Review of the last ever episode

What an utterly charming way to end an utterly charming comedy. 

We have come to expect nothing less of Ghosts, a show that has always exuded a comforting warmth without ever sliding into schmaltz. And its poignant climax, perfect festive viewing that it is, heartwarming as anything in the preceding five seasons, enough to melt even The Captain’s stiff upper lip. Even the plague victims in the basement get the ending they deserve,

‘The point is, we’re family,’ says Lady Fanny Button (Martha Howe-Douglas) towards the denouement, summing up what makes the show’s dynamics so appealing. And it is family that is so obviously underpinned by love, even if they might bicker and irritate each other. If your Christmas Day with relatives seems to drag, imagine an eternity in the afterlife.

The genius premise of Ghosts allowed it to assemble wildly diverse characters from across history and force them to live together, from caveman Robin (Laurence Rickard) whose eagerness to understand the ways of the modern world has provided such an powerful comic engine, to Tory MP Julian (Simon Farnaby), dying with his pants down yet proving to be far more than the one-dimensional stereotype of a sleaze-scandal politician.

That span also allowed the well-oiled scripts to delight in period language, from Lady Fanny’s haughtiness to Thomas’s (Mathew Baynton’s)  floridly poetic, lovelorn Regency romanticism. ‘Curse these infernal boundaries!’

Over the years, we have come to learn much about each character’s backstory, but in the finale, it was less about their individual foibles as they all came together to act as one, giving the series the ending it deserved, simultaneously sad but heartwarming.

Events were triggered by the arrival of baby Mia to Alison (Charlotte Ritchie) and Mike, (Kiell Smith-Bynoe), the human occupants of Button Hall. Being the bridge between the spirit world and our plane made Alison something of a mother figure to the ghosts – effectively misbehaving children almost to a person - even before this. 

The reaction of Lolly Adefope’s naive Georgian gentlewoman Kitty is an absolute delight, akin to an only child believing they have been usurped by a second, but so restrained by has passivity that she cannot express it. A whole episode could have revolved around this conflict, but true to form it provides just one of many strands here.

All the ghosts deal with the new arrival in their own way, while also making her presence felt is Mike’s interfering mum Betty (Sutara Gayle), long outstaying her welcome at Button Hall and threatening the relationship which had built up between Alison and the dilapidated mansion’s spectral residents.

This is not a comedy that has been built on gags – though it can be laugh-out-loud funny – but on characters and on affection, which is what has made it so beloved. It will be missed, but bows out on the perfect high.

Review date: 25 Dec 2023
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett