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Good evening, welcome to a new series of strange but

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true in which eyewitnesses tell us of their encounters with the unknown. Tonight the story

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of a group of people who experienced something so disturbing that they cut short their holiday

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in one of the world's most beautiful cities rather than risk another night there. They were

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guests of Lady Bamford who'd spent nearly 20,000 pounds hiring a Venetian palace for two weeks.

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Every one of the guests who included film star Joan Collins abandoned their stay

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after just two nights. We've pieced together the strange events that ended with them all

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fleeing the palace. Can their experience be explained away as collective hysteria or was there

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something more? Venice is a living museum to an age of grandeur and privilege.

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Today's tourists are attracted by its glorious architecture. It's public facade of faded glories.

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But there's a more melancholy sight to Venice too. A city struggling to save itself against the

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ravages of time. Perhaps that explains why time past and time present are met here.

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Why this is not just a city of gondolas but of ghosts. Well I think it's the most

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strange thing that's ever happened to me. It's not the most frightening thing or the most terrible

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thing but it's certainly the weirdest thing that's ever happened to me.

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For me it was an absolute nightmare.

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I'm never going back to that place.

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I'm never going back.

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Don't take it away from there.

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Fantastic. Fantastic.

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Once one of Venice's most splendid edifices the Palazzo Albrizi stands in the center of the city.

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It was bought by the Albrizi family in the 17th century and is still owned by the family today.

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Despite its crumbling appearance it retains a charm of its own. A stylish backdrop for one wealthy

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English woman to entertain a group of glamorous friends. Is it what we wanted? It's extraordinary.

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It's like stepping back in time. Karen Keeling had worked for Lady Banford for 17 years.

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She was a perfectionist and she wanted everything to be perfect. She wanted to create a very

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romantic atmosphere as Venice would have been in its heyday sort of 400 years ago.

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I'm sure you'll like it.

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The guests were due to arrive later that day.

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Sean Mullin the family's former chauffeur had also traveled ahead to give Karen a hand organizing

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the Palazzo staff and a freelance butler Gastoni Burigama have been employed. This was his first

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assignment at the Palazzo. We'd already been out the days before getting caterers ready and

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ordering flowers to be delivered that day and organizing this room in the Palazzo so that

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people could just come and sit down and have a nice dinner party. It's colder in here than any

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other room in the palace don't you think? Oh don't worry it'll soon warm up when everyone's here.

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We couldn't have a dinner party without these. We had been out scouring Venice in fact for

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these tragedies because Lady Bamford likes them wherever she is. They're golden silver hard chocolate

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things. Night fell the guests finally arrived and the holiday was launched with the dinner party.

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Post-S Lady Carol Bamford who'd spent months planning the proceedings.

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Film star Joan Collins accompanying Joan Collins was Robin Hurlston.

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When we walked in Robin and I first of all it was it was September so it was very very hot

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in Venice but as soon as we walked in it was like 15 or 20 degrees colder and dark and gloomy

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with all kinds of artifacts on the walls kind of old machetes and knives and strange things.

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Alice Bamford the hostess's daughter was there with her friend Caroline Wellesley.

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And Hugo Guinness whose birthday they were celebrating. We think that all the planning

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and preparation had been a success because everybody seemed to control themselves at this dinner

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party and the champagne flowed. People were happy. Everyone to a week in Venice. Oh to Venice.

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And of course to Hugo happy birthday. Happy birthday. Thank you. Oh boys. But already there was a hint

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of things to come. This night air certainly brings the temperature down doesn't it. During dinner

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I felt this freezing cold draft on my ankles but I mean really like somebody was blowing

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on my the bottom part of my legs. We left that evening and everyone seemed very happy. It wasn't

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until the next morning when things started to go wrong. Morning. Morning Robin. I've had an awful

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night. Just couldn't sleep. That's probably the rich food you had. I don't know what it was. You're

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not the only one. The girls have been complaining too. They say they felt a bit spooked. Come on let's go and eat.

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We'd all had dreams very strange dreams very troubled haunted dreams I suppose. I'm usually

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sleep like a log and I did not sleep well at all that night. Down in the kitchen Gastoni the

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temporary butler was with the cook who'd worked at the palazzo for many years.

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I remember walking into the room the very room that we'd thrown this dinner party in

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as I enter the double doors I just stopped dead in my tracks. I couldn't quite believe my eyes.

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This lady was walking towards me a gray outline.

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She took three or four places at which point she turned at right angles and disappeared through

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the wall. I don't believe in ghosts I'd never seen a ghost done because I could see through

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this woman's body and clothing. I assume that's what I was looking at.

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You'll never believe what's just happened. Are you okay? I think I've just seen a ghost.

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You're joking. I couldn't believe it. I didn't believe you I thought you was making it up

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and but he wasn't. It's not the kind of person to make stories like that.

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I don't.

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She said a huge black moth has just flown in through the kitchen window

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and she said and every time someone sees a ghost the moth has seen. Now at this time in Venice it

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wasn't the season for moths. The cook then went on to tell us a story of the house which happened

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apparently 400 years ago. It was the story of the woman in the dining room portrait.

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The husband couldn't have any children so his wife took a lover

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and they were found together in the dining room which would then have been a bedroom

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and he chopped off her head.

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And in his rage decapitated her with his sword and that's the story the cook told us.

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Well, it's on your story. I don't think we should be too concerned. It's a nasty one but not one to

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give us nightmares. Sean must be overworking. Come on let's go. I can't wait to see the doggies palace.

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The guests spent the rest of the day taking in the sights of the city trying to forget the Palazzo

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in its gruesome tale for a few hours. Karen and Sean also went out to stock up on supplies

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returning to the Albreitzi later that afternoon. Come on up look at this.

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Castoni led them into the dining room. The scene of the previous night's dinner party

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where a strange sight awaited them. It's probably one of the girls having a joke.

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No one has been in here all day. I am the only one who has been here. I know.

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There was no way this was an accident. The dry cheese on the floor was six foot from the bowl.

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That had put them in and there was still some left in the bowl and the bowl hadn't been tipped on the

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floor. I began to think about it. Not that there was a ghost but what had really happened.

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The guests et out that night at the famous Harry's Bar in the center of the city.

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Well when we left Harry's Bar the bill was rather extraordinarily high because we'd had truffles,

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white truffles which are very expensive so there was a lot of laughing about that.

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And we took the water taxi across the canal and as we grew closer and closer to the piazza

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we became more and more subdued. We were feeling more and more sort of quieter and thinking what

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does tonight hold for us. To make matters worse Venice experienced one of its biggest

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thunderstorms for several years. We had to go running around closing all the windows.

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The net curns were blowing into the rooms. Water was running down the inside of the walls.

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We had to switch all the lights off because they were flickering. So really the whole house

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was plunged into semi-darkness. Everyone was still talking about the ghost and was it safe for them

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to stay that evening at the platso. Sean you do think we'll be all right here on our own? Of course

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this place is perfectly safe. We'll be fine. Karen and Sean were staying at a nearby hotel.

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None of the staff stayed at the platso after dark. Look at that!

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It's a trick of the light. That's probably what you saw this morning when you saw that ghost.

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The shadows in here are playing tricks with your eyes. Maybe. Go and get the others. We'll show

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them this and stop them worrying about everything. Okay. It was quite obvious that it was a trick of

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the light because as you walked towards the image it disappeared, faded into the wall. I did this

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several times just to check. Look at this!

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You see? It disappears as you get closer to it. Well I don't like it and I'm not going up to my

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bedroom without a torch. Well don't worry we'll get you one.

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I looked up at the painting of the Contessa and for some strange reason I felt very sad. A lot of grief.

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And water started streaming out of my eyes down my face.

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Sean?

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Sean?

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Sean, let's get out of here. Come on.

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They were standing in the doorway and they both looked very shaken, very white and Sean had tears rolling down his face.

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I don't believe it! What now?

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I'll go and have a look. This place is beginning to fray my nerves.

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I'll come with you.

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All I wanted to do was to clear the matter up, sort it out so the guests could be happy.

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We were thrilled at being invited to Venice and we were looking forward to 10 days looking after these people.

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And the last thing I wanted was for anything to go wrong.

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We came into the room, Robin stood there and I was just here when...

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Two men, one mission.

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For Sean, Karen and the guests the holiday was turning into a nightmare.

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They felt they were encountering something beyond any rational explanation.

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Oh Sean, what's the matter?

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I felt as if someone was trying to push me into the ground.

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There was a tremendous pressure on my back. I've never felt anything like it before.

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It felt like I had this ton weight and I was doubling up with pain because it was really hurting.

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I was in quite some agony.

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Sean was the one that went around scoffing. I don't believe in ghosts. I don't believe in ghosts.

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Absolutely ridiculous. So stupid. Nobody a hope. How can any of you think about it?

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So he, because he seemed to be the one that was the most vehement in his disbelief,

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he was the one that seemed to be the most affected.

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This is extraordinary.

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There's nothing here.

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But when I got to this spot it was like crossing a line

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and I felt as if I was walking into a fridge.

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Karen, Karen, what's going on?

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I found myself looking at the painting on the wall. In particular her eyes seemed to look straight through me.

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I just felt very cut off and very distant as if hypnotized almost into a different world.

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For God's sake Karen get away from there!

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There's something there. I don't know what it is but there's definitely something there.

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Not enough. I'm going to get to the bottom of this.

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Oh please stop now! Please!

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Karen's right. Stay away.

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This time the pressure was three or four times as heavy.

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My shoulders were being squeezed together so hard that it felt like my blood was bubbling and boiling.

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I really think that Karen thought I was having some sort of heart attack.

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What's going on in here? Oh my god!

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Now this is a, you know, a very sort of stalwart man in his forties who looks like

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he could certainly say boo to a goose who has become a sort of gibbering wreck.

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That's it. That's enough. We're getting out of here.

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Alison Caroline you go to your room together and get your things.

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Hugo and Robin you do the same.

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Where are we going to go? It's one o'clock in the morning.

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Well think about that later. The priority is to get out of here.

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Come on, shall we? Let's get you outside.

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Oh all right.

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Come on let's get him.

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Get him outside.

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Doctor did you feel it?

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I felt something strange in here earlier.

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I'm sorry.

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When Lady Bamford had made the decision to leave I was relieved and I couldn't wait to get out of the platter.

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By this time the two teenage girls were very very frightened and they were shaking.

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And so I was also frightened but I remember my parents and grown-ups during the Blitz

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um making me as a little tiny girl less frightened by singing.

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So I thought I'll sing. I'm a performer. I can sing.

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Who would believe this?

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We've been forced out of this beautiful palace in the middle of the night.

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Well thank goodness we're all in one piece.

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I see trees of green, red roses too.

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Joan was brilliant really and she was keeping everyone in a good mood and she even started

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singing songs to take her minds off what had just happened.

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And I think to myself what a wonderful world.

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And we'll find this quite amusing at sort of two o'clock in the morning.

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But if it wasn't for Joan I think it would have really been a sort of a state of panic.

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Hugo and Robin had yet to join the group.

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Did you hear that?

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Let's get out of here.

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Knives only quiver right after they've been thrown.

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You know you cannot get a knifed quiver other than that.

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And um they were quite stunned.

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Are you all right?

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Oh never mind I'll tell you about it later let's just go.

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The Venetian holiday was over after just two nights.

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The next morning Gastoni knowing nothing of the previous night's events arrived to start work.

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I wouldn't bother with that Gastoni there's no one here.

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I don't understand.

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We were driven out of here last night.

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Well something ghosts whatever frightened us half to death.

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The next morning I had to go back to the plight so to pack the suitcases for the guests.

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Because the night before we'd left in Sottari.

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More incredible still were the secrets that the cook told Karen and Gastoni.

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It was apparently not the first time that guests have been driven from the palazzo by fear.

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That day the cook told us a story about a gentleman who was staying at Palazzo 10 years ago.

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He'd woken up in the middle of the night three o'clock in the morning praying in front of the picture.

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It was so frightened and so shocked by this experience that the next day packed Paul his luggage

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and left straight away.

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She then made an extraordinary request.

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The cook then suggested to me that all the guests should come back

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and say sorry to the painting.

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The atmosphere was very still and very quiet.

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And one by one everyone walked up to the painting.

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It was almost like taking communion church.

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I'm an actor so I'm very superstitious so I went and I said uh I'm sorry to the painter,

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to the painting, to the woman. I'm sorry Contessa whatever it was that we did to offend you.

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Apparently what we did to offend her was that we we ate in her dining room which is her domain

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and nobody ever goes in there.

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In my long career 45 years working in hotels and restaurants with all the greatest green

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personalities I have to say I have never had to say sorry to a ghost as if it were some kind of pilgrimage before.

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If I wrote this in a novel do you think anyone would believe me?

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Not in a million years.

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There were too many different things that had been happening in the uh almost 48 hours that we'd been there

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to say uh oh well this is just our imagination.

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Inspired by her Venetian adventure Joan Collins began writing a book.

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Part of the story is said in Venice.

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In a small cobbled piazza where the trees grew even taller than the narrow houses

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stood the decaying Palazzo Adbrizzi.

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She'd heard the rumors that the Palazzo was haunted by a beautiful Contessa

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decapitated by her husband in a fit of jealous rage 400 years earlier.

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It was an experience that um has certainly stayed with me.

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It's not something that has um a blurred with time.

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I wouldn't go back to the Palazzo again.

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No definitely not.

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The experience left an imprint on the lives of everyone on the trip.

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For Joan Collins it proved to be the source of inspiration for her work.

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Karen and Sean however were so seriously affected by what happened that they turned to the church for help.

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It was only after they received a blessing from their vicar that they say the nightmare has receded.

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Good night.

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