Derek Acorah

Derek Acorah
Derek Acorah doing a photoshoot in 2013
Born	Derek Francis Johnson (1950-01-27) 27 January 1950 (age 67) Bootle, England, U.K.
Occupation	spiritual medium, author, TV celebrity
Known for	Most Haunted, Derek Acorah's Ghost Towns, Granada Breeze, Antiques Ghost Show
Spouse(s)	Gwen Acorah (1995 - Present)
Children	2

Derek Acorah (born Derek Francis Johnson on 27 January 1950) describes himself as a spiritual medium. He is best known for his television work on Most Haunted, broadcast on Living TV (2002–2010). He has received a lot of criticism casting doubts over his legitimacy as a medium.

Acorah's first appearance was on the satellite TV channel Granada Breeze in 1996. During his five years with the channel, he began with Livetime before later appearing weekly on Psychic Livetime. He also appeared on Predictions which started out as a showcase for various studio guests but later became a vehicle for Acorah alone and renamed Predictions with Derek Acorah.

In July 2001, Acorah joined a new British television programme called Haunting Truths. It was subsequently sold to Living and renamed Most Haunted. He worked on the show for six series.

In 2002 Acorah featured in a the television series Antiques Ghost Show and in 2004 Acorah was presented with the Variety Club of Great Britain's Multichannel TV Personality of the Year Award, as chosen by its members.

Yvette Fielding, the show's presenter and executive producer, initially stated "There is no acting on this programme, none whatsoever. Everything you see and you hear is real. It's not made up, it's not acted." Significant media attention was directed at Acorah in 2005, as he claimed to channel spirits with names allegedly suggested to him in advance, such as "Rick Eedles" and "Kreed Kafer", anagrams of "Derek Lies" and "Derek Faker" respectively.

After his 2005 departure from Most Haunted Acorah filmed a one-off special for LivingTV, Derek Acorah's Quest for Guy Fawkes followed by Derek Acorah's Ghost Towns with Ruggie Media. This programme ran for three series. In 2008, Acorah took part in two series for Sky Real Lives titled Derek Acorah. In November 2009 Acorah featured in Michael Jackson: The Search for His Spirit, in which he was shown attempting to contact the singer's spirit: the programme was named the worst TV programme of 2009 in a poll of more than 9,000 Yahoo! users.