Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
Cast: Lolly Adefope, Matthew Baynton, Simon Farnaby, Martha Howe-Douglas, Jim Howick, Laurence Rickard, Charlotte Ritchie, Kiell Smith-Bynoe, Ben Willbond, Katy Wix, Yani Xander, Nathan Bryon, Geoffrey McGivern, Bridget Christie, Michael Fenton Stevens, Nisha Aaliya, William Andrews, Gina Fillingham, Aaron Collict, Richard Glover, Declan Baxter, Atilla Ainci, Eleanor Holzer, Dan King, Alistair Green, Toby Longworth, Skye Leheup, Caroline Sheen, Andrew Spooner.
A truth of great comedy is not only that it makes you laugh until your belly aches and your sides show more splits than a fractious rock band driven by ego and in fighting, but it must make the viewer care for the creation, the setup, and the characters within. Anybody can raise a smile, can deliver a punch line to an eager audience, but it takes enormous skill and talent to take the viewer to the point of pathos and humility and have them embrace it as easily as a good joke.
There can be arguably little debate to the fact that Ghosts has become one of the most enjoyed British comedies of the last decade, and to be honest it would not be a stretch to claim that it now stands in the same pantheon and walks the same hallowed halls as Porridge, Hancock’s Half Hour, Blackadder, Only Fools and Horses, Coupling, and Red Dwarf; situations that require more than just laughter, they grab the attention of the viewer on a level that so many are not even aware exists.
The fourth series of Ghosts weaves its own mythos carefully, and whilst only six episodes in duration, it houses some of television’s most enduring scenes.
The departure of the hugely talented Katy Wix as Mary, the peasant woman burned at the stake for the crime of being gossiped about as a witch by others in the village as a scapegoat for the crops failing is one sensitively handled by the writers and the production, gloriously immersed in humour, but with the belief that even in the afterlife there is a finer place to go; an example of the power of Ghosts to which even the loss of a much loved character is given the highest of send offs.
With four seasons of the highly acclaimed comedy under the B.B.C’s belt, the bar is arguably elevated beyond what other comedies are inspired to achieve, and yet as the brilliance of Laurence Rickard attests in the series finale as his character of Robin the caveman as he struggles and then adapts to his fears of being chased by a bear, and the reveal of how he received his post life power over electricity, there is more to come from this group of stranded sprits inside Button House.
A truly wonderful cast given freedom to be silly, the emphasis on excellent comedy, the realism of pathos weaved into a tale of insight and tremendous humour…Ghosts is the peak of a decade of great British comedy.
Ian D. Hall