Harry Price: Ghost Hunter

Good plot, lovely performances by all, nice period setting. I, too, wish it had become a regular series, I would have enjoyed that.

I can upon this tv show by accident, never heard of it or Harry Price. I read the reviews, some negative and a few positives. I'm glad to say I'm glad I watched it. The story is not based on Harry Price life, it's not a biography. Writers used his character and wrote a story for entertaining purposes. Would have liked to see this made into a TV series.

Apparently the real Harry Price was a well regarded paranormal investigator who had a reputation for exposing fakes.

This ITV made for television film had all the hallmarks for being a potential pilot to a series. However the very poor ratings it received over the Christmas period makes any series very unlikely.

Rafe Spall played Harry Price dragged out of self exposed exile in the 1920s to look into the case of a leading politician's wife who is displaying bizarre behaviour and having haunting visions of a drowned child in a big house they recently moved into.

Harry Price is adamant that their is a rational explanation to all this. The smarmy politician, who seems to be based partly on David Cameron with his 'we are all in it together' quip near the start of the programme has other motives in engaging Price to look into his wife's strange condition at a politically sensitive time for him.

Well I was not sure what to make of the husband's own behaviour because the character was so badly written which to me lessened a lot of the mystery. He does not want Price snooping around, he does not want him to talk to his wife. He will not even engage medical doctors to treat his wife. Given the way he was behaving over his wife's condition why did anyone reckon he was potential Prime Minister was beyond me!

Price with the assistance of the household's combative maid delves deep onto this mystery but really it was rather shallow, plodding and over-long. When Price is not moping around with memories of his own dead wife or the soldier who killed himself in front of him displays the whizz bang of the modern day Sherlock (I noticed the film had a cameo from David Burke who was Dr Watson version 1 in the Jeremy Brett Sherlock Holmes series) and the demystification of Jonathan Creek without the humour and agility.

A really enjoyable story and resolution. Good characters, plot and acting. Wish it were a series.

Rafe Spall plays 'ghost hunter' Harry Price. In the wake of World War I many people had lost loved ones and could not reconcile the senseless waste that had occurred and wanted to be able to speak to them beyond the grave. This included the very high and very low in society. In order to fill the void a mini industry took off of mediums and psychics who used all manner of tricks and scams to exploit their grief.

Harry Price is in this field and is contacted by a high profile MP whose wife has had a bit of a 'turn' and come over all unnecessary; she in turn claims that their new home, an erstwhile 'workhouse', is haunted. He is called in to investigate and prevent the poor woman from being hauled off to the sanatorium – posh word for mad house.

Now this is a TV film but has very high production values for the most part. There was some wobble camera at the beginning but that seemed to calm down – much to my relief. The acting is all top notch and a real chemistry builds between Price and the maid Sarah played by the wonderful Cara Theobold. There are some really spooky bits but this is essentially a detective story with psychic overtones and I must say I greatly enjoyed it. I hope they make some more - recommended.