Ruth and director Leslie Manning had prepared for some worried callers during the show. They had operators ready to tell anyone who called that the whole thing was fake, just a Halloween special. But there were too many calls and not enough operators. The BBC estimated that 20,000 people called that night. One person said the BBC should be locked up. Someone else said it wasn't the BBC's fault that people didn't understand that it was fiction. Another BBC show called Biteback also responded.