If only everything in the strange world of parapsychology was as simple as it looks on television. In the BBC series Sea of Souls a group of psychic investigators at a fictional Glasgow University investigates supernatural phenomena. These paranormal Inspector Morses are a mixed bunch: an eager know-it-all; a brilliant student returning to teach at his alma mater; a woman whose superior interpersonal skills allow her to elicit information denied to her laddish colleagues. Presiding over the department is Dr Douglas Monaghan, a father-confessor figure played by the charismatically crumpled Bill Paterson.
The members of Monaghan’s department usually solve two mysteries during each two-hour story but spend little time writing papers or attending meetings. Seldom has academic life looked so inviting. Not surprisingly, the staff of Edinburgh University’s Koestler Parapsychology Unit, on which Sea of Souls is loosely based, roll their eyes when the programme is mentioned. They realise their field attracts interest from lay people in the way that more traditional disciplines cannot hope to. But it irks them to be misrepresented as ghostbusting fruitcakes. Part of the university’s psychology department, the unit is located in sparse rooms in a labyrinthine building in George Square. Like their fictional Glaswegian counterparts, the unit’s staff are a mixed bunch.
