Yvette Fielding (born 23 September 1968) is an English broadcaster, producer and actress. She is best known for being the presenter of the TV shows Blue Peter, Most Haunted, Most Haunted Live!, and Ghosthunting With….
Early life and career
Fielding was born in Manchester and grew up in Stockport where she attended Pownall Green Primary School and Bramhall High School. She also attended Hillcrest Grammar School, Davenport and Dane Bank College in Crewe (studying drama). Fielding’s first major role came in 1983 when she was cast in the children’s BBC series Seaview. The comedy-drama show centred around a teenage girl called Sandy Shelton (played by Fielding), growing up living at her parents’ guest house in Blackpool. The show ran for two series and secured Fielding’s popularity with younger audiences. After this, Fielding made a guest appearance in an episode of Juliet Bravo.
Presenting the paranormal
In 2002, Yvette Fielding and her husband Karl Beattie established their own television production company, Antix Productions. Their first production was Most Haunted for the British TV channel Living. In the show, viewers can see Fielding and paranormal experts investigating various supposedly haunted locations around Britain, in the hopes that paranormal activity may be documented by the crew. Most Haunted proved popular with audiences and remains to this day one of Living’s highest-rated original shows. Leading on from this, in 2006 Fielding presented and produced Ghosthunting With…, a paranormal show for ITV2 which shows Fielding leading various celebrities around haunted locations. These two shows established Yvette Fielding as British televisions ‘first lady’ of the paranormal, and somewhat of a cult figure.
Fielding has made many appearances and interviews in the British media in connection with her paranormal investigations and programmes, including guest appearances on The Sunday Night Project (Channel 4), The Chris Moyles Show (BBC Radio 1) and Friday Night with Jonathan Ross (BBC One). Furthering her paranormal franchise, in 2008 Fielding made her first move into radio broadcasting, hosting Yvette Fielding’s Fright Nights on Kerrang! Radio. Fielding left the radio station a few months later however, due to other work commitments. In 2008 Fielding and Beattie formed a new company called Monster Pictures to operate the Paranormal Channel. Fielding acted as anchor to the channel and presented original programming on the station. The channel was subsequently renamed the Unexplained Channel in 2009. In October 2009 Living aired a two-part documentary featuring Fielding with Paul O’Grady entitled Death in Venice. The documentary saw the pair investigating claims of ghost and vampire sightings in Poveglia, Italy.
Fielding announced on 25 June 2010, via the Antix Productions website, that she was to step down as presenter of Most Haunted. In subsequent interviews, Fielding also indicated that she would finish presenting Ghosthunting with.. and all other paranormal-based broadcasts in 2010. However, seemingly contradicting this, in In May 2011, Fielding appeared in an episode of the UK version of the Celebrity Ghost Stories series for the bio channel, with the entire UK series of Celebrity Ghost Stories being produced by Fielding’s Antix Productions company. Then in September 2011 Fielding presented another episode of Ghosthunting with… featuring the cast of The Only Way Is Essex. In April 2012 Yvette Fielding appeared in an episode of Olly: Life on Murs, in which she and Olly Murs visited a haunted house. In October 2012 Fielding appeared on BBC Radio 2 and The Alan Titchmarsh Show on ITV1 talking about the paranormal and her ghost hunting career. In these interviews Fielding stated that she will return to Most Haunted in 2013. In 2014 Fielding once again returned to hosting Most Haunted, when a new series was produced for the Freeview channel, Really.
