Warning: contains spoilers for the Ghosts 2023 Festive Special “A Christmas Gift”
Once upon a time, BBC sitcom Ghosts wanted to scare you. The original thinking for the show according to co-creator Jim Howick, was to make a horror-comedy. Early episodes paid homage to moments in spooky film classics such as the medicine cabinet jump scare in An American Werewolf in London. At the start, the writers indulged themselves with horror tropes, says Howick, the actor behind 1980s Adventure Group leader Pat. “But we realised that as soon as you got to know the ghosts, there was nothing really frightening about them at all. Once you get familiar with the characters, the horror sort of drains away.”
In Ghosts’ fourth festive special “A Christmas Gift”, the horror is back. Mike’s mother Betty (Lorna Gayle) catches sight of an apparition on a baby monitor, and sees a blanket being pulled by...
Once upon a time, BBC sitcom Ghosts wanted to scare you. The original thinking for the show according to co-creator Jim Howick, was to make a horror-comedy. Early episodes paid homage to moments in spooky film classics such as the medicine cabinet jump scare in An American Werewolf in London. At the start, the writers indulged themselves with horror tropes, says Howick, the actor behind 1980s Adventure Group leader Pat. “But we realised that as soon as you got to know the ghosts, there was nothing really frightening about them at all. Once you get familiar with the characters, the horror sort of drains away.”
In Ghosts’ fourth festive special “A Christmas Gift”, the horror is back. Mike’s mother Betty (Lorna Gayle) catches sight of an apparition on a baby monitor, and sees a blanket being pulled by...
- 12/25/2023
- by Louisa Mellor
- Den of Geek
Warning: major spoilers for the Ghosts finale “A Christmas Gift”
“I could read that all day!” says Ghosts co-creator Jim Howick with a smile. It’s mid-December, two weeks before the BBC comedy’s finale is due to air on Christmas Day, and Howick has just pulled up his and Mat Baynton’s episode script to check a detail while we talk on Zoom. Would he read a few lines out?
“The car drives away. The waving ghosts recede into the distance. Fade to black. The music stops. Is that the end? No. We fade back in on the driveway, and the music starts again, but the house looks different. It’s all beautifully restored and decorated, tastefully, for Christmas.
“An older couple step into the frame in the foreground, their backs to camera. Looking up at the house, she holds the handle of the wheelie case, and he has...
“I could read that all day!” says Ghosts co-creator Jim Howick with a smile. It’s mid-December, two weeks before the BBC comedy’s finale is due to air on Christmas Day, and Howick has just pulled up his and Mat Baynton’s episode script to check a detail while we talk on Zoom. Would he read a few lines out?
“The car drives away. The waving ghosts recede into the distance. Fade to black. The music stops. Is that the end? No. We fade back in on the driveway, and the music starts again, but the house looks different. It’s all beautifully restored and decorated, tastefully, for Christmas.
“An older couple step into the frame in the foreground, their backs to camera. Looking up at the house, she holds the handle of the wheelie case, and he has...
- 12/25/2023
- by Louisa Mellor
- Den of Geek
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