Ghosts (2019 TV series)

A young married couple, Alison and Mike, unexpectedly inherit the vast but crumbling Button Hall from a 99-year-old distant female relative of hers. The Hall is haunted by numerous squabbling ghosts from across the ages that died on its grounds, who are invisible and intangible to the living. Ignoring their solicitor's advice to sell the property, Alison and Mike decide to move in and renovate it, with the idea of turning the house into a luxury hotel. The ghosts are not very happy with their plans and conspire to get rid of the newcomers. After various failed attempts to scare them, one of the ghosts pushes Alison from an upstairs window. When she awakes two weeks later from an induced coma, she discovers her husband has arranged a huge mortgage, and that she can see the ghosts due to her near-death experience.[6]

Initially imagining the ghosts to be an after-effect of her accident, Alison eventually accepts the truth and confronts them. Because neither she (for financial reasons) nor the ghosts (who are stuck there for eternity) can leave, both sides agree that they have no choice but to coexist as best they can. Meanwhile, the house requires a lot of work, and Alison and Mike devise several schemes to assist their perilous finances.[3]

• Charlotte Ritchie as Alison Cooper – A young woman who has inherited a mansion from a very distant relative, who – after a near-death experience caused by one of the ghosts – is able to see and hear ghosts.
• Kiell Smith-Bynoe as Mike Cooper – Alison's husband, who has grand plans for the Hall but is not very adept at putting them into action, such as with building contracts and money managing.
• Martha Howe-Douglas as Lady Fanny Button – The ghost of a former owner from the Edwardian era. After she discovered her husband having a threesome with the groundskeeper and the butler, her husband pushed her out the window to protect his secret, an event she subconsciously reenacts every time the clock chimes at three in the morning, the time of her death (prompting some of the other ghosts to set the clock back). Of all the ghosts, she is Alison's closest relative.
• Mathew Baynton as Thomas Thorne – The ghost of a failed Romantic poet who was shot, presumably in a duel, and falls in love with Alison at first sight.
• Simon Farnaby as Julian Fawcett MP – The trouserless ghost of a disgraced MP who died in a sex scandal in 1993. He has the ability to move objects slightly with his fingers if he concentrates hard enough.
• Lolly Adefope as Kitty – The ghost of an overly chummy naive Georgian noblewoman.
• Laurence Rickard as Robin the Caveman – The ghost of a caveman who lived on the land the Hall now occupies. He has the ability to flicker the lights in the house and is very good at chess.
  • Rickard also appears as the head of Humphrey – The ghost of a Tudor nobleman who struggles to have his body (played by Yani Xander) pick up his head after it has dropped him.
• Ben Willbond as The Captain – The ghost of a stern Second World War army captain, obsessed with wartime tactics and drills, who displays increasing signs of being a closeted gay man.
• Katy Wix as Mary – The ghost of a witch trial victim burned at the stake, and constantly smouldering as a result.
• Jim Howick as Pat – The ghost of a friendly and polite scoutmaster who was accidentally shot through the neck with an arrow by one of his scouts in 1984.

In addition to playing the ghosts who comprise most of the main characters, Howe-Douglas, Baynton, Farnaby, Adefope, Rickard, Willbond, Wix and Howick also play the ghosts of medieval plague victims whose bodies were buried beneath the house. While they have the ability to go upstairs if they wish, they choose to spend all of their time in the basement, and are experts on the house's heating system.

In other episodes, there have been other ghosts Alison had seen and heard outside of Button House: Jemima (Anya McKenna-Bruce), a terrifying child plague victim who sings nursery rhymes to scare Button House's living residents; a doctor she talked to at hospital (played by Paul Cawley); a woman dressed in black with a pram at the side of a busy London road, an architect who had his face bashed in by a lawnmower rock through his then-home's window, and two First World War German pilots, who had died mid-air as they were about to land on British soil. She also sees the ghost of a pigeon that lived in Button Hall.

West Horsley Place in Surrey, which appears as Button Hall in the series.

Speaking as part of the BBC Press Pack for the series, Mathew Baynton recalled that the idea of a haunted house was one of the first ideas the writers developed after the end of Horrible Histories. However, they were initially uncertain because there was "no jeopardy that we could write into it" and they created the sitcom Yonderland for Sky One instead. However, after the ending of that series, they "realised the boredom of eternity and the existential aspects of the ghosts idea was unique...We realised it was a house-share sitcom - and as soon as you stop thinking about those kind of major drama stakes, you unlock a story that is really domestic and petty."[7] Mike and Alison, the two living characters, were introduced as a foil to the ghosts, as well as to introduce "the stakes, the worries about money, life and everything you need for a story".[7]

Writing in Broadcast, Jim Howick notes that the 2016 episode of Who Do You Think You Are?, in which Cockney EastEnders actor Danny Dyer discovered he was related to Edward III of England, formed the basis of the idea of Alison: "We loved the idea of Danny Dyer's royal lineage...We've mirrored this with our character Alison, who discovers her aristocratic roots, which she embraces immediately and takes on with relish".[8]

Matthew Baynton recalled that BBC head of comedy commissioning Shane Allen was looking for a pre-watershed primetime sitcom for BBC One. During the writing process, the intention was to make an adult show, but one that would appeal to older children, along the lines of Blackadder: "We wanted to do something that has a properly creaky atmosphere. I love the idea that some kids might stay up for it. It's great as a kid when you think something isn't quite for you and it's a bit cheekier."[8] In the event, the programme was scheduled at 9.30pm on Monday evenings after the sitcom Not Going Out. Baynton noted in the i newspaper that the original audience of Horrible Histories would now be grown up "hopefully we're making something so they can continue to watch us!"[9]

Baynton said that for the writers the Tim Burton film Beetlejuice provided a "useful tonal reference" as did The Rocky Horror Show. Jim Howick, addressing its similarity to the 1970s series Rentaghost noted most of the writers were either slightly too young or too old to have watched it, but the series did make knowing use of many of the clichés of horror programmes such as headless Tudor noblemen.[8]

The programme is filmed at West Horsley Place in Surrey, England, a large country house unexpectedly inherited by the writer and former University Challenge presenter Bamber Gascoigne in 2014 from his great aunt, the Duchess of Roxburghe under circumstances not dissimilar to those depicted in the series.[10][11] Some scenes were also filmed on London Road and Clandon Road in nearby Guildford.[12]

Filming of the second series started in February 2020.[13]

Critical reception to the series has been positive. Stuart Jeffries in The Guardian wrote that "In making us giggle at the supernatural, Ghosts is very British – a mashup of Noël Coward's Blithe Spirit and Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), not to mention the manifold sillinesses of Hammer horrors. But it is American in the sense of having a gag-to-airtime ratio much higher than British sitcoms normally manage these days."[6] Michael Hogan in The Daily Telegraph was similarly positive, comparing it to the 1970s children's sitcom Rentaghost but noting that "This deliriously daft supernatural romp, however, was none the worse for that."[4]

Susannah Butter in the Evening Standard said the first episode reminded her of a property show, watching the couple view a terrible flat, before making their escape to the country. She was critical of the post-watershed scheduling of 9.30pm, saying "it feels like a show that children would enjoy" and noting "This is a gentle ensemble comedy. Alison and Mike are wide-eyed, charming and likeable. I would gladly have them as friends, even though they can't sing...Nothing about this show is scary."[3] Carol Midgley in The Times was also confused by the scheduling, noting that "Ghosts is smut[-] and swearword-free" and calling it "a curiously life-affirming comedy about death".[2]

Comparing it to the bleak "sadcoms" such as Fleabag and After Life, Pat Stacey in the Irish Independent noted "It's joyously, infectiously silly, yet at the same time whip-smart. It's just the ticket to scare those sadcom blues away."[18]

A second series was announced a week after the transmission of episode 6.[19] The BBC Press Office announcement noted it received a consolidated average of 3.7 million viewers across the series, noting its popularity with 16-34 year-old viewers.[19] On 8 October 2019, Laurence Rickard confirmed that a third series had also been commissioned.[20][5] On 29 November 2019 CBS announced an American remake of the show.[21]

• Ghosts at BBC Programmes
• Ghosts on IMDb
• Ghosts at British Comedy Guide