An expert in psychic photography from York was today set to appear on a Channel Four programme exploring the arcane world of ghostly pictures.

Local historian Gerald O'Hara, of Nunnery Lane, has researched the subject of psychic photography for many years, and is the keeper of an album of 98 pictures, all showing ghostly apparitions, taken in York between 1930 and 1932.

The photographs were all taken at the Spen Lane Spiritualist Church, which has since been converted into flats, and most of the "ghosts" have been identified over the years as people who before their deaths were known to the photographer.

Gerald is currently secretary of the York Spiritualist Centre on Wilton Rise, which formerly held three such albums. The other two have gone missing.

The photographer was William 'Billy' Hope of Crewe, a professional medium, who travelled the country taking similar photographs between 1905 and 1933.

Gerald has written the stories of the people in the photographs and is hoping to publish the resulting book, which he calls Dead Men's Embers.

He was today appearing on Channel Four's afternoon show, Revealing Secrets, to talk about his work, and in particular the photograph shown here, taken by Mr Hope in 1920.

Updated: 11:56 Tuesday, April 17, 2001