Bizarre moment This Morning tracks down real life Pennywise the Clown that prowls streets of remote Scottish village (but locals insist they 'love' seeing him after dark)
- The clown spoke in rhyme telling the people of Skelmorlie his games have begun
- Do you know the man behind the mask? Email [email protected]
This is the bizarre moment a This Morning presenter tracked down a creepy clown who has been wandering the streets of a quiet village in Scotland - where residents 'love him'.
The man, dressed in the outfit of Stephen King's famous creation Pennywise, has been leaving red balloons around Skelmorlie in north Ayrshire.
Pennywise was the fictional killer clown in King's 1987 classic IT - memorably played by Tim Curry - who kills children roughly every 27 years in Derry, Maine.
The Skelmorlie clown told This Morning's Isla Traquair his 'games' were about having fun and 'nothing more' as he challenged the village to solve clues 'before their time runs out and they lose'.
Speaking in rhyme in a unique interview, he said: 'Everyone from India to the USA wants to know the clown's identity but what is a game without someone to play? Alison Hammond, what do you say?'
The clown said in a message to Alison Hammond: 'Does it help you sleep better at night telling yourself I'm just here to fright? The only mask I can see is the one you see when you say you don't fear me.'
But though some are afraid of the clown, other residents said he is a 'very good addition' to their community.
This is the bizarre moment a This Morning presenter tracked down a creepy clown
Residents say they love the clown: L-R: Janice, a young local dressed as the clown, Isla Kennedy and Angela Jack
When asked by Isla how he feels about the attention he receives, he said: 'Were you not listening, I told you before, this is about fun and nothing more.'
'I come up with games with a frightening theme, usually something to do with Halloween. Then the village must unite to solve all the clues before their time runs out which would mean that they lose.
'When the games first began a loss meant I stay, so they have to complete them for me to go away. But as I went on, they all started to say, these games brought excitement and mystery. So now when they lose it's over and done, no more games and no more fun.'
He added: 'All this clown wants to do is play, chaos or fun come what may. People join the game if they choose, it's up to them if they win or lose.'
The clown ended with a message to everyone that his game has already begun.
Resident Angela Jack said she's not scared of the clown at all, that he's a 'very good addition to the village' and that people 'love him'.
'They get on well with the jokes that he puts on,' she told.
Another, named Janice, said: 'It's the talk of the village.'
The clown insisted that his games are purely for fun 'and nothing more'
The Skelmorlie clown told This Morning's Isla Traquair the village must solve his clues 'before their time runs out and they lose'.
The clown ended with a message to everyone that his game has already begun
Resident Angela Jack (back right) said she's not scared of the clown at all, that he's a 'very good addition to the village' and that people 'love him'
Pennywise was the fictional killer clown in King's 1987 classic IT - memorably played by Tim Curry - who kills children roughly every 27 years in Derry, Maine
The man, dressed in the outfit of Pennywise, has been leaving red balloons around Skelmorlie in north Ayrshire
While a young girl, Isla Kennedy, who appeared on This Morning told: 'I've not seen it, but I've seen it in videos. Some of them look kind of scary but it's good when you know it's not really a serious thing.
'One of my friend's relatives had a little box delivered to their door and helped solve the clue.'
A Facebook account for the Skelmorlie clown has been set up with the name Cole Deimos, claiming he 'studied at Clown School'.
In Greek mythology, Deimos is the personification of fear, with the name translating loosely as 'dread'.
It appears the clown first started lurking around the village in 2021.
His Facebook account shows images of him creeping on all fours over a bridge and staring intently at the screen while holding a red balloon.
The killer crown craze terrorised Britain in 2017 as pranksters in circus masks lurked on streets in the run up to Halloween.
The bizarre and terrifying trend saw sightings at the time in Kent, Essex and Cornwall.
During the previous year, the epidemic had swept across the country, with reports of children beckoned into mysterious cars, people chased down the roads with knives and one pregnant woman so scared she was brought into early labour.
The trend, which came over from America, burst onto British shores in October 2016 and lasted through to Halloween. One police force recorded 14 sightings in just 24 hours.
It then returned in 2017 with reports of two pranksters dressed in freakish clown costumes, similar to the character Pennywise in Stephen King's It, spotted lurking outside Thamesview School in Gravesend, Kent.
Concerned parents flooded teachers with phonecalls after hearing that clowns were hiding in bushes near other schools in the area.
There were also reports of masked men leaping out at shoppers and moving cars in Canterbury, Kent.
