Children 2 Name Derek Acorah | Role Television Actor Nationality British | |
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Full Name Derek Francis Johnson Spouse Gwen Acorah (m. 1995), Rachel Walker (m. 1984–1990) Books Derek Acorah: Extreme Psychic TV shows Most Haunted, Derek Acorah's Ghost To, Celebrity Quitters, The Antiques Ghost Sh, Loose Lips Similar People Yvette Fielding, Colin Fry, David Wells, Ciaran O'Keeffe, Karl Beattie Profiles | ||
Derek Acorah (27 January 1950 – 3 January 2020) was an English self-styled spiritual medium. He was best known for his television work on Most Haunted, broadcast on Living TV (2002–2010). He had received a lot of criticism casting doubts over his legitimacy as a medium.
Contents
- Death
- Derek Acorah knows Celebrity Big Brother is a game Day 18
- Derek Acorah reveals all about Sam and the new show
- Career
- Personal life
- Parody
- Filmography
- References
Death
Acorah died on 3 January 2020, aged 69, following a short illness. His wife later confirmed that Acorah had been hospitalised with pneumonia and later contracted sepsis
Derek Acorah knows Celebrity Big Brother is a game | Day 18
Derek Acorah reveals all about Sam and the new show
Career
Acorah's first appearance was on the satellite TV channel Granada Breeze in 1996. During his five years with the channel, he began with Livetime before later appearing weekly on Psychic Livetime. He also appeared on Predictions which started out as a showcase for various studio guests but later became a vehicle for Acorah alone and renamed Predictions with Derek Acorah.
In July 2001, Acorah joined a new British television programme called Haunting Truths. It was subsequently sold to Living and renamed Most Haunted. He worked on the show for six series.
In 2002, Acorah featured in the television series Antiques Ghost Show, and in 2004 he was presented with the Variety Club of Great Britain's Multichannel TV Personality of the Year Award.
Yvette Fielding, a presenter and executive producer of Most Haunted, initially stated "there is no acting on this programme, none whatsoever. Everything you see and you hear is real." However, significant media attention was directed at the show in 2005, after Acorah claimed to channel spirits with names that had allegedly been suggested to him in advance; such as "Rick Eedles" and "Kreed Kafer", which are anagrams of "Derek Lies" and "Derek Faker" respectively. Speaking in 2006, Fielding said of Acorah "We tell people everything is real, then it turns out he was a fake, so he had to go."
After his 2005 departure from Most Haunted, Acorah filmed a one-off special for LivingTV, Derek Acorah's Quest for Guy Fawkes followed by Derek Acorah's Ghost Towns with Ruggie Media. This programme ran for three series. In 2008, Acorah took part in two series for Sky Real Lives titled Derek Acorah. In November 2009 Acorah featured in Michael Jackson: The Search for His Spirit, in which he was shown attempting to contact the singer's spirit: the programme was named the worst TV programme of 2009 in a poll of more than 9,000 Yahoo! users.
Acorah also made a cameo appearance in the Doctor Who episode "Army of Ghosts".
Acorah's other television work includes Celebrity Five Go to..., Harry Hill's TV Burp, Celebrity Quitters and Paranormal Egypt. He also made appearances on Celebrity Juice, Loose Lips (TV series), Richard and Judy, Bo' Selecta!, Brainiac: Science Abuse, The Paul O'Grady Show, The Weakest Link and Loose Women as well as a cameo in the 2011 film Big Fat Gypsy Gangster. In 2017 Derek played a small role in forthcoming UK horror comedy Crispys Curse. On 9 March 2011 Acorah took part in a live online seance hosted by The Sun.
In May 2012, Acorah claimed to have received a psychic message from Madeleine McCann via a 'spirit guide', stating that the child had died some time ago but would soon be reincarnated. After widespread media outrage, Acorah used the same newspaper to publish an apology to McCann's parents.
In December 2015, Derek Acorah, alongside Sean Reynolds and Rebecca Palmer launched their new 12-part television show entitled The Past Hunters: the show rated No. 1 during the week December 21 to December 27, 2015 on the network YourTV's viewing figures
Throughout 2017, Derek toured the UK and Norway on his "Whispers from Heaven" psychic tour.
He competed in the twentieth series of Celebrity Big Brother. Derek left the house on the final night in fourth place.
Personal life
Born Derek Johnson in Bootle, he was known professionally as Derek Acorah. He lives in Scarisbrick near Southport, in North West England. As a young man, Acorah was on the books of Liverpool FC during the Bill Shankly era but was released by the club without playing a first team game. He carried on playing at other clubs and finished his football career in Australia.
Acorah together with his wife Gwen was a patron for the charity Pathfinder Guide Dog Programme, a registered charity which provides seeing dogs for blind people.
In March 2014 he was convicted of driving without due care and attention and failing to provide a breath sample following a car crash. Acorah had failed a roadside breath test but refused to give the required sample at a police station. He was banned from driving for 28 months and fined £1,000.
Parody
Shirley Ghostman was a parody drawing on elements of Derek Acorah and Colin Fry and he invaded one of Acorah's shows.
Death
Acorah died on 3 January 2020, aged 69, following a short illness. His wife later confirmed that Acorah had been hospitalised with pneumonia and later contracted sepsis