Ghost hunters at Bunting Nook at night

The Buddhists like our videos! (by Andrew Wooding)

Every now and then I'm going to scour YouTube for the best, most convincing and highest quality ghost videos ... then write about them here.

And speaking of the best, most convincing and highest quality ghost videos ... our own efforts (if Google is to be believed) have been cropping up in the most unlikely of places.

One such place is the Buddhist Clips website. Their motto is: 'to abstain from bad action, to do good and to purify the mind', and to promote these noble aims, they've included some of our fine, uplifting and purifying videos for the edification of Buddhists around the world.

Just type twomenandaghost into the search engine on their home page (and do the same for the other fine websites listed below).

The World News site, as well as reporting on matters of peace, international politics and social justice, has included videos of Mike with Marmite smeared on his face and close-ups of his green plastic lizard.

Formula1 movies does just what it says on the tin ... mostly. Alongside countless exciting videos of Grand Prix races and other breathtaking tournaments, there's me and Mike pootling up the Stocksbridge bypass in the dark and getting completely lost. Maybe they included it as an example of how not to drive?

Finally, there's Klub Site (Football Club Videos Online). It promises the 'best football club videos', so why do they also include our ghost hunting exploits? Simple. Our videos are a load of balls.

Ghost hunters at Beauchief Abbey at night

5 days to the end of our summer competition...

Here's the final reminder for our summer 'ghost story' competition, which ends on the last day of August.

We haven't found any ghosts yet, but you probably have. So jot down your true life experience (doesn't have to be more than a paragraph or two) and include it in a comment at the end of this post, or email it to twomenandaghost@hotmail.com.

Entries received so far include a ghost in First World War uniform, piercing screams from an upstairs floor, and a paranormal encounter in a bathtub. All good stuff, but we want to read more!

Best submission gets turned into a newspaper-style comic strip like the one above, drawn by our very own Mychailo Kaybrid who is currently illustrating the hugely popular Wallace & Gromit strip in The Sun.

The strip will be published on this blog, and the winner will be sent the highly collectable original artwork, signed by our very selves. I am sure you will agree that this is a prize to treasure for ever. So get scribbling and send us your tales!

On a side note, the strip above refers to our expedition to Beauchief Abbey last summer. You can read about it here.

Eager to relive that momentous evening (when, significantly, we spectacularly failed to find anything), we are about to set forth again to the haunted abbey to recreate our non-experiences in video form.

Soon to be uploaded to YouTube and embedded in this blog, it promises to be a visual feast, an aural treat and an anti-climactic extravaganza.

So watch this space ... but not for too long or your eyes will go funny.

Sheffield Ghost Hunters on the Road (Part 2)

Sheffield Ghost Hunters on the Road (Part 1)

When we finally find a ghost...

One year in, and we still haven't seen a ghost.

But here is a song that encapsulates perfectly what our reactions are sure to be when we finally stumble across one...

Don't forget to use the handy subtitles to sing along!

Reggie Droppings Endorses Two Men and a Ghost

A Lizard Endorses Two Men and a Ghost - The Final Act

A Lizard Endorses Two Men and a Ghost - The Sequel

A Lizard Endorses Two Men and a Ghost

The year so far... (by Andrew Wooding)

Being April Fools’ Day, it’s probably appropriate to take a quick look back at the year so far for two fools in Sheffield (three if you count the ghost).

2010 started out rather encouragingly, with what you might call a media frenzy. Our friend Martin Dawes of The Star gave us another nice write-up, which you can see here. He says: ‘So far, despite their best efforts, the duo have been spook-free. But that doesn't stop them trying.’

We also did an extensive interview on The Paul and Spike Show, but unfortunately a gremlin (or was it a ghost?) crept into the Skype line, rendering the entire interview unusable. The proof of the pudding can be found in the short extract 24½ minutes into the finished podcast (which can be found here), in which Mike and I sound like we’re gabbling in tongues or channelling the spirit of the late lamented Pingu.

As for the rest of the media frenzy, well … er … that’s it.

But to compensate, we’ve started bunging stuff up on YouTube. (Check us out on The 2MG's Channel.) There’s our two-part visit to Sheffield General Cemetery, including reader feedback and an exploration of Egyptian mythology. The visit seemed like a good idea at the time, except Sheffield General Cemetery turned out to be the muddiest place in Sheffield that evening, and it was so dark that you couldn’t see any of the background in the finished videos, just our noses as we shone torches at each other. Actually, big secret now: we shot the whole thing in the broom cupboard at 2MG Mansions. (And if you believe that...)

There’s also our three-part video set in the basement (or ‘the stacks’) of Sheffield Central Library. Watch Mike explain the music hall background of the library’s location on Surrey Street; see us get distracted by various titles on the shelves, including an exhaustive book on tripe; and look out for various ghosts hovering in the background of the video (or are they just random librarians trundling along with trolleys of books?).

That’s it so far. So what about the remaining three-quarters of the year? Rest assured, there’s lots of good stuff to look forward to, and we might even finally spot a ghost.

In the immediate future, there’s more YouTube videos in the pipeline, the start of a regular lively podcast with a brilliant spooky theme tune, more ‘Real or Surreal?’ features from Mike, and my spine-tingling account of our recent nocturnal excursion to Hagg Hill in Sheffield. There we found our new nemesis. Move aside, Mad Monk of Stockbridge. Our latest foe is…

Ah, but that would be telling.

2MG Ghost Hunt - Sheffield Central Library (3 of 3)

2MG Ghost Hunt - Sheffield Central Library (2 of 3)

2MG Ghost Hunt - Sheffield Central Library (1 of 3)

2MG Ghost Hunt - Sheffield General Cemetery (2 of 2)

2MG Ghost Hunt - Sheffield General Cemetery (1 of 2)

Sheffield Ghost Hunt 6

I Tube, YouTube, We All Tube... (by Andrew Wooding)

You may have noticed that in the last few weeks 2MG has branched out into video production (if you can call it that). Shot over the Christmas period on his iPod nano, every expense was spared as Mike risked being arrested for late-night heavy breathing in a certain Sheffield graveyard. The fruits of his creative endeavours can be seen in our five ‘Sheffield Ghost Hunt’ videos here, lovingly presented in their raw, non-edited state for your perusal.

So far it seems that lots of people have been perusing them. So, encouraged by our initial success, we will soon be uploading our sixth ambitious production, called The Rear Itch Project. Can you guess which well-known movie we’ll be spoofing? With a title like that, I dread to think how Mike aims to film it with his iPod nano…

As I uploaded our first forays into viral video promotion, I couldn’t help but become aware of the dozens, nay hundreds, nay thousands of similar such videos scattered throughout YouTube. Intrigued, I decided to check some of them out so that you don’t have to.

Remembering our many attempts to seek out the mad monk on the Stocksbridge bypass, typing the words ‘Stocksbridge’ and ‘ghost’ into YouTube’s search engine yielded a number of results. Some of the more notable ones are here:

stocksbridge ghost OMFG! - This video is disturbing, for all the wrong reasons. A million times worse than fingernails down a blackboard, there is nothing more irritating than shrieky, giggling teenage girls who’ve overindulged in shandy.

Not sure what OMFG stands for (Oh My, Freaky Ghost?), but YouTube viewers seem to be convinced that the indeterminate smudge in a tiny portion of the screen, 41 seconds in, is conclusive proof that paranormal activity is real. Myself, I’m not so sure.

Research also reveals that this is a tunnel in York and nothing to do with the bypass outside Sheffield after all. Ah well…

Ghosts of Stocksbridge - Haunted Road, Parts 1 and 2 – Now, this is more like it. A quality 20-minute video, well put together, with down-to-earth convincing interviews and little in the way of sensationalism.

The video reveals that the bypass was opened in 1989 in the vicinity of a Cistercian monk who broke his vows and was buried in unconsecrated ground. Some eyewitness accounts say that the monk was sighted either hovering or walking below ground – could they have been peering back through time when the ground was at a different level?

There is also talk of the bypass being criss-crossed with pylons and substations. Could the electrical and magnetic fields be influencing people’s frontal lobe experiences?

The only thing that bothers me is that just about the entire population of Sheffield seems to have been interviewed in this video. How come me and Mike are the only people in the area who’ve never actually seen the mad monk? Do you think he’s got something against us?

Stocksbridge Bypass Ghosts, Parts 1 and 2 – This excerpt from ITV’s Strange But True? is presented by Mr ‘Ask Aspel’ himself, the legendary Michael Aspel. Only, instead of presenting viewers’ requests for favourite clips from The Goodies and Bagpuss, he introduces the world’s most popular ghost accounts.

In this clip, he gives us the same story as the Haunted Road video above, with some of the same interviewees. Yes, it covers old ground, and I wouldn’t even be recommending it, if it wasn’t for its one unique endearing feature: reconstructions!

Yes, each interview is accompanied by a ‘Strange But True?’ reconstruction of the sighting in question, by rejects from Equity who look nothing like the interviewees they are supposed to resemble.

Of special note are the security guards in Part 1 who specialise in gibbering horror (they prepared for their roles by watching the annoying girls in the ‘OMFG!’ video above). They deliver the immortal lines ‘It’s disappeared into thin air!’ and ‘Let’s get out of here!’ with as much conviction and sincerity as Olivier’s star turn in the definitive film version of Shakespeare’s Richard III.

STOCKSBRIDGE BYPASS MONK – More annoying teenagers, this time of the male variety. It is obvious that they have partaken of one too many rootbeers as they zig-zag across the late-night bypass in their car. Blurry mobile phone footage shows a monk at the side of the road, accompanied by an (EXPLETIVE DELETED) that is as convincing in its delivery as the security guards in the video above.

One of the comments left beneath the video is from yellowsub1966: ‘Lauged my bollocks off at their attempts to feign surprise.’

I’m slightly disturbed by this comment. I am not entirely sure what the obscure word ‘lauged’ means. Could it be youthspeak for gouging? Did he really gouge off his genitals? If so, this is eerily appropriate as the mad monk would have taken a vow of celibacy. Maybe encounters with the ghost of Stocksbridge bypass lead to random acts of self-mutilation?

Beware: The video concludes with the words ‘Go down baby. Go down baby. Go down baby.’ Maybe it’s the monk himself, speaking through their radio and condemning them to everlasting torment in the underworld below (in other words, hell). Maybe the monk can reach out through our tellies, radios and computer screens? Hmm.

I will conclude this initial trawl through the neverending delights of YouTube by pointing you to my favourite video of the lot. In fact, you could say it's special. Widening my search to ‘Sheffield’ and ‘ghost’ brought me to this 5-minute classic. Enjoy!

Sheffield Ghost Hunt 5