ASH = Tony

FB = Fern Britton

PS = Philip Schofield

FB : As Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s trusty sidekick, Giles, actor Anthony Head faced the forces of evil on a weekly basis. Take this for example

BUFFY CLIP (Grave)

FB: Wow

PS: We had knife throwing on this programme and it ended up in a similar fashion. Welcome.

ASH: That was cool

FB: Can you do that?

ASH: (demonstrating "spell casting"!) Just like that.

PS: Would you make the Tommy Cooper noise as well?

ASH: Oh yes (impersonating Tommy Cooper) just like that.

PS: So going from the Watcher in Buffy now to seriously analysing various stories from around the world that appear to have truly happened…this is factual.

ASH: This is factual, true. It’s not a long leap to basically wonder why they asked me to present this series, but they basically came to me and said would I present a series about…it’s just exploring the myths and truths behind the Hollywood legends of vampires and demons and witches and werewolves.

PS: It’s on the Discovery channel, starts tonight five parts at 10pm and the first one is Vampires.

ASH: And we went to Romania and T and we investigated…it basically it goes back in history but also deals with stuff that’s current and present and it’s actually really scary how much is out there and what people do because of their beliefs, in pursuit of their various beliefs. The clip you will probably see from this is I think about something that happened about a year ago and a family disinterred their grandfather and ripped out his heart because apparently he was a vampire. What’s scary about it is basically it’s a common practice…

FB: Let’s have a look

CLIP OF TRUE HORROR

FB: That was an actual news report.

ASH: Yes but what’s scary is that the daughter who bought this to the Police’s attention, I said how did it come to anybody’s attention, was the body laid around or something? They said no, no, it was because the family had got a little bit overzealous and taken out a few more organs than the heart and smeared them about a bit, at which point she felt they’d overstepped the line of the normal ritual…

FB: Fair enough! So the normal ritual was just to dig up granddad, cut his heart out and burn him…

PS: So do you have any explanation at all?

ASH: Why they do this? Because they believe in it strongly enough and its…

PS: But do you believe in vampires?

ASH: Do I believe in vampires? Yes, of course I do.

FB: He was saying there that the body was found with his arms by his side and blood around his lips. Now you went and did some research in a morgue…

ASH: Yes

FB: With a man who can explain that this can happen after death.

ASH: Yes and it was a singularly unpleasant experience but yes he took me through the various stages of decomposition and there are things that happen to the body after death, for instance, the skin shrinks so one of the things that they say that the teeth grow, well basically the gums shrink and also the fingernails grow and the beard. All that is due to the skin shrinking. Also there are bodily fluids sorry this is kind of …it’s lunchtime isn’t it?

FB: It’s fascinating.

ASH: There are things that start to come out of the body after death which could be mistaken for blood. And that was an experience that will last with me forever, going into the morgue.

PS: Well you’re going to stick with us and we’ll come back with you after the news to do demons and werewolves so if that hasn’t put you off your lunch….

NEWS BREAK

FB: Before the news, Anthony Head was in search of vampires and werewolves and demons in a new programme called True Horror, 10 o’clock on the Discovery Channel tonight. Now you talked about the vampires, now what about werewolves because there is a real history of werewolf belief - how do you become a werewolf?

ASH: Well basically our programme…it’s difficult because some of the subjects are so wide you don’t know quite what part do you investigate and what part do you leave alone. But obviously there are physical things which happen…I meant there’s tri…I can’t remember what it’s called…trichinosis, I think it is, basically it’s a condition where the body is excessively hairy but also there are mental conditions that can lead to people believing they are wolves. But we investigate two murder cases that basically they put it down to the fact they were werewolves.

FB: Can’t find any other explanation - must be a werewolf.

ASH: You know, full moon and all that.

PS: But in ancient times it was said that if you ate human flesh you were a werewolf for nine years.

ASH: Yes and if you were able to steer away from it…this was Greek because the werewolf tradition goes way back and we trace it back to Greece. Yes very true, they basically used to have rituals and if you were able to abstain from human flesh for nine years you went back to being human.

PS: Well let’s have a look at another clip - this is a reconstruction of a story in France.

CLIP OF TRUE HORROR

FB: Now that was only 100 years ago and I notice he didn’t get hairy he just put on a wolfskin cloak, but you have met someone in the current day who said he was a werewolf.

ASH: It didn’t actually get into the programme but yes he was a sweet man who basically told the story of how he’d turned into a werewolf at one point…

FB: Oh only once? What did he do?

ASH: Well, his friends all refused, I mean he had about five of his friends around at the time and they basically eventually one of them said oh alright it was like American Werewolf in London but it was basically…

FB: You never know if they’re having a laugh, do you?

ASH: Well no…he was a very amusing chap but he wasn’t laughing when he said it (giggles)

PS: Have there been moments when you have truly spooked yourself?

ASH: Oh yeah, there have been some…this has been an extraordinary journey. The whole idea of this series has…actually I thought when they approached me and they said would I like to do it, I though I was going to do one of those Leonard Nimoy things where you’re in a studio and you top and tail it, but the fact that I’ve been all over the world in pursuit of these various stories and it’s become compelling. I mean they asked me to interview people, I said come on I’m an actor I don’t interview people, I’ll be rubbish but actually it’s been fascinating…I don’t know whether I am rubbish but it seems to work. But I mean some of the stories are so compelling I mean we went to Haiti recently in pursuit of Zombies which was really, really scary in places…

FB: Did you see any?

ASH: No but somebody offered for $2000 offered to take us to a cemetery where they would exhume somebody and we could have half an hour interview with them and I mean, you know…

PS: And you didn’t pay him? Didn’t go for it?

ASH: No, she was…

PS: You should have given me a call, I would have been out front with the cash on that one…I’d have been straight there. I mean we’ve had a few on here who’ve been a bit….

ASH: To be honest, you don’t really know what people are going to give you out there and basically they…it’s not all oh give me your money and I’ll do a deal with you. There were some scary things happening out there.

PS: So you’ve got other things lined up that you can do if this is successful you can do…

ASH: I don’t know

PS: Are there other areas that you’re interested in?

ASH: I don’t know basically I’ve been thankfully very busy as well and one of things they said was that they’d fit in with schedules and things so I’ve just finished a movie and there was Monarch of the Glen and Little Britain and a lot of things whilst we’ve been filming this…

PS: Funny you should mention Little Britain because that’s our next clip.

LITTLE BRITAIN CLIP

PS: Where of course you are the Prime Minister

ASH: I am the Prime Minister…it’s me and Gordon we’re you know. It’s been an incredible few months because interspersing normal filming with this stuff going off and being thrown into the most extraordinary situations that as an actor you know your whole thing is about experiencing new things and finding out new things and this has been the most extraordinary journey and the whole premise is that it’s about MY discovery, my journey of finding out what lies behind these myths and the truth is so much scarier than Hollywood’s idea.

PS: Well we are so into this I can’t tell you so we’re looking forward to True Horror, Discovery Channel, five part series, vampires first. Anthony, thank you.