hide the vodka!’
They then utilised an ITC software called Echovox to generate words from a phonetic library of sounds, and Louie couldn’t help but laugh.
‘I’m not scared, I’m just thinking if it is mum, did I always shut the door to the bathroom?,’ he quipped, before bringing his focus back to the matter at hand and asking: ‘Is that you, mum?’
The crackly voiced answered, ‘It’s mum’, and when they are asked what question they had for her, Louie simply said: ‘Is she happy?’
‘She’s laughing,’ said another voice.
Celebrity Help! My House Is Haunted is available now on Discovery+.