Comedian, writer and broadcaster Dom Joly has been entertaining the nation for years, but is he the only performer living in his Gloucestershire town house? Dom’s son Jackson has long complained of strange and bizarre paranormal occurrences emanating from his bedroom in the basement, most notably he reports hearing the distant melodies of a female opera singer.

In the first episode of the brand-new fourth series of Celebrity Help! My House is Haunted (available to stream exclusively on discovery+ now), funnyman Joly calls in the paranormal investigative team of Barri Ghai, Ian Lawman and Jayne Harris to uncover and connect with the potential spirits lurking within. As he did so famously in his ‘Trigger Happy TV’ days, will Joly be saying ‘HELLO!’ to some uninvited guests…?

When Dom’s son Jackson first told him he could hear a lady singing opera, he was initially quick to brush it off. “Honestly, I thought he was on the wacky baccy when I first heard him talk about it,” Joly quipped. “I just thought, yeah, whatever. But quite a few times he heard it and I started to take it seriously. I did go down once and I heard something and it did absolutely freak me out. My wife paints down there and Jackson sleeps down there and I avoid it. I get completely creeped out by things and I do get freaked out in the dark…I can't watch horror films. This is probably a terrible idea, this whole thing actually,” Dom says, starting to wonder what he has got himself in for!

Then Jayne quickly learns something significant - that a famous opera singer called Agnes Nicholls did in fact live in Dom’s property back in 1878. “That’s blown my mind a little bit,” Dom says as Jayne relays the news, validating his son Jackson’s previous experiences. “You’ve heard it too though?,” Barri asks Dom after talking to Jackson about the opera singing. “Yeah I have. But I just thought I’d drunk too much!” Dom jokes.

As the team start to use their paranormal investigation equipment to seek out a connection with Agnes, Dom is disturbed when they also receive contact from a male spirit present in the property. “I don’t know what I’m hearing anymore, I’m slightly freaked out by the whole experience,” Dom worries. “Dom, your house is haunted!” Barri replies. “So what do we do about it then? That’s the bit they don’t tell you about on Scooby Doo. Are you going to get rid of it, or do I have to pay?” 

As the first day of investigation draws to a close, the Help! My House Is Haunted team stay overnight in Dom’s property attempting to gain further clarity on who the spirits are, and their intentions. “We need to crack on with the investigation, we need to get further clarification as to why Agnes is here, what she’s trying to communicate, and does she like being here?,” Barri explains to Dom. “We need to go to the pub,” jokes Dom. “Will you have answers for us tomorrow? I don’t need any more spirits… I think Agnes is quite enough. If you start finding more then this house is for sale,” he laughs.

Initially, the team’s overnight efforts to communicate with Agnes prove fruitless, leading Jayne to suggest a much rarer method of spirit connection – automatic writing – in which Barri is lowered into a subconscious state, in the hope that he is taken over by the spirit of Agnes, who will communicate via Barri’s writing on a notepad. “I'll write whatever she communicates to me,” Barri says, agreeing to be the middleman between the basement and the spirit world. “We're going to play a recording of her as well to try and stimulate her," he further explains.

The following day, Dom and son Jackson return to their home, with the team demonstrating the results of their overnight tests. Dom and Jackson are both visibly shocked as Jayne plays them a recording in which you can distinctly hear the name ‘Agnes’ being whispered. “In over 20 years of being involved in this kind of work, that is probably the clearest name I think we’ve ever captured,” a shocked Jayne confesses...

Do the team manage to banish the melodic spirits from Dom Joly’s house? Will Dom’s son Jackson be able to sleep undisturbed by Agnes’s dulcet tones? Watch the first episode of the new series of Celebrity Help! My House is Haunted to find out!

‘Celebrity Help! My House is Haunted’ is available to stream exclusively on discovery+ now