‘Death? I can’t wait for the adventure!’ Most Haunted’s Yvette Fielding on ghosts, sceptics and the afterlife

The First Lady of the Paranormal, also known as the Queen of the Night, is waiting for me at Crewe railway station in a bright red vintage Mini. I just about fold myself into the front seat. She cackles, performs a miraculous U-turn and puts her foot to the floor. She talks as she drives, 19 to the dozen: the car is from 1969, when the Beatles were still together. She loves the Beatles – and the Mini. Sometimes, she’ll just beep the horn at someone, for a laugh, like this, beep beep, ay oop … A man walking on the pavement looks startled, then waves back.

“Hold on to your hat – we’re going to break through,” she says, turning right off the main road in front of a lorry. Perfectly safely, to be fair – I just feel quite small and vulnerable.

Now, we’re out of the town and into the Cheshire countryside. Up there is the Old Hall, Sandbach. It’s haunted. She spent the night there once; there were footsteps walking around the bed. And this place we’re passing used to be a care home. They investigated it once on Most Haunted; a see-through old man walked right past the film crew. No, they didn’t manage to film it, unfortunately. (Spoiler alert: they never do.)

Here we are then: home. The gates swing open magically. Home is an old