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The Human Touch Blog ~
David Farrant

From James Whale to L.A.

Hello everyone, Well its all been very hectic here recently, with everything seemingly happening at once. But as it is a nice sunny day here in Muswell Hill and I finally have five minutes to sit down at the computer, I thought I should let you all know that I am still out here, and write a Blog!

Firstly, an unexpected CD arrived in the post recently, with the suggestion that its contents should be posted online for posterity. It was an interview which I gave for The James Whale Radio Show in 2001 which I had completely forgotten about, concerning, perhaps not unsurprisingly, the Highgate ‘vampire’. The program starts off a little comically, when James makes a couple of remarks to his technician about the spooky music interrupting his introduction. It was all in good fun, and I thought at the time if he was planning to bring a little humour into the case; well, that suited me fine. As many people will know, the Highgate ‘vampire’ scenario invokes a lot of humour.

After all, who in their right mind really can be expected to blindly accept ridiculous claims from certain people who assert they have actually discovered a real-life vampire at Highgate Cemetery and staked it through its devilish heart, whereupon it let out a diabolical roar (quote: “as if from the bowels of hell”) and then promptly turned to slime and viscera in the bottom of its coffin? And their further claims that they set the whole caboodle alight (coffin and all). No, nobody – including the somewhat sarcastic James Whale – could really be expected to take that seriously.

So I was quite prepared for a bit of fun, but when he eventually got going, Whale seemed unusually interested in what I had to say. His interview was laced with his usual sarcasm as is his style, however in this case I feel that it was fully justified.

But that was not the reason for my agreeing to go on his show – I could safely leave that to other people to ‘try their luck’ with him (that is James) if they dared!

I was determined though to counteract the ridiculous claims of some people who had ‘cashed in’ on that case (mainly motivated by publicity and a desire to promote their writings). My only concern really was to clarify that Highgate Cemetery’s longstanding ‘ghost’ – or ‘ghosts’ – were established as being a veritable reality. Stories were pouring in at an alarming rate at the time from dozens of people who had had some first-hand experience with this phenomenon. So in this respect, Whale was quite fair to myself and I received an impression that he was actually listening to what I had to say. Miracles never cease!

You can listen to the broadcast here:

In other news, I had a visit recently from a Los Angeles based TV production company, who have been over in the UK filming for an established cable travel series which focusses on the unusual and macabre. Naturally they did not want to miss meeting with myself, as they intended to include, wait for it! The Highgate ‘vampire’. They visited me one day a couple of weeks back, and filmed this ‘infamous house’ on their way in up to see me. I think that my modest dwelling somewhat surprised them. They wanted to see the other two rooms in my flat, and one of them (the presenter) even followed me into the kitchen when I later went to make them cups of coffee. “I’ll come and give you a hand,” he said, and I couldn’t really refuse; whether he was expecting to find vials of blood in the fridge I’m not sure, but all he found was milk! “My milkman doesn’t have that kind of thing on his float!” I told him, and we laughed. I believe they also interviewed Arthur Pendragon (Rex) about Druidry in the UK and some other prominent people in the Pagan community, so there should be something in there for everyone. Anyway, the broadcast should go out around Hallowe’en, and I’ll keep you all up to date with its release as I’m sure that many of my ‘fans’ out there will be dying to see it (please excuse the pun!).

One other thing – and quite a big thing – as some of you may have seen, film maker Max Sycamore recently granted me permission to upload to YouTube the virtually uncut interview with myself which formed the basis of the biopic “Tulpa”. “Tulpa” was released last year on Youtube by The Sycamore Brothers in serialised parts, but for anyone who would like to watch Max’s interview with myself you can do so below.

Well that’s it for now folks, but I promise you another Blog with some more news in the next couple of days.

For now,
David

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IN LOVING MEMORY OF DAVID FARRANT

1946 - 2019

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