Derek Acorah tells of inspiration from nan ahead of Telford performance

The TV spirit medium had dreams of being a top-flight professional footballer – and he signed for Liverpool FC as a schoolboy.

But the Most Haunted star's grandmother predicted that his life would take him in a different direction.

The 65-year-old said: "I knew I was a medium quite early. At the age of nine my grandmother made a prediction that I would work with the spirits.

"She told me I would be a professional footballer and I would play in red and white, the colours of Liverpool, but I would have a terrible injury and I would retire.

"I was spotted playing for my home team at the age 13 by Bill Shankly as a schoolboy. Then at the age of 15-and-a-half I joined the staff. I never got into the first team because, quite frankly, I wasn't good enough, but I played football and earned my living that way. I met my wife and had my son, then I had a terrible injury to my knee.

"All the time I had been playing football, my medium skills had been developing so I opened my business doing readings in Liverpool and people started travelling to see me. Then radio came calling, then television, and it just blasted off from there.

"I do enjoy it, I'm a gregarious person, I'm a people person so I love working with people."

Acorah, born in Bootle in 1950, displayed his gifts in Telford last night at Oakengates Theatre. He said ahead of the performance: "I've been here in Telford once or twice before at Oakengates Theatre and it was lovely," he said. "The audience were really great so myself and my team are really looking forward to it."

The show is part of his ongoing tour which has already taken him all over the country.

Mr Acorah said: "I do get people who come up to me asking me to contact the spirit world but I have to explain to them I'm never open in the day time. But if people are really hurt and have lost a loved one recently I will stop and talk with them or sit and have a coffee and reassure them.

"Occasionally, though, I will get someone come through to speak to them. I don't stay open all of the time, though – I would go loopy if I was open to spirits 24/7.

"I get asked a lot by people, is it real, is there really somewhere that people go? And after all these years living with my mediumship I can say most definitely we do definitely meet up again. That is my belief and that does help people."

Like most other mediums, Acorah has faced criticism of his work.

"If there are sceptical people who haven't been to one of my shows, they should try it because a lot of people are greatly surprised and shocked," he said. "The people who criticise me don't bother me, they don't alter my beliefs, they don't alter what I do."