Comedy duo stay the night at haunted Welsh castle in new BBC show

Emily Price

Comedy sibling duo Daisy May and Charlie Cooper stay the night at a haunted Welsh castle in their new paranormal BBC show ‘Night Watch’.

The new docuseries sees the creators and stars of hit mockumentary ‘This Country’ reunite to search for ghosts at some of the UK’s most terrifying locations.

Carew Castle in Pembrokeshire features as one of the programme’s six haunted sites visited by the the Bafta winning pair.

Several ghosts are thought to haunt Carew Castle including a Celtic warrior, a kitchen boy and a white lady.

The crumbling castle ruin is also said to be home to the ghost of the Barbary ape – a primate apparition that wanders the site on dark, stormy nights.

Ape spirit

During the show, the Cooper’s camp in front of an old fireplace on the floor of the castle’s lesser hall – one of the few rooms in the building that still has a roof.

The hall is said to be site of a murder that took place in the 1500s around the time Privy Councillor Sir Rhys ap Thomas lived there.

After sharing stories of their childhood growing up in Cirencester around a crackling fire, the siblings take a walk around the castle’s ruins – armed with a bunch of bananas to tempt the spirit of the Barbary ape.

The story goes that one of the castle’s tenants, Sir Roland Rhys, brought an injured ape he had rescued from a shipwreck to the castle in the 17th century.

He trained the animal to respond to his every wish with a series of whistles.

One stormy night, Sir Roland released the ape from its chains and ordered it to kill the father of a young woman who had run off with his son.

The injured merchant later cursed Sir Roland with an evil fate.

The next day, he was found dead in a pool of blood – and his beloved ape was no where to be found.

White lady

Legend has it that the ghost of the primate returns to the castle on dark, stormy nights where he has been seen running along the battlements by visitors.

The castle is also said to be haunted by the spirit of a white lady, described as the most beautiful woman in Wales, who lived at the castle 900 years ago.

The Cooper’s ensured their visit to Carew coincided with a glowing full moon because Princess Nest is rumoured to walk the ruins in daylight or in the light of the full moon.

Although the pair didn’t see the apparition of the white lady, they did hear the sound of a ghostly hunting horn whilst camping in the lesser hall.

Daisy May Cooper described the historic Welsh castle as one of the most terrifying locations she had visited with her brother.

The ‘This Country’ stars have long been fascinated with the paranormal and supernatural.

Daisy May explained to the BBC: “We’ve just not had the time to spend together since doing ‘This Country’.

“We’ve both had kids since and we just don’t get to do creative things or spend time with each other without the family around.

“So this idea came from both of those things really.”

Spooked

Charlie added: “I personally haven’t had any encounters with the paranormal, but that’s the reason why I wanted to do the show so much, because I would really love to have an experience.

“Having said that, it surprised me how spooked I got when we were filming, so I might have to rethink that.

“But our grandad saw a ghost years ago and I remember vividly him telling us what happened and the way he described it was so captivating.

“It had me hooked on the paranormal ever since.”

Other locations visited by the siblings for Night Watch include a haunted bothy in Scotland, the city of ghosts in York, Chillingham Castle in Northumberland, the Four Crosses Inn in Staffordshire and Gloucester Prison.

The new ghost haunting docuseries comes following Charlie Cooper’s ‘Myth Country’ – an exploration of Britain’s weird and wonderful folklore.

The BBC show sees Charlie investigate several myths and legends, including crop circles, King Arthur and the Black Shuck – a demonic dog that was said to prowl Norfolk and Suffolk in the 16th Century.

Night Watch is available to watch on BBC iPlayer and BBC 2 from 26 October.