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Woe betide any show that tries to start its run at the same time as cultural behemoth Game of Thrones airs its final season – but that is exactly what this intrepid half-hour comedy is doing. Following three series of fantasy sitcom Yonderland on Sky1 and a criminally underrated feature film, Bill, the cast and creatives of legendary children’s sketch comedy Horrible Histories are back on the BBC with a brand new project, Ghosts.
The premise is the stuff millennial dreams are made of. Cash-strapped couple Alison (Charlotte Ritchie, returning to her Fresh Meat-style comedy roots after a heart-rending turn as Nurse Barbara in Call the Midwife) and Mike (Kiell Smith-Bynoe) realise their chance to own a home when an extremely distant relative dies, leaving Alison to inherit a sprawling, dilapidated country pile known as Button House. There’s just one catch: Button House is teeming with ghosts.
The original Horrible Histories team (the series has been revived in recent years with a largely new cast) are on fine form as the comically ghostly inhabitants of the house (or the land it was on, in the case of Laurence Rickard’s caveman Robin). They’re a motley crew: Martha Howe-Douglas’ uptight Edwardian Lady Fanny Button (“A lady pinches! Whores use rouge!”) rubs shoulders with the likes of ‘90s MP Julian (Simon Farnaby), doomed to spend eternity in his underpants after dropping dead mid-sex scandal. While Ben Willbond’s dashing, stern WWII captain masterminds a ‘guerrilla war’ designed to scare away the new ‘livins’ (as condemned witch and resident peasant Mary, played by Katy Wix, terms them), nervous scoutmaster Pat (Jim Howick), who got shot in the neck with an arrow by one of his scouts, soon realises he just wants to pass on a message to his living relatives.
In an era where television is increasingly pushing towards complex high drama – to great effect in the case of shows like the BBC’s Line of Duty, but less so for the likes of convoluted late-season Scandal – much of Ghosts’ brilliance comes from its simplicity. Perhaps most effective in this regard is approach to special effects. The show uses intelligent editing and clean in-camera tricks, keeping CGI to a minimum and leaving you to focus on the story. It reminded me a great deal of Sense8, where on-screen a character has telepathically disappeared back to their own continent, but the actor has actually just ducked out of shot behind a desk. Save for their ability to walk through walls, these ghosts appear just as corporeal as their living castmates, and though it seems somewhat strange praise, much is accomplished in Ritchie and Smith-Bynoe’s ability to react or not react to their fellow actors.
There are some great gags here, too. There are touches of Horrible Histories here – both shows share the same proclivity for caricature and the style of costuming in particular looks identical – but it is worth noting that Ghosts is aimed at adults (though perhaps not quite enough to deserve relegation to its 9.30pm Monday night slot). Ghosts’ scope ranges from high-brow digs to classic physical comedy. From Lady Button’s put-downs and the wide-eyed overtures of friendly noblewoman Kitty (Lolly Adefope) to the entire crowd of plumbing-savvy plague victims in the basement, whose only joy in (the after)life is seeing the light go on or off, this show knows where to get the laughs in. With a solid script and committed character actors, Ghosts makes light of potentially macabre subject matter. If you can bear to look away from Game of Thrones, this is well worth a watch. Ghosts is more than just Horrible Histories for grown-ups – it’s one of the funniest new comedies of the year so far.
