Do you believe in ghosts?

Disclaimer: My American/Canadian/International friends, I apologise in advance for tempting you with a British TV/radio programme that you probably won't be able to watch/listen to. It could be that there is some way that you can access this. Perhaps the BBC will allow Netflix to have the TV rights like they did "Happy Valley". If you do get a chance to watch it, do. You won't be disappointed.

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Please listen to the theme tune especially composed for the programme as you read this for ambience, I beg of you!

I don't know if I believe in ghosts. I've never seen one but I wouldn't rule it out. That's the camp I'm in. I know of people who swear they have and who am I to contest their accounts?

For instance, Joyce of Brian and Joyce, a couple who came to stay at our farm when it was a bed and breakfast and became good, longstanding friends of the family. Joyce, I remember, being a very grounded, chatty woman, always with a smile. She was never melancholic or prone to introspection. She was garrulous and friendly and no-nonsense. I would have no reason to think that she would make something up for the sake of it, you know, for attention or for her titillation, like a prank.

It was Joyce who saw the Grey Lady, the ghost that reportedly "hung out" on one of the roads out of the village next to where I lived, close to an abandoned farmhouse, ruined and collapsing at the side of the road. The Grey Lady was linked to that building although I can't remember the particulars today. Probably some tragic end or mystery, I expect.

The house is there to this day although it's hard to gauge it from the road anymore, like it's hiding from you but as I sit and write, I can picture it in my mind's eye as an empty-eyed shell, begging to be visited but emitting an aura that says "Stay away". I expect this is true of haunted houses everywhere. My school friends used to dare each other to go there and I would have loved to have joined them on one of their expeditions...

I say that but I know I'd have chickened out.

Back to Joyce.

Joyce's account was simple: she was coming back in the car with Brian from a meal out at a local pub when they went past the aforementioned abandoned farmhouse, which happens to be on a 90 degree bend. They slowed down to take the corner and as the road straightened out, an apparition crossed in front of them. Joyce said it was pale white, floating above the road from right to left and she said to Brian, "What's that?" To which, Brian replied "What?" as he saw nothing.

She knew nothing about the story of the Grey Lady prior to this encounter.

Spooky, eh?

And so to Uncanny.

This is a TV programme adapted from what was a radio programme which is currently being broadcast on BBC Two every Friday night.

There's not much on TV that excites me, that leaves me eager for the next episode. As this is a BBC production, there's no streaming of it prior to it being shown live, as it were, so you have to wait. The sense of anticipation that I have for this week's episode has kept me sustained through a long week at work, I can tell you. It's a great programme.

The premise of the show is Danny Robins, the host, leads a team who investigate paranormal phenomena, usually spooky goings-on. He leads you through the evidence of first-hand accounts from credible, ordinary folk and then refers these testimonies to two experts, one who is a skeptic and one who is a believer. They have a healthy discussion about what has been presented and then Danny takes their suggestions, usually of those of the skeptic, of what it could be and tries to see if their suggestions shed any light on the improbable apparitions and the things that go bump in the night and the cold areas of the room that never heat up, no matter how high the temperature.

It is not sensationalist. It is a frank examination of a series of events as people have seen or experienced them with a view to seeing if a rational explanation can be provided.

I love it.

Danny Robins is an excellent host. He has a mischievous slightly impish demeanour which is also very engaging and he is quite obviously intelligent. He feels like a safe pair of hands to guide us into this world of the supernatural and his enthusiasm for it is palpable throughout, shared through wit and humour.

The show is not really about finding out whether it's all real or not, whether ghosts exist. It's about looking at the evidence and taking what we learn and swirling it around in your brain to try and make sense of it. In a world where science can explain most things, strange phenomena continue to draw us curious humans in: encounters like little boys staring at you from the corner of the room in old-fashioned clothing, and doors slamming at the bottom of the stairs where no door exists, or hooded figures looming malevolently over banister rails in the dead of night, even though you know it's only you and your family present. These are things that cannot be rationally explained.

So are there ghosts?

The answer is I don't know but Uncanny presents compelling evidence to say that there might be and I'm being entertained weekly by trying to find out.

The last episode I watched was the best ever. It was about a farm lived in by the same family. The programme evolved to show that three generations had experienced strange things but had not shared them with each other. There was no colluding here.

As the show progressed, the history of the place was explored and it was in the discovery of who the family had rented the farm from and what had happened there, that light fell on what could have caused the strange occurrences.

This was one of the most sinister episodes ever in terms of what it presented and left me feeling quite cold at the end of it, suitably spooked out.

I know. I've left you with nothing. See if you can watch it. I don't want to spoil it for you. Google it if you can't wait.

And with that, I need to go as episode two of this series beckons and I've waited long enough. If you don't hear from me in the next couple of days, it's because I've been suitably spooked out and am grounding myself in the everyday and mundane.