I don’t believe in ghosts, ghouls, goblins or other grotesque things beginning with ‘G’.

To me, the world is a rational place for rational people; there are no monsters here.

Yet despite that, seven years ago today, one TV show pulled off a hoax so convincing that for the briefest moment I reconsidered my lifelong scepticism.

The show in question? Well, it’s none other than the devilishly delightful Inside No. 9, of course.

Specifically, the Halloween special, Dead Line.

Written by the series creators Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith, what was expected to be a one-off live special turned out to be one of the greatest pranks in TV history. You see, for weeks, Steve and Reece had been promoting the show as a story about a man who finds a ghostly mobile phone in a cemetery, and spook

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