Paul Sharratt, the producer behind last night's screening of a supposed seance with John Lennon, has defended his show in response to a barrage of criticism from the press.

The seance was broadcast on a US cable channel last night, with viewers having to pay a fee to watch it. Sharratt teamed up with Joe Power - a psychic from Liverpool - and a number of others to attempt to conatct the spirit of the really-rather-dead ex-Beatle. The show didn't impress Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono, one wee bit, with the artist's spokesman saying: "the show strikes me as being tasteless, tacky and exploitative".

No shit.

Sharratt, though, has this week said:

"I personally can't see [why] these sort of people, who believed in the spirit world, they believed in the afterlife... shouldn't they speak again if they can?

"She (Ono) hasn't spoken herself but through a representative she denied that John Lennon was interested in the spirit world, but that's certainly not the case as we've researched it. I'm sorry that she's not happy, but that's life."