---
name: "Guy Lyon Playfair"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/guy-lyon-playfair"
fi1m_id: "guy-lyon-playfair"
tmdb_id: 4354918
roles: ["Writer"]
born: "5 April 1935"
died: "8 April 2018"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 1
average_as: "writer"
average_over: 1
updated: "2026-10-07T17:30:27.051123+00:00"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Guy Lyon Playfair

## Identity

Guy Lyon Playfair

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/guy-lyon-playfair
- **Type:** Person
- **Fi1m ID:** guy-lyon-playfair
- **TMDB ID:** 4354918
- **Same entity:** https://www.themoviedb.org/person/4354918

Writer. Born 5 April 1935 in Quetta, British India. Died 8 April 2018.

## Details

- **Work:** Writer
- **Born:** 5 April 1935, Quetta, British India
- **Died:** 8 April 2018
- **Elsewhere:** https://www.themoviedb.org/person/4354918

## Streaming the US now

- **Amazon Prime Video:** [*The Enfield Haunting*](https://film.one/tv/the-enfield-haunting.md) (77)

For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country.

## Fi1m on Guy Lyon Playfair

> Guy Lyon Playfair brought patient investigation to Enfield and consulted on its television dramatisation. We recommend *The Enfield Haunting* for its credible family distress, with reservations about the storytelling and rather greater caution about his supernatural explanations.

In *The Enfield Haunting* (2015), ordinary family distress is often more troubling than the promise of another scare. We were unsettled by Eleanor Worthington-Cox’s Janet because she remains a credible child within a recognisable household. The series is worth watching for that human scale, though its wandering story and over-insistent payoff stop us recommending it without a caveat.

Playfair’s contribution needs to be distinguished from the dramatisation’s writing. He investigated the Enfield case with Maurice Grosse in 1977–78 and published *This House is Haunted* (1980), the principal first-hand account. He later consulted on the series; Joshua St. Johnston wrote it. Playfair’s working materials were recordings, transcripts and contemporaneous notes, which offer plenty for a dramatist to draw upon without settling what those materials prove.

His writing moved from Brazilian psychical phenomena in *The Flying Cow* (1975), through Enfield, to telepathy between twins in *Twin Telepathy: The Psychic Connection* (2002). In his poltergeist research, he considered whether physical disturbances might originate with spirits or an unknown force associated with living people. He acknowledged some trickery by children, while arguing that it explained only a small proportion of events. We value the patience of his investigations, but extensive documentation cannot by itself resolve doubts about how the events were interpreted.

On screen, St. Johnston is strongest when the family’s distress is allowed to matter without preparing us for the next shock. Matthew Macfadyen plays Playfair, alongside Timothy Spall’s Grosse, and both help keep the drama at a credible human scale. Rosie Cavaliero’s Mrs. Hodgson is equally important to that effect. The series falters when it wanders and presses too hard for a payoff; the performances have already given us sufficient reason to care.

Playfair later disputed the dramatisation’s accuracy, despite having consulted on it. That is a substantial caveat for anyone hoping to encounter his research through the programme, and a reason to keep our judgement of the television separate from our judgement of his claims. Watch *The Enfield Haunting* for the family and the performances, rather than as a substitute for examining the case.

## Biography

Guy Lyon Playfair was a British writer and investigator of paranormal phenomena. Born in Quetta, British India, in 1935, he studied modern languages at Cambridge University and worked as a journalist, including a period in Brazil. He joined the Society for Psychical Research in 1973 and was later elected to its council.

Playfair is best known for his investigation, with Maurice Grosse, of the Enfield poltergeist case in 1977–78. He documented the events in his book *This House is Haunted* (1980). He served as a consultant for the 2015 Sky Living miniseries *The Enfield Haunting*. Playfair wrote numerous other books on parapsychology and related subjects before his death in 2018.

*Sources: telegraph.co.uk, psi-encyclopedia.spr.ac.uk.*

## On Fi1m (1)

- *The Enfield Haunting* (2015), Fi1m 77, Creator — [page](https://film.one/tv/the-enfield-haunting.md)

## Complete filmography (1)

Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page.

- *The Enfield Haunting* (2015), series, Creator — Fi1m 77, [page](https://film.one/tv/the-enfield-haunting.md)

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/guy-lyon-playfair